I thought this post was a joke or something. The market for Domino is fast disappearing. My company is moving away from the platform. IBM CLEARLY is not interested in Domino at all. 

Don't waste your time, look into something else.

LOL. Bryan, I'm not surprised you thought it was a joke. I started with Notes when Windows 3.1 came out 'revolutionizing' the PC. It's too bad because Notes was an incredible platform for rapid development. Its major downfall, IMO, was that the design was scattered all over the place and I wonder what would have happened if someone had the vision to sort things out a bit. Nevertheless, here we are almost twenty years later and it is still around. Still frustrating people by the sound of it. I remember developing with a colleague from our consulting firm, this was at Pfizer when they were still in trials for using Viagra for hair loss. Anyway, every five minutes we would turn to each other and say "Notes blows!". But it was a good gig, worked with great people.

Howard, thanks for your response. Except for Java, I have good skills in all the technologies you mention. I started poking around with CouchDb as well a couple of years ago as it seemed Notesish although it is really the back end only. Unfortunately, I am only able to do remote work at this time and I have been out of the workforce since, well... 2002. I think I'll do some reading on XPages and then decide whether to download the trial since it is only a 90 day license although I seem to recall that being said about the Notes trial download at one time but it wasn't actually enforced. Can I ask in what context you do development? Do you do applications or more like web sites? For public or private clients?

Many thanks!

Having worked on Notes for more than 20 years, I do not think IBM will give up Notes. At least I hope so

First of all, IBM has changed the name of it : Lotus Notes has become IBM Notes. This doesn't sound as IBM will put it away.

When I attend User workshops I do not have the feeling Notes is old fashioned.

But what is true is that not a lot of companies / people are using it.

This is also true that lot of companies are moving to another platform.

Due to this there is a lack of skilled people on that field.

So planning a reconversion to this platform may not be a bad idea.

Check with a local IBM representative. You might be surprised.

From another point of view, it is true that web productions has a growth rate that pure Notes applications will never ever reach.

So XPages would be a good choice.

Regarding the download, IBM changed its policy and Notes client is no more downloadable unless as a trial version (time limited).

And by the way: "oldtimer" has nothing to do with skills and experience

Whishing you good luck.

-Ben-

Domino is probably not something you'd want to stake a career on, but it's still doing things other systems don't do.

Xpages would be the big addition if you haven't been there.

https://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/Tutorial-intro-to-XPages.htm

http://per.lausten.dk/blog/2012/02/learning-xpages-available-resources.html

Also, I've found a great deal more I can do now that @Eval & Evaluate work pretty generally. My apps have got much, much more flexible & can accommodate customer requests for change in a tenth or even less time than in 2000. I avoid @Commands and ":=" statements; the expected substitutes now work, rock-solid; and stuff just works.

Again, welcome back, however much you get a chance to do.

Many thanks for all the helpful comments guys! All the best and I'll see you around if I delve into the xPages for sure I'll have some questions.