Let me start by saying that Xpages is really cool and very powerful. It has absolutely captured the enthusiasm of the Lotus developers Community ( don’t worry admins you have DAOS ) and it has great potential.
But… should you start using it YET ?
The key word is yet. I have two hats on, the first is a geek and the second is a professional Notes developer. The geek in me loves to play with new stuff while the professional developer is responsible for robust code delivered on time and to cost.
If you are wearing a geek hat I would highly recommend that you “play” with xpages
If you are a professional developer charged with exploring new options or quantifying the risks of using new options then the answer would also be to try it.
If you are professional developer responsible for delivery of work on tight time scales and to tight costs then I would urge caution. While the geek in me loves Xpages the development process is fraught with bugs and the trials of being an early adopter. In my opinion DDE 8.5.0 is not a suitable tool for working to tight times and costs – it is too buggy. I am hopeful that 8.5.1 will be better but I have no information on that.
I would also say that if you are a customer of a development shop ( mine included ) you should make sure that it is very clear who pays for lost time through platform bugs and difficulties. Individual developers should also be careful what they promise to their bosses !
Will I continue to use it ? – absolutely – but only on internal projects at this time. I am also increasingly grateful for the gifted early adopters out there who are easing the way with blogs articles and examples.
Just my thoughts from the coal face, Sean