Wow, writing software is hard :p
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I am finally biting the bullet and authoring a commercial application of my own. Wow, I thought I'd be finished in a week! On a serious note it is giving me a better understanding of how one man operations are serious competitors. I get to spend time on working on features that are useful and ignoring the 1% case that ties business software development up for months with no progress, I'm not supporting multiple databases, I don't care about Linux, and web-enabled? maybe V2!
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
I found myself in a similar situation. Me an a group of friends started developing a software that is hard to find in the marked and the ones available are usually too expensive and/or use old technologies and has poor performance or are part of big systems (like ERPs). We thought, hey, it's not that complicated to do it (not overly simple either, some parts we are still researching on how to do it and implement) and we can charge it cheap and sell many. We have a market gap to fill: small to medium enterprieses. A few months later comes a disappointment. Despite being hard to find, we found a similar and cheap solution on MercadoLivre (Brazilian eBay). It's still old, uses Paradox DB, but it was right in the gap we were trying to fill (the price). We are still going to finish the product, however, we will try to be better (better marketing, be easier to find). We will also start on our own backyard, being able to sell and support stuff face to face is a big advantage, later we try to stablish our marked on wider areas. Anyway, it's great you've found that opportunity, when your tool grows, you can support more stuff, you can pay people to do that for you. That's what we intend here too. We support a very small set of hardware, SQL Server only and we are not web-enabled yet. But, who knows of V2? :)
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
my tool will only be used in-house
I only use my tool in-house. It's probably better that way.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001"I only use my tool in-house. It's probably better that way." And never, never, NEVER let anyone borrow your tool. No telling when they'll bring it back.
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I found writing commercial software a daunting task, having been weaned on corporate solutions for a number of years I then took on the project of writing a commercial package, what an eye opener. The level of detail and the quality of the application was much greater than mere corporate systems. I hope you have a plan for deployment and a good support model. We went broke selling a great app with no support model.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Yes - after writing commercial software for over 20 years doing this inside corporate stuff with captive users is a breeze! Users can be "disciplined" for causing screw ups - yay! You will find that a good 75% of your code will be catching the idiots entering bad data and trying to do things backwards. And don't, please don't, hard code tax percentages! I have spent far too many boring hours hunting through pages and pages of code for GST percentages.
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Its a joke, you can't have attributes with out values or attributes in end tags. Thus <curious mode> is an invalid start tag, and </curious mode> is an invalid end tag.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
<badCommen langCode="de" enValue="I agree">einverstanden!</badCommen>
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I am finally biting the bullet and authoring a commercial application of my own. Wow, I thought I'd be finished in a week! On a serious note it is giving me a better understanding of how one man operations are serious competitors. I get to spend time on working on features that are useful and ignoring the 1% case that ties business software development up for months with no progress, I'm not supporting multiple databases, I don't care about Linux, and web-enabled? maybe V2!
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
I am finally biting the bullet and authoring a commercial application of my own. Wow, I thought I'd be finished in a week! On a serious note it is giving me a better understanding of how one man operations are serious competitors. I get to spend time on working on features that are useful and ignoring the 1% case that ties business software development up for months with no progress, I'm not supporting multiple databases, I don't care about Linux, and web-enabled? maybe V2!
Good for you: go for it. Yes, writing software is hard. Very rewarding to see a plan come together, though. Just don't get "featuritis". Make it work right, then add features. -Max :-)
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I am finally biting the bullet and authoring a commercial application of my own. Wow, I thought I'd be finished in a week! On a serious note it is giving me a better understanding of how one man operations are serious competitors. I get to spend time on working on features that are useful and ignoring the 1% case that ties business software development up for months with no progress, I'm not supporting multiple databases, I don't care about Linux, and web-enabled? maybe V2!
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
I know what you mean about the 1%. My boss will have me jump through all kinds of hoops to provide software mechanisms to deal with situations in our processes that have never happened before and are unlikely to happen again for another 5 years. I think I've spent half my career programming for 1000 to 1 scenarios. Well, at least it keeps me employed.
