Getting back into the game

[rfnel]

Hi Folks

I've been absent from TFSA for quite a while - I got out of my former partnership towards the end of 2012 (although only in practice - despite my efforts, CIPC still says I'm a partner) and devoted lots of my time and effort to climbing up the corporate ladder.

Now, I'd like to start doing some work for myself again. Programming in the corporate world is oftentimes interesting, but a lot of the time, it is also limited in scope - the domain really isn't that broad. As such, I want to start doing a bit of freelance work again, and capitalize on the opportunity to play with technologies and/or domains outside of the scope of my normal work. I realize that I can try and find work on freelancing websites and the like, but one has to try and outbid developers from countries where development is a lot cheaper than it is in SA. Instead, I thought that I would try and help the forum, and maybe start making a name for myself in the process - there will always be opportunities to be found locally.

Here's what I propose - let's identify a need shared between forum members (but keep it to something simple that I can implement in my spare-time in a couple of weeks). You come up with ideas, we decide what we want, and I go off and try to write a program to do it. If all is well, and I come up with something worthwhile, I can make it available to forum members - free of charge, and no one who contributes to the idea gets to sell it - you can use it, and you can give it to other people to use. Once we have a couple of ideas, perhaps we can set up a poll to choose the most popular one.

So, what do you say?

Cheers,
Riaan

[Citizen X]

Riaan, I think that you going to do just fine!

[Mike C]

Welcome back Riaan.

[Marq]

Nice to see you here again Riaan.
Nice idea to develop your skills and get going.

What language, medium, format, db, front-end, back-end do you work with and what format do you envisage for your development?
Are we talking about a website, a phone app, an add on to the forum site?

An app that is needed here at the moment is an online forum boxing ring.

Or a BS monitor

[Chrisjan B]

Or install Tapatalk API on the forum...

[adrianh]

Riaan, tell me more about the platforms that you are comfortable with, do you code for Android, stand alone PC, web based browser driven etc.

I can think of a whole horde of applications needed on each of those platforms and even applications across all those platforms.

The biggest issue that I think you will face is that you may be forced to write apps that are tailor made for a particular environment. One should modularize functionality and not only that, also data drive those modules and their interaction with one another.

I can explain to you exactly what I mean if you are interested.

[rfnel]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Unfortunately, I can't do anything that plugs straight into the forum - what I envisage is a stand-alone application of some sort that an end user can install on their PC and do something useful with. It can be web-based on desktop-based - depending on what its purpose will be. Personally, I'd like to play with web development, since most of my background is in Java Swing (desktop API) and back-end logic.

Preferably, the application should not depend on a database, since that might be too much for the average user to configure (unless it's something for which a simple embedded database will suffice). I've been looking for an excuse to play with Android development, so that's an option as well. Part of what I'm trying to do is to break away from the stuff that I do everyday and play with some new toys (read 'technology').

Adrian, I'm all ears - please tell me what you have in mind. Just remember that I'm not trying to do something commercial - at least not for this exercise.

[adrianh]

I think that small businesses have fairly similar issues that need attention. One of my biggest problems is quoting. The problem can be resolved fairly simply by using a data driven quoting engine.

Ok, so look at the needs:
Enter customer details
Enter each line item
Discounts and totals

Lets look at the data driving side:

Customer details.
The user would set up a data capture plan i.e. name, addr1, addr,pcode,cel no, work no. Those are the fields that the system would ask to be entered.
The drive module would record the field length, field type and other important field characteristics like masks etc.

Line item.
One would allow for the creation and linking of various calculators. Lets look at the calculators.
Calculator 1. Labour - hourly rate and hours worked...return total
Calculator 2. Material cost - material type, material thickness, sq cm cost, len, wid, number of units ...return total
But calculator 2 could have a link to a lookup table of formula where once the first field is known the rest will drop down and filter.
Calculator 3. This may be a formula based calculator where one would enter fields say: cost = Cost factor x cut len (mm) / cut speed (mm/sec) X cut rate (R/hr)
One would set the fields up so that the lookups tie back to customer or material fields.

Once the schema has been drawn up then one would have to populate the calculator data, be it in look up tables or formulas.

When a new quote is required I would select say, laser cutting quote template:
The system asks me for the customer data fields that I set up in the data driver module,
It then waits for the line entry: I select a type say; material cost: It asks me to enter the field item material which I do and then it brings back what it finds and I complete the line.
Now I select type Cut cost: It knows the material characteristics, such as cut speed for material thickness so all it needs to ask me is the cut length. I aswer this question and I continue.

Ok, it all seems very complicated but it is not. The idea is to allow my to set up my quotation template and its various line calculators as I choose. An electrician may have a line item that is calculated by multiplying 3 items, adding 2 and dividing by another. There is no way of knowing how people choose to set their calculators up but the template allows you to do it quickly and easily as you see fit.

Ok, now to the modular bit, if you design the module so that it is able to work within the framework of a larger system then you could just as easily add the customer maintenance module which has the same field characteristics as in the quoting module. The calculator used within the quoting module could be used to do production planning because those calculators may be extended to carry more elaborate product characteristics.

The point that I am trying to make is that the application is not a ridged framework that limits the user to work within very narrowly defined boundaries, it is rather a template driven environment where the user is able to set up his own framework. When I just started programming there was a language / environment called Clarion that came very close to this.

[newBix]

I had the idea once for a prepaid website.

The idea was to build a platform that people can populate with their domain name, images links and information and then "publish it on the net" then the database would generate a code that the customer can use to SMS back to you allowing you to take money from his phone to pay for his website.

He can then pay for X months and Y months and if the customer stops payment the website gets deleted....

I don't know it is worth anything?

But a starting business is always looking for ways to get exposure right? What better way to do it then a low-cost easy to pay for website?

[rfnel]

Adrian, thanks for the idea - I'll try to sit down and process it over the weekend. It sounds interesting, but there are trade-offs: if it allows for too much customization and it basically ends up being a 4GL programming language, it might be very intimidating to the average user. Of course, if you allow the user to import and export templates, tech savvy users could define templates and share them with the rest of the community. For what it's worth, one of the first thoughts that went through my head as I was reading it was "spreadsheet".

newBix, that's an interesting twist on website hosting, but the idea requires hosting services and infrastructure that goes beyond what I'm trying to do here. Nonetheless, perhaps you should look into it further - small businesses might buy into the idea.

[wynn]

Start a communication platform by cloning 'Whats App' call it 'Whazzup'
Surely a lot of people that belong to 'Whats App' will be looking for another platform now that 'Whatsisface' has bought into it.

[newBix]

If it is just software you are interested in develop a simple but additive game. I know of a developer that pocketed $50k US a day.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

What about a calculator that checks banks calculations for loans etc.
Not what payment is, but to check they are calculating the interest correctly.

[adrianh]

Start a communication platform by cloning 'Whats App' call it 'Whazzup'
Surely a lot of people that belong to 'Whats App' will be looking for another platform now that 'Whatsisface' has bought into it.

There are already numerous apps out there.