3 Out Of 4 Developers Could Benefit From Metawidget

I thought it was about time I posted the 'results to date' of the Metawidget survey I've been running.

I started the survey in response to the query 'just how prevelant is the problem of duplication in User Interface development?' By 'duplication' I mean code that you have to write, but that could be inferred using existing sources within your application. For example the maximum length of a UI text box could be inferred from a database schema; the correct format for an e-mail address could be inferred from a validation subsystem; the available navigation buttons could be inferred from a BPM engine. Such duplicated values must be declared identically, and must be kept identical throughout your project's lifetime. If they diverge, for example if the UI allows text to be input that is longer that the database can store, it's likely to cause an error.

So how many developers have to do this error-prone sort of work, duplicating information throughout their applications? Apparently 3 out of 4. Every time they add a new field to their back-end, they also need to:



This lends weight to the idea that a project like Metawidget has the potential to help a great many developers. I've previously blogged a more in-depth discussion on the problem of duplication in User Interfaces. The survey is still open, so please submit your votes!