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I found writing commercial software a daunting task, having been weaned on corporate solutions for a number of years I then took on the project of writing a commercial package, what an eye opener. The level of detail and the quality of the application was much greater than mere corporate systems. I hope you have a plan for deployment and a good support model. We went broke selling a great app with no support model.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Mr. Holmes, I have embarked on writing my first commercial package. I have been working with corporate solutions for a long time, and seeing your message about the "daunting task" I figured you might be willing to either give some concrete suggestions or point me to some existing "helps" for this new venture. Thanks, Vic Rauch
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I found writing commercial software a daunting task, having been weaned on corporate solutions for a number of years I then took on the project of writing a commercial package, what an eye opener. The level of detail and the quality of the application was much greater than mere corporate systems. I hope you have a plan for deployment and a good support model. We went broke selling a great app with no support model.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Haven't you learned from the big wigs yet? You never SELL anything, then they OWN it. You license it for a certain time frame, and then re-license it, etc.
englebart wrote:
You license it for a certain time frame, and then re-license it, etc
This was in the 90s and yes we SOLD it and yes we did go broke. I totally understand the licencing concept NOW (I'm paying so many).
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Mr. Holmes, I have embarked on writing my first commercial package. I have been working with corporate solutions for a long time, and seeing your message about the "daunting task" I figured you might be willing to either give some concrete suggestions or point me to some existing "helps" for this new venture. Thanks, Vic Rauch
I am probably the last person to take advice from, I'm a failed software entrepreneur, there are some on here who have been very successful at this and they are the ones you need to winkle out. I beleive there are a number of articles here on starting your own business. Marc Clifton is one and he has this article. Diary Of A CEO - The Really Hard Part[^]
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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I am probably the last person to take advice from, I'm a failed software entrepreneur, there are some on here who have been very successful at this and they are the ones you need to winkle out. I beleive there are a number of articles here on starting your own business. Marc Clifton is one and he has this article. Diary Of A CEO - The Really Hard Part[^]
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Thanks for the reply. I will be reading the "Diary of a CEO" BTW, I'm a firm believer that I can learn from both successful and "failed" projects. Especially if the person that has failed knows it, has a good idea why, and does not blame everyone else. I did not get the idea you are blaming everyone else. Some things just fail. Again, Thanks! Vic
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Thanks for the reply. I will be reading the "Diary of a CEO" BTW, I'm a firm believer that I can learn from both successful and "failed" projects. Especially if the person that has failed knows it, has a good idea why, and does not blame everyone else. I did not get the idea you are blaming everyone else. Some things just fail. Again, Thanks! Vic
As englebart pointed out you licence software not sell it. There are a number of business models that are available today that simply were not available in the 90s. You need to pick the right one for your product. No I don't blame anyone else, I made some spectacularly bad decisions and spent a number of years paying for them. Get a good business partner (if you aren't a business man, good luck with that!). Never bullshit to yourself about the health of your business.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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As englebart pointed out you licence software not sell it. There are a number of business models that are available today that simply were not available in the 90s. You need to pick the right one for your product. No I don't blame anyone else, I made some spectacularly bad decisions and spent a number of years paying for them. Get a good business partner (if you aren't a business man, good luck with that!). Never bullshit to yourself about the health of your business.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
I have found a good business partner, and a good marketing guy too. Thanks for the licence thing too. I had planned on selling the program, but will look at the licence very carefully. I really do understand about the "spectacularly bad decisions (SBD)." I'm still paying for them. Mine were more personal financial rather than business, but still SBDs. That is why I'm asking questions now, rather than after a whole bunch of SBDs. I'm trying to minimize those! Again, Thanks!
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Yes, but then it ends up on Google's StreetView! And trust me, no one wants that!
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
No kidding! Several years ago I cleared some trees and branches from our yard. I put them in front of our house for our garbage company to pickup. When I came home at the end of the day I was surprised to see my debris had not been picked up. I was even more surprised to see the debris strewn around the front of the yard, clearly not the way I left it for the garbage pickup. I always wondered what happened to my trees that day. Years later when I discovered the Google streetview, my mystery was solved. Some neighborhood kids had decided to make a fort out of it and play: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3500/4564029294_35749e5bbc_o.jpg[^] [I sure wish I could figure out how to embed an img tag in this post.] Can you imagine the luck? Someone just driving by taking pictures while you are up to no good. I was never even mad about it. If I could identify the kids, I would show it to them and their parents as a lark!
