"The harsh reality is that the Excel version written by Jane from accounting who's the Excel whizz or even the smart college temp will probably be better and cheaper than anything we could ever give them."
Too true, but I've always wondered if this is true because visual programming languages have never really been accepted as part of development or because visual programming languages were touted as a replacement for "normal" programming? Maybe it is the bad taste CASE tools left.
Let me restate my thesis because I sense I wasn't clear given your response.
I believe that programmers rejection of visual programming tools has lead to a situation where programmers haven't been able to easily integrate Excel into programmer's workflow in a meaningful way or evolve tools as easy to use as Excel that translate directly to code.
Too true, but I've always wondered if this is true because visual programming languages have never really been accepted as part of development or because visual programming languages were touted as a replacement for "normal" programming? Maybe it is the bad taste CASE tools left.