http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?biz Joel on Software.]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 17:35:41 GMT Fog Creek Software FogBugz 8.7.57.0 http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853417 Isso: Hi,We recently released our new product (PC instant backup/recovery) that has some unique features and the initial feedback is really good. The forum of the main competitor is filled with posts of its users switching to our software.However I can't seem to find a way to spread the word to a bigger audience. I think publishing a review in some popular tech magazines would be a good start. However I don't have any contacts with editors, and my several attempts to contact them didn't work (which is somewhat expected, as they apparently receive a ton of such emails per day).So I was wondering if you can recommend any intermediate/PR company that has connections to editors and can push them to have a look at our product. Or maybe there are other methods that I'm missing - any advice is much appreciated. Thank you]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 14:30:42 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853408 PeterBg: Hi Everyone,I've been using Skype for a long time and have couple add-ons ideas that I would use. But the questions is - is there market for Skype add-ons?I'm just asking because it's interesting to listen to the opinions of people who develop or not for this market.Thanks in advance.]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 14:28:20 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853396 Scott: I enjoy pricing articles that come with real numbers from personal experiments. The following is by Nathan Berry, a developer who experimented with ebook pricing.After listening to people debate the merits of pricing low and selling lots of goods vs pricing high and selling fewer, and thinking in terms of a simple curve like is taught in economics and business classes, he tried pricing his web design ebook high, at $39. He then broke out "add ons", in particular videos and photoshop templates, for $40 more, and 10 code snippets with license for $130 more (presumably the sort of code excerpts that would normally just be included in line in the book).http://blog.asmartbear.com/selling-ebook.htmlNotably, a significant number of people purchased the deluxe package with everything and it was the largest source of revenue.So, a slam dunk right?I'd say not exactly. Did customers really feel they got $130 in value for the extras? Did they feel the pdf file ebook was even worth $39 to begin with? If they don't, perhaps they won't be back to buy a second time. Or maybe they will. Hard to say if this is a good long term strategy.I did not purchase his product. If I did, I would have been outraged to buy the ebook and find that 10 code examples had been removed from the text and that he was charging $130 more just to see them.]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 17:07:31 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853382 AcrossThePond: I have a piece of software I purchased over 2 years ago, maintained by a private developer & his team (ISV). It appears that he has no stated policy in any form about discontinued support for my version, which is a few changes behind the newest major release (8.xx)Our working relationship had been a good one. I had been asked to be a beta tester, had made many contributions/suggestions of which quite a number had been implemented. Given this, he had personally requested a testimonial for his site. I had provided this unpaid testimonial as copyright, meaning for his site & his site only, but he had deliberately ignored this & had posted it on many other sites. I said nothing about this.Besides this, during the past two years, his service & our correspondence had been good & responsive--until now.He has been very dismissive of both myself & the problem in our very recent communication. He has stated that he no longer deals with this version. In fact, he had implied that any further service would be obtained only by purchase of an upgrade.From what I can determine, nowhere--on his site, his marketing communications, or in personal communications--has he stated clearly & unambiguously that he no longer supports my version (the latter half of the 7.xx series).I need to know how I can get this situation resolved. Complicating this is the fact that he indicates that he lives & works in Western Europe but I am as yet unable to determine if this is true or not.Any suggestions?]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 03:17:23 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853380 TD Lee: I read the article "The brutal truth about marketing your software product " at successfulsoftware.net and these sentences stood out:"Learn how to market and sell before you build your product. Learn these crafts by picking a product that’s already been built and act as a reseller”.How would one go about finding a software product to resell? What are the pit falls to watch out for in picking a product to resell?Thanks,TD]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 01:57:16 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853363 John Clark: As you might recall, I held up the white flag on my mISV earlier this spring. I would, however, like to keep the service available for free, and made some mods to it.I've a server contract that is shortly about to end, and I'm looking at how best to keep the service alive but now that I've gone back into the world of the employed, I don't want to spend too much.Can anyone recommend a fully-functional Windows Server-based web hosting that will provide full IIS access, plus SQL Server and the ability to install Windows services? My current contract runs to around £70/month for a virtual server, but ideally since this is free I'd like to get it a bit cheaper. Or, maybe someone here has spare capacity and wouldn't mind helping out? As I said, I want to keep it alive as a free service so I'm open to suggestions...Ta.]