Hi Richard,

Since I have been butting heads with my boss the last few days over this topic (he's an old school System 36 and AS/400 guy) I thought I would throw this out.

<disclaimer>
This is honestly not intended as a flame.
</disclaimer>

I think part of the problem at least is that IBM'rs (from their perspective) had it pretty good back then. EVERYTHING came from one source--Big Blue. Your Hardware, Software, OS, Programming tools, Methodolgies, Data Formats, File Formats, etc. etc. etc.

In such a homogenous environment a lot of the interoperability issues that make up the bulk of both my boss and your complaints, are not an issue.

Further exasperating the problem is that just like the Fox 2.6 DOS guys, you are coming from a Procedural, Character Based, Menu Driven Environment to a Object-Oriented, Graphical, Event-Driven One.

Finally, The end-user has a lot more say in what it is they want to use (ie No, I don't *want* to save first, I want to check my email!!).

In short, the problem isn't necessarily that things have gone backwards, so much as it has gotten a *lot* bigger. More players, more rules, more choices == More Complexity.

Personally, I am having a ball. I love what I am doing. I enjoy learning the new things, (and the old). I spend a lot of time keeping up with the new technologies coming out of Redmond (and elsewhere), I keep one eye on the Unix world sometimes, and I spend a lot of time over in IBM'ville so I can get what I need for my village.

But in the end, the biggest things that are helping me--just like when I played Football as a kid--is getting back to basics. I read things like Code Complete by Steve McConnell--a 7 year old book that still sounds relevant to me.

So all in all, I think its a great time to be a programmer, yeah the river is flowing fast, but I think swimming in it is a rush. When I get Pruny, I'll get out.

Best,
Bill