This article was an interesting read. But, I do not agree that that fast paced change means an end to the one-programmer shop or solo application development.

On the contrary, I think this will bring much more opportunity to the one-programmer shops (it's a toss for the solo application development) to specialize in certain areas and excel in them above the rest.

And Solo application development will never end. The day solo application development becomes too hard, it the day it gets easier because someone or a group of devs will create more code generation apps. Any complexity can be simplified with a simple layer of abstraction.

What a load of crap. Just because you can now use lambda expressions to code doesn't mean you have to use them. Just because the enterprise blocks of the P&P group exist doesn't mean you have to learn how to use them and put them in your program. Essentially she calls for an end to development so that we can know everything there is to know. Every library, every tool, every pattern. Bullshit. And how much pot do you have to smoke to get the paranoids so bad you think it is now impossible for a single developer to create a sellable program beacuse there are too many libraries, tools and techniques? Sheesh.

yesthatmcgurk -- re: "And how much pot do you have to smoke to get the paranoids so bad " -- I don't know what do you suggest?

Kathleen's article regards the growth of the framework itself and our core development IDE -- not the supplemental libraries and tools you mention. Lambda expressions are just one example (a good one if you wish to trivialize her points). I think there are many more examples that bolster her points. Examples such as: SilverLight/WPF, WF (why isn't it WWF anyway?) -- they could've gotten Roddy Roddy Piper as a mascot, WCF, Domain Specific Languages, Jasper, Astoria and other stuff I can't think of plus others I haven't heard of. Oh yeah.. the DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime) -- Ruby & IronPython. Then there's Orca/Vs 2008 LINQ & DLINQ -- um.. Vista, AJAX, Expression Blend, SQL Server 2005 & the upcoming 2008 release.

Feeling less competent now? I do. Should we give up by either staying inert with what we know or start driving a cab for a living? Or should we have no lives and learn as much as possible? Other than the last option, those are all tenable solutions (in my view) -- just as specialization, the option I prefer, is. Another option is to go the way Mike Gunderloy has and forgo Microsoft by pouring a fresh cup of coffee & learning a new platform (http://www.afreshcup.com/2006/12/9/what-s-going-on-here) , http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000845.html .

Anyway, I thought it was refreshing to see an article where someone acknowledged the anxiety that all this change can provoke -- in a way, it helps to alleviate anxiety (at least that’s what reading the article did for me).