I've been away from blogging for a while now, mostly because I am just churning away at Notes Dev and not looking much at anything new. With 2 pre-schoolers, and only working part time, I often don't have time to even read the blogs, let alone but any time into thinking about putting my own thoughts down - so forgive me if this is an unstructured ramble!

I have recently read with interest the new round of "Notes is Dead" conversations, and discussions about the future of the Notes Development professional. I read these discussions with sadness, because like many others, it really is starting to seem like the writing is on the wall. At my current company, it is all but accepted that Notes is for "legacy" apps, and anything significant is now being built in other platforms. Does this mean we are about to be unemployed - absolutely not. "Legacy" in our case, luckily, also includes "small, tactical apps" - quick wins for small problems that have no budget for "real" applications (much as Mick Moignard recently blogged about). I see us still working on classic Notes Development for the next 3 years pretty comfortably.

The other issue discussed recently is about IBM being Notes worst enemy. This is pretty true, and I can tell you that most of our current business-critical Notes applications are being planned for migration to Teamworks - previously Lombardi, now IBM.

So, what has prompted this blog? Earlier this week I attended a 2-day XPages course, run by Stephan Wissel. I've been pretty ignorant about XPages, mostly because I have had no time to learn something new. This course was a good opportunity for me to try to jump-start that knowledge and work out whether it was something we should start investing in.

My verdict - not really. I thought the course was excellent, but I came away without any compelling reason why I would make all our Notes Developers stop work and start learning XPages. Now, I will caveat that - the two guys I work with who do our Domino Web development - they could see some things where it would make their lives easier. I'm talking about those forgotten (thousands of?) developers who still develop for the Notes Client - in our case, v6.51, soon to be 8.51 (finally!) in a controlled corporate environment with no immediate plans to get rid of the Notes Client. Really, those developers who want a job in the future (my guess 3 - 5 years from now) will have no choice but to become yet another Java/Javascript/Web developer, and then why be restricted to XPages? Really, it seemed you need to be pretty proficient in Javascript at the very least to use XPages, and so they will be starting from scratch anyway, and so the investment would be to start with Java/Javascript first, not XPages.

The thing that disturbed me the most was a section, right at the end of the Advanced day, that covered "How to migrate existing apps to XPages". The answer was basically - you need to rebuild the app. You need to find and document all your validations, hide-whens, actions and completely re-create them in a new front-end. Sure you don't have to migrate the data, but you have to map all that data to a new front-end. So, in reality, changing a classic Notes app to a browser front-end based on XPages is exactly the same story as migrating that same app to any other platform. This means that for me to present this story to our higher-ups, the answer would be "that time/money would be better spent migrating off Notes, which is not our strategic platform".

So, if XPages is the future of Notes I came away with the message, direct from IBM, that Notes, at least as far as Notes Client development, is dead. Clearly, the message is that browser front-ends are all that matters, and all that will be in the future. Sure, the NSF as a data storage facility, is recognised as powerful, and useful, but really every XPage app is actually a browser app that the Client renders via the in-built browser - the same as any other browser app. Composite apps, sure, but again, this is just until you get a chance to upgrade your client apps, and can probably be done more convincingly in a portal. I see very little, if any, future enhancements to classic Notes Dev IDE (forms, views, lotusscript, @functions and the like). So, why stay with Notes Client at all? Don't ask IBM, they don't seem to know.

I was particularly struck by how similar XPages was to the front-end builder for Teamworks - so much so, that I can't help but wonder if they will end up being merged into a single development UI (which would be great, and powerful), but this just serves to further highlight that it wouldn't make much sense to migrate to XPages, but to go straight to Teamworks, at least in our particular environment, where Teamworks is the strategic platform for BPM (otherwise known as workflow!). Sure, the data could stay in Domino in the short term, but long term - what's the point? XPages removes the loose coupling of data/front-end that Notes has been so successful at that, in the end, the data probably makes more sense in DB2, or some other relational table (again, like any other platform).

So - do I see any benefits at all in XPages? Sure, I can see us trying to get some things in by stealth (a few widgets, a chance of some composite apps), but anything big - it wouldn't be done in our corporate environment in Notes, with or without XPages - it will go to other IBM Notes-competitors - Teamworks, Websphere, or straight Java. I wonder if this will be the same in other corporate environments?

