We have several people currently who are Cold Fusion programmers. CF is an awful environment, but they can make it since and dance. But I've seen what they do to data, which means they would not be permitted to EVER insert or modify data without going through rules based wrappers that I write.

So they are 100% idiots when it comes to trusting them with data, while they are also 100% capable of creating a user interface that is usable.

Now, we will NOT be using CF (or any other web based environment) for this project. But the attitude toward what types of programmers are capable of what types of tasks stays the same.

User interfaces written by so-so programmers are almost all hardcode. Field names, placement, error checking, etc. Written by good programmers they are table driven, with a mangement interface created to modify the metadata. I consider a hardcode solution acceptable for this system.

Right now, it is SO hardcoded on the MF, in COBOL, that new users are added to the program and it is recompiled before they have access. Really!!!! The people who wrote this system are dumber than a bag of hammers, and it has worked fine for the last 10 years. It just does not give the most recent required report, which means time to do it again. Too many bags on the side already.