I suppose its my age and just having been in this business way too long, but I never thought I would work long enough, let alone live long enough, to hear tech people talking about the data layer removed from the application, or vice-versa. I suppose this is also why there are larger numbers of developers I have not hired over this last decade - mainly because I have been stunned at how many know only one side of that coin. Still, I find this really bizarre to even listen to!

The age of dBase (and on to Visual FoxPro) was a good one. You had to know code, and you had to know data and how to make the two work together. Later, as VFP became more useful with SQL backends, it was a rather simple and smooth transition to be able to stay with a familiar application product, and get the muscle of a rich and powerful data backend.

Now this editorial, these times, suggest what? Do developers sit around pondering great applications without any clue how the data backend might work? Do SQL DBAs think about great interfaces to work with their data, if only they knew how to code?

Yikes... This seems like a giant step backwards! Worse, its like going to a baker who will make a cake, and then tell you you need to find a frosting specialist to finish it. Hardly progess. The more we break up what used to be "a developers knowledge base", the more we cripple ourselves - thats my take.