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 20:18:08 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853360 DanDan: I'm thinking of redesigning my website (I've just read the excellent "The Non-Designers Design Book". Unfortunately she did not have too much to say about websites but I know a lot of things I can improve already.) My company name takes up almost a quarter of the screen on my laptop, and noone cares about that, it's not important, so it's going to go.Does anyone have good examples of a really effective website? Any blogs or books I should steer towards? I'm thinking we should be looking at: text body/header contrast, download/buy button placement, ease of information access, screenshot locations.I'm not too interested in SEO at this point. That's (comparatively) easier, at least for technical people, which most of us here are. I'm talking about what makes an effective website regarding human beings!]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 16:51:12 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853334 _fernando: Hi Everyone,I've been on here for a while and you guys have inspired me to launch a side project:https://4o2pay.comThe premise is that ads are not the best way for publishers to make money. A simple micropayment system would let people pay publishers for good content.There has been a lot in the micropayments space before, but none of it has been really simple. That's been my goal with this.What do you think?I should probably go talk to customers now. How should I go about doing this? Advice on who I should be contacting?Thanks!Fernando]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 06:14:41 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853323 Joske Vermeulen: I'm looking for a service that offers a library that I can incorporate into my (C++) Windows desktop application, that will let me ask my user 'do you want to anonymously submit information about your computer to our servers', and which offers me various reports on the information my users submit (e.g. pie charts of various measured qualities, trends over time etc).Specifically I'm wondering whether the time has come to switch from 32 bit to 64 bit builds and tell people on 32 bit machines that they're out of luck. For some specific reasons it's much harder for me to maintain parallel (both 32 and 64 bit) builds of my software than it is for other products, so that combined with limited resources makes that offering both is not an option in my case.But apart from that I'm also interested in learning about Windows versions used, screen resolution and a number of other things like that (a particular one: how many people are running my software on a Mac using Parallels?). My users do not follow hardware trends in step with the general population, so world-wide statistics from big websites etc. don't reliably paint a picture of my users.Suggestions?]]> Thu, 16 May 2013 12:49:10 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853317 S. Tanna: Bad idea because it cuts into your sales right?What if a particular product's sales are way down, maybe because its based around a technology which is declining in popularity for example - but the site still has tons of traffic.]]> Thu, 16 May 2013 10:06:22 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853305 WannabeTycoon: I provide a business service to mISVs and I recently picked up a client in an eastern European country. They mentioned using SWIFT for payment. I don't know jack about wire transfers nor international money transfers. I suggested Paypal in installments but they don't seem to want to do this.What method is most cost effective for a total amount transferred of around $2K? I do have one savings account tied to my banking that I use exclusively for Paypal and other e-payment that I could use for incoming funds. The main thing I'm concerned about is vulnerability of funds being withdrawn.]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 16:10:11 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853296 Kemal Taskin: Hi,I'm the founder of Yakamoz Labs which is a one-man business selling iOS components. I'd be grateful if you could give feedback on the website design and copy. Please note that I did all the design and copywriting work.I also have a question about following up with potential leads. Right now I offer free demo downloads of my iOS components. The initial version of my website didn't have a way to follow up with customers who downloaded the demo. So I decided to add a modal dialog that asks for an optional email address before they'll be able to download the demo. The modal dialog has a disclaimer text that explains why I ask for their email address.2 months after launching the new modal download dialog I can say that some leads are not proceeding with the download and dismiss the modal dialog (I keep track of these events with GA). Do you think there's another way to follow up with potential leads? I'm also open for suggestions that could improve the current download dialog.Thanks,Kemal]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 12:02:06 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853287 Howard Ness: Service aided by Software. Forget subscriptions and licensing models, make money by selling a service delivered through software. It's what Lokad Forecasting does, they don't sell forecasting software, they use their own software to take your dirty data and give you back clean, freshly pressed forecasts. Patrick McKenzie thinks he is selling software to print Bingo cards, what he is actually selling is a service that provides words already printed on a Bingo card. The teachers and party organizers who use his service don't want to buy software, they want to buy his word lists printed out on a 5 x 5 paper grid. I highly doubt people buy PerfectTablePlanner because it works equally well on Macs and Windows PCs, they buy it because it does a better job of finding chairs for friends and enemies than a floorplan covered in Post-It notes.Now if you had to manually type out 25 randomly selected words on a piece of paper, nobody would pay enough to make it worth your while. You might get clients with deep enough pockets to pay for manually prepared sales forecasts, but each employee can only produce so much work in a day. So the solution is to automate, let your custom software do the work of dozens, maybe even hundreds of employees. Your customers don't want to select words themselves, or figure out how to use Monte Carlo simulations, they want to buy results that are better than what they can do themselves.It's a different business model than the Next Big Thing Lottery, but your odds of success are much better. If you can fully extend your competencies through software you might make more money too.]