3 simple wishes for Lotus Notes Domino at LotusPhere 2012


Sadly I am not going to LotusPhere 2012..so instead I will make a short list of 3 wishes for LS 2012 of what could make Lotus Notes/Domino an even better platform


1. Evolution of the NFS database
Time has passed but the NSF database has mainly stayed the same.
There has been little evolution over the years, mainly IO performance optimization etc.
What is really needed is evolution on a higher level.
Facts are that really nothing has changed much the last 20 years, if you look at things from a higher perspective.
What is really really needed?

Relations!

No no.., I am not talking about RDMS, I am talking about Graph Databases!

Learn from other NoSQL databases, like Neo4J but mostly OrientDB

OrientDB has very much in common with the NSF database, and in many cases it resembles a version of what NSF could have been today
Have a look at OrientDB and be pleasantly surprised
OrientDB will be released as a version 1.0 very soon.

My Wish:
Make NSF database support Graphs..this will make the NSF ROCK!

2. CoffeScript Rocks..JavaScript Sucks
Look it up on the internet, and you will see there are tons of things wrong with JavaScript.
The problem is that some "idiot" from Netscape a long time ago created JavaScript when Netscape ruled the browser world and JavaScript got stuck as a "de facto" coding language in the browser.
Unfortunately nobody cared to tell Netscape that is was a "piece of crap" and it needed reworking, so we all have to live that many years later.
So what can you do?
JavaScript won't go away, it will not be fixed, though it is being mended over the years, ...but that is not enough...


CoffeScript to the rescue!

What is CoffeScript ?

It is a much cleaner language that transcompiles into JavaScript, a facade, a syntactic sugar.
Watch this very recent and great video from its inventor

My Wish:
Make XPages use CoffeScript as an alternative via a plugin or whatever.
I really mean "transcompile" CoffeScript to JavaScript and "trans-decompile" JavaScript back to Coffescript

This would give SSJS (SSCS) a BIG boost in readability, productivity and overall just a much much nicer coding experience

3. Easy styling and layout.
XPages should never have been based on JSF, but it is.
If you think JSF is a light weight, agile web framework, you are probably not aware what else is "out there" (Play Framework, Rails, ...)
Do a Google search "JSF sucks" and there is plenty of angry hits.
Well aggregated here "JSF sucks".
When James Gosling says "I hate JSF with a passion" maybe there is something about it...I mean this is the guy who invented Java!
OK, JSF is here to stay in XPages, so I will make my wish gentle.

My Wish:
Give me something light, visual and easy to use and understand for laying out and designing my XPages.
Not something stupid and complicated like the bloated Themes stuff in XPages.

IBM ...this is 2012..you know?


Posted on 01/16/2012 01:12:52 AM CET