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in short, probably not. these technologies answer their specific concern in a very final way- much like a database handles the majority of data needs. these are the tools that mastery of will lead to productive feature-rich programs.

He's picked on an example rather than programming in general. I'd say programming right now is easier than when I started in 1986.

It sounds like he should start using Visual Basic and ASP.NET instead. =P

He should be using Rails instead!

Agreed, not a good essay.

If you're billing hourly at a high rate, I would go with ansi c. In addition to more complexity, it would likely have the additional bonus of vendor lock-in. Struts (or alt framework) would allow you to get it done faster and have the downside of allowing someone to learn how to use the web application nuts and bolts without going through your code line by line. Very bad for business.

@dgary
Good point. I think he probably is referring to what I call "api surfing". As they come and go you have to keep up with all of them, instead of just learning the language and having at it.

Amen! I still don't understand why no one has been able to introduce a GUI that reads a WSDL and allows you to dynamically build workflows.

well, as technologies become more complex, i would actually expect the learning curve to get steeper. no matter what, i doubt there will every be a day when any moron with a keyboard will be able to write good code simply because our technology is advanced

what, that's herecy!
What about all the tools where you just have to input your functional specs and you get a perfect application out of it with a few mouseclicks?
Those were promised a decade ago to be "ready real soon", they must be ready by now!
It's a conspiracy I tell you, a conspiracy by all those pesky programmers to make themselves impossible to get rid of!

He'd prob be complaining if his job got outsourced too. yeah, sure, let's make it so easy that we can end up like these poor dudes...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16262290.htm

Personally, I'm glad the barrier to entry is high / just anyone can't jump in easily.

those guys are lucky having their packages taxed at only 40% or so.
Here they'd be taxed at over 60%, plus capital gains tax on what's left.
And they'd also not be eligable for unemployment benefits for voluntarilly agreeing to being laid off (instead of being fired despite fighting it and loosing).