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 22:07:21 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853257 Geoffroy Couprie: Hi everyone,I will soon launch the Android version of an app I already released for iPhone, Pilot SSH ( http://pilotssh.com ), and I would really appreciate your advice on how to do it successfully.I got a few hundred sales for the iPhone version, mostly following articles on news websites, but they did not continue steadily. I discussed with some users, and it seems that my target market is more on the Android side, so I rewrote it. A key part of the success would be the creation of a community of users around the app, but that is not easy.I have tested it extensively (and made people test), I have built a small network of people to make some noise at launch time, even contacted some journalists and bloggers. So, it looks like I am all set for the launch, but it feels like I am missing something. This is the first product I have ever launched, so I may not see the obvious problems. Is there anything I should fix?]]> Sun, 12 May 2013 23:52:52 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853239 Isso: Hi everyone,We just launched our new product: www.ax64.com Any comments or suggestions are very welcome. Thank youIsso]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 19:52:37 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853217 BI Baracus: This touches on a recent thread here ( http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.852875.22 ).I thought it was both relevant and a nice quick read:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323744604578470900844821388.html]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 21:00:10 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853192 Guy: Hi everyone,I'd be very grateful if anyone can spare a minute to critique my new(ish) web site: www.seareachsystems.com Thanks in advance.]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 00:29:55 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853183 Joannes Vermorel - Lokad Sales Forecasting: Since 2007, my company website was looking like http://www.lokad.com/es/ then, one month ago, I realized that this design was feeling, very "web 2.0 bubble". Thus, with some outside help, I tried to give it a major refresh, and here it is: http://www.lokad.com/One area where I am still struggling is dealing with the multi-app aspect of the website (apps addresses closely related B2B markets).In particular, it's amazing how modern CSS is making things easier. Still not perfect, but I do remember that half a decade ago, achieving a clean CSS design had been epic battle, and now, it feels (almost) easy. Also, stock photo banks make it really easy to assemble very good looking materials ($95 spent on stock photos for this page).Any feedback will be appreciated.]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 17:14:08 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853173 Shahryar: I have got a B2B product. Recently 1 customer purchased 1 license and within minutes started complaining about speed and asked for refund. We immediately responded within an hour and told him to enable some settings in the product to improve the speed. which he could have also easily explored by just clicking the Settings menu. The settings did improve the speed but next day he again complained of something else and asked for refund. We responded on how to fix the issue and clearly told him we don't have a refund policy because it will be impossible for him to return the product. Now he is again complaining of something else and telling that he has not heard of no-refund policy and telling me that if you do not have refund policy you can't sell product in US. Please note that my product doesn't have any serial number or keys so that we can disable the product.The license price is $300 and we don't sell large volumes. We are very micro ISV. We have many satisfied customers over the yearsWhat should I do now? Please advise?Thanks]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 14:10:02 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853169 John W King: I've got an application I've been developing and marketing for over 10 years which sells fairly steadily but I feel it's not reaching its full potential. What I'd like to do is find partners who believe in the product's potential and would be willing to get involved in return for a stake in the business - one in marketing and the other a techie to bounce ideas off and generally argue with ;) I know that partnership's are risky (particularly when you don't previously know the person) but I feel I need to motivation of people with a stake in the business to bounce ideas off. People to share the highs (e.g. when an Aussie magazine featured my software and I made $5,000 in sales off the back of it) which friends and family don't really "get". Question is, where could I find such people? I thought about Linked-In but perhaps it's too "corporate" for what I'm looking for? I tried a startups site but no response (possibly I didn't word it very well - this is why I need a marketing director ;)I thought about putting an advert on my website (2,500 unique visitors a month) but not sure if that's like a restaurant advertising for a chef! Anyone got any ideas? Any horror stories about partnerships gone wrong? ;)]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 11:50:43 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853115 Andy Brice: "Adobe is introducing a subscription model for many of its most popular programs, including Photoshop and Dreamweaver....From next month, continuing access to the programs, either individually or as a whole, will demand a monthly fee. Standalone versions will still be available but will not be upgraded. "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22432171I wonder if other big companies are going to move their desktop software to a subscription model?]]