This does make me pretty sad, and I would love to have someone tell me I'm wrong, and tell me some valid reasons for learning XPages if you are a classic Notes Client developer - NOT a web developer - which is something other than "so you can get a job in the future"...

I've been away from the blog for a while, mostly because life has just made things too busy - I'm lucky to even check my mail, let alone write a blog entry. Work, renovations, and as you might have guessed - I'm pregnant again - this time we're adding a boy to the Rynne family clan - due around the beginning of December!

Anyway, I was happy to let the blog just sit until I was ready to start up again, but unfortunately, spammers have ruined that great plan, and have just been caning my site, and consequently my email, and so I have now disabled comments.

Apologies to any die-hard readers (I doubt there are any left) who may have wanted to leave legitimate comments, but until I have time to start monitoring the site comments (or spammers finally get shut out of the internet once and for all) will remain disabled.

So, once again, we are at the day that, in Australia, marks the beginning of the end of the year - Melbourne Cup.

As always, I had my usual flutter - the office sweeps, and a couple of bets at the TAB. I did ok this year (but only if I can claim my family's win as my own!). Collectively, we came out in front, but the best I could do was 2nd place.

My bets this year (and where they finished) were:

$5 Each way:
Maybe Better (scratched)
Blue Monday (7th)
Zipping (4th)
Master O'Reilly (the favourite) (8th)
Purple Moon (2nd) - my only winner.

Tim had the winner Efficient in a $10 bet, so that was our big family win, and Emily managed to pick up Purple Moon, and so got second place in the office sweeps.

Once again, Tim was 1 horse off the box trifecta... If only Zipping had come third we would have been celebrating big time!

For those who care - the results.

For those wondering, now I haven't disappeared of the face of the earth, just into motherhood! I am taking a well-earned break while Emily sleeps to catch up on some emails and I thought I should write a quick blog, just so any remaining readers know I'm still around.

The last few months have gone by very quickly. Em is now 7 1/2 months old, and is almost crawling. She's getting so big, and so full of energy she saps most of mine! Anyone interested can check out Em's very own blog for updates & photos.

Aside from motherhood, I have been working part time for the last 3 or 4 months. I do 2 days in the office, and a few hours from home. I'm finding it a nice balance, helps me use my brain for things other than nursery rhymes, but I'm not away from Em too much. Luckily, my Mum is able to look after her, so I haven't had to find child care yet. And of course, Nan & Pop love having their "Emily days". I still haven't decided which is more of a break - work or baby... although there is something nice about spending Wednesday afternoons in the park or pub with other Mums.

From a work perspective, I'm still doing Notes/Domino development, and still enjoying it, although it's very hard to be smack in the middle of debugging code, and then realise that you have to go to get home for your daughter.

Although you wouldn't know it from the site, things are moving too with Openslice, we have a new version (almost ready to call it 1.0!) in use now at our client site, but haven't yet updated the website. Keep an eye out, as hopefully things will start happening soon.

Anyone who has lived in the Sutherland Shire, and probably a large number of others who live in Sydney, would know "Northies". For the rest of you - Northies is a pub at Cronulla Beach. For as long as I can remember, and probably longer than that, it has been "The" pub at Cronulla. Many a lazy Sunday afternoon (and quite a few manic Friday & Saturday nights) have been spent at Northies over the course of my adult (& teenage!) life.

The reason for this post is that today, Emily - at the grand old age of 5 1/2 months - has had her first Northies experience - and it looks to become a regular outing!

For the last 3 - 4 months, every Wednesday afternoon has been spent at one of the many parks or beaches at Cronulla with the other Mums & bubs I have met through the local Early Childhood Clinic. However, now that winter is finally on us, it has become a bit too cold to have all the little ones outside. As pubs are now all smoke-free, it has been possible for us to move our group to Northies. The pub has a nice area at one end with lounges and lots of floor space to fit in 10 - 12 prams, and blankets for the babies to lie (roll, sit, not-yet-crawl) on. Of course, it also means that it's easy for the mums to have a coffee, or a coke, or even a wine while we "watch" the babies.

Yep - motherhood is pretty tough sometimes!