> Today, it's probably not that hard to recompile and redeploy unless it's an embedded application orbiting Mars.
For most companies it still is that hard, the idea of clicking a button and deploying is still alien. This causes some rather elaborate workarounds, at my current company we have an sql procedure that looks up which sql procedures to call for instance. To them it's a life saving feature but to us it's an artifact of an awful deployment system.
The obstacles to a smooth deploy is most often more related to bureaucracy rather than technical implementation.
I'd say it's possible to automate almost any application update process, if you spend enough time and effort on it.
Our applications also have indirections upon indirections, and the amortised time we have spent on maintaining that mess could easily have funded a one-click deploy and then some...
For most companies it still is that hard, the idea of clicking a button and deploying is still alien. This causes some rather elaborate workarounds, at my current company we have an sql procedure that looks up which sql procedures to call for instance. To them it's a life saving feature but to us it's an artifact of an awful deployment system.