> Wed, 08 May 2013 06:34:04 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853114 alexandar: Following a common advice here to give useful posts on forums related to my products I now have my IP and my standard username entered in stopspamforum database. Few forums let me register now...Of course I didn't spam forums... But i did put links to my site (that was the point was not it?)Anyway moral here is that it only takes 1 or 2 crazy administrators who based on their whim will decide to enter your IP in stopforumspam database (which is free for anyone to enter anything...)Before you say that probably I did spam... I will say that my posts were similar to posts I make here - which means not everyone likes them but they are not spamming eitherSo real moral here is watchout when posting in order to promote]]> Wed, 08 May 2013 06:28:23 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853105 Mike_: When starting an app , do you roll your own EULA, use a EULA generator, or consult a lawyer ? I tried a license generator which has a generic template and you tweak it with your own details.It seems to have everything needed.is that the usual approach?]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 11:31:08 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853103 Terrence: All,I'm looking for some feedback on my "Track Bug Fixes" video. This video will be one of four that will become my products flagship video. The goal with these videos is to show how my tool can benefit individuals and teams. My last video which was branded under my GitIntel brand (http://gitintel.com) came off as being too complex so I'm hoping these videos are easier to understand.You can find the video on my test site at http://test.gitsense.comI'm planning on doing another voice over so don't focus on that too much. What I'm mainly looking for is:- Is it too long?- Does it make sense?- Can you see how this would benefit an individual or very small development team?Thanks,Terrence]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 06:06:01 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853101 Cowardly Poster: I'm contemplating building a long form landing page for one of my business software products. The product is aimed at small business with and average sale of less than $100. Before I spend the time building a long form page to A/B test against my current landing page I'd appreciate any feedback from someone who has tried it with a B2B product.TIA.]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 01:18:04 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853090 alexandar: It seems to me that google translate does excellent job in translating from English to major languages likeFranch, Italian, Spanish...Is there a way to get Google to crawl its own translated pages so that you can rank (quickly and easily) in local googles (like google.fr or google.it)I feel that somehow this can be done in matter of sheer half an hour only I don't see how yet...Anyone done that?]]> Mon, 06 May 2013 05:42:45 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853084 NewToASPX: We are thinking of adding our software product to the electronic downloads section of Amazon.com and they require a flat, 2D box shot.Can the people here recommend a good flat, 2D box shot generator suitable for someone with little artistic skill and one that can generate something decent fairly quickly and easily?I did look for one a few months ago and tried about five that I found by surfing the Internet. Some of the products were quite old. I didn't find one decent one.]]> Sun, 05 May 2013 19:36:00 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853079 Harry Phace: Since I don't really have the time or motivation to continue coding in this day and age, is there a way to monetize my past history of products? Has anyone done anything like that? I have a vast portfolio of Psion, Amiga and Windows apps that I wrote and sold over a decade ago. I'm wondering if there isn't some way to maybe lump them altogether on a CD or something and sell that somehow?]]> Sun, 05 May 2013 07:51:27 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853073 Andrew Gibson: For the last few weeks I’ve been working on adding a software emulated OpenGL 2.1 driver to enable pixel shaders (Environment and Bump mapping) in 3D Box Shot Pro. After finding out that Intel currently have 63% of the global graphics market, I was spurred on to do this as 3D Box Shot Pro has never worked well (or at all) on most Intel graphics chips.To cut a long story short, we’re now offering a “Software Rendering” version of the program that has all of the same features as the normal version, but runs on any PC running Windows (not RT on Windows 8) using a software based OpenGL driver. Significantly, it works in Virtual PC (which has an emulated S3 graphics chip). It also runs over RDP.As a result I've added a dedicated download page to my site which you can see here:http://www.3d-box-shot.com/3d-box-shot-download/3d-box-shot-download.htmDoes this make it clear enough? I've been looking at the site so long I can no longer really see it! If anyone can spare the time give me some feedback on this site that would be great, the more brutal at the better.I was wondering if anyone would mind giving the software version a try and let me know what sorts of frame rates you get in the program? Is the software version fast enough to be usable on your system? How long does it take to render?Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer with testing. If you have any additional feedback on the software that would be great.]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 22:42:35 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853042 Mike_: I've developed a Windows desktop app and was thinking of either selling it or giving it for free but monetize it someway.I cannot estimate, but making money out of it by selling it seems dubious.What are the options for monetizing such an app ?]]> Thu, 02 May 2013 07:13:34 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853014 TrippinOnIT: Interesting article on selling games and dealing with cracked versions.http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/Summary: A game developer released two versions of their game at the same time. A version labeled as a cracked version released through torrents and one labeled normally through a store front. Each one does anonymous reporting of stats. After one day 93.6% (3104) users were using the 'cracked' version.The is a game developer simulator. He did make some changes to the cracked version. It had a limitation where the more popular the game the worse of progressing would be due to in game piracy. They actually got a lot of feed back from users of the cracked game asking or suggesting of things they can do to overcome the in game piracy so they could make money.]]