[pfarrell]

Oof! I dealt with a SASL and CAS system that had much of its flow control built into XML strings. Yeah, you may not have to "compile" things, but you end up with a system where everything is a runtime exception. I believe this style of coding was referred to as "inner platform effect" by Martin Fowler.

Glad that I'm far from that project now.

[samograd]

Inner-platform effect: A system so customizable as to become a poor replica of the software development platform

Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Software_Engine...

[MaysonL]

Sort of a poor man's Greenspun's tenth rule…

[see http://philip.greenspun.com/research/]