| If I were you, run screaming from this idea. I've seen this done a few times on varying scales (from form gen to whole app gen) and it's never been pretty. Invariably, if you've got no previous experience with real business software, you'll get it wrong. Even if you have experience, you'll get it wrong. The database will probably be where you go wrong the most. Also consider some of the basic hurdles. As soon as you've done iteration 1 of the app you need to customise it a bit. Then you need to do iteration 2, the scope's increased. Do you rebuild using the tools and then reintegrate all those little customisations? Or do you stop using the framework? If so, what was the point of it in the first place? You've got a bunch of code that you're not sure quite how it works or where everything is. It's also not in your programming style. The closest I've seen anyone getting to this is MS's Entity Framework and the scope of that is extremely limited compared to what's being suggested. This is a timesink of good intentions that will produce the most horrific code. You might be able to tell I've been on the receiving end of cleaning up after these things. I need to go shower just thinking about it. Feeling. Unclean. Urgh. |
This is all pseudo-implemented already; I'm just talking about adding a little more automation to an already repetitive process.
Either way, it's a problem that needs solving; just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not worth trying to fix, right?