> Wed, 01 May 2013 13:16:28 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.853003 Mario G: Hi friends, Please review the website below:http://ortask.com/I look forward to your constructive opinions/comments.Thanks!Mario G.]]> Wed, 01 May 2013 03:29:31 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.852954 Denis Shevchenko: Hi all! I need your advices.My app is a source code formatter (http://style-revisor.com). Now it works on Mac OS X and supports C and Objective-C programming languages.I launched about 2 months ago. Well, strictly speaking, I launched about 4 months ago, but only since 5 March I offer support of Objective-C programming language, and because it's a primary language for OS X/iOS development, I think that 5 March was a "true" launch date.I definetly know that:1. My app solves a real problem. I have 7 years of the programming experience and I really know how boring and slow can be manual formatting of the source code.2. Market for such app exists, and it's not a crowded market. Moreover, this market not only exists, it also grows.3. My app is useful, because I already have a satisfied customers.But, honestly, conversion rate is low... So I have a questions to you:1. What do you think about my website?2. What do you think about prospects of my app at the Mac software market?Any opinions and suggestions are welcome!]]> Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:09:33 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.852933 Jackson12: What do you know sites that sell discounted software from?I know two sites: BitsDujour, FreeToTry.com What more?Thanks.]]> Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:08:13 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.852906 Atul Vaidya: I ask this question because I need to manage a relatively finite advertising budget. The product/service that I need to advertise is aimed at a very well defined market niche. I have identified three ways of getting to thema. Old fashioned Google ads with a decent pick of adsense keywordsb. Stackoverflow where we can do pretty much what we can do with adsense on Google but get to the right people in a far more focused way.c. Reddit ads for selected sub-reddits. A rather nice feature of Reddit is that given that the ad appears like a post and can be commented upon we have some immediate feedback to use to monitor the value we are getting for our money.If reading between the lines this sounds like I have a preference for Reddit - well, correct. However, being a relative newbie to the game I thought I would collect a few opinions prior to writing that cheque. Do redditers look at the paid post type ads? Do they actually provide feedback or does the "its just an ad" reaction kick in immediately. Finally, are there any other places where we can focus on a well defined audience the way we can with Stackoverflow and Reddit?]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:45:33 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.852888 Ivan Yonkov: From a related topic, I've been led to http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html If I'm not mistaken, the article is written 13 years ago and people are still supporting the opinion. Maybe I didn't get it? Old code works, been tested, don't throw it away? Nowadays, a well up-to-date software to the new standards has nothing equal to the code it was in the late 90's. Isn't it? So the code is literally gone. Thrown away, or saved in backup files no longer used in production.Let's give an example with PHP.In the past more than decade PHP turned from a small procedural language which makes things dynamic instead of static HTML, with a short support of basic database (mysql_) libs, to almost object oriented language with good amount of libraries, frameworks and model patterns.So, tell me now, how to reuse the code, where, whenever i.e. a user in a virtual platform, with virtual money, uses something it runs a query to the database which updates its money (take away), then prints something on screen. Laying on that archaic model, we are not designing a controller and a model, with the new libs for databases (which have not a single line of code equal to the old ones), which takes care about the 'user money', and a view where prints on the screen whatever the model returns to the controller's call.We don't even use the same loop operators as we did, not even the same checks. Only the "want-to" is the same. We now want to, once again, to display the user, we took him 10 dollars from its virtual money. But we are not using a single line of code, as we used. We don't need that code. And if we want to add new features which manipulates its money, it will be walk to hell and back if we are strict to the old standards. And when they they'll be gone, when we update our PHP version. So, we are on the bind, where we have to rewrite ALL the code from a "bunch of code" to a designed architecture. Wouldn't be easier and better, if we have the "want-to", to rewrite it from the beginning, instead of reading a 15 years old code, and telling ourselves "a-ha, it was doing this thing, so I will take this variable, use the function from here and will write a method which takes care about it. Oh, and lets use that loop, which iterates through the results". Why not to spend myself (or the dev crew) time - days or a week, to migrate the code from archaic standard, to the most new standards, with lots of support, rather than spending months on adding new features in total mess?]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:17:06 GMT http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.852875 Ryan O'Nonomas: Hi, I recently found this great website. I love programming and would really like to create a career around it, but I'm curious if the field is still expanding and whether you think there will be consistent hiring in 5 years or so. (~ when I finish college) Any advice? Thanks!]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:23:38 GMT