NYCPHP Meetup

[charles at softwareprototypes.com]

Hello Ted,

another argument for OpenSource is that not all software is meant to
last forever.

SoftwarePrototypes.com is moribund, in case you hadn't noticed, and
was never meant to be a repository for any of my software. Its
moribund because despite the fact that everybody knows the prototyoes
ave money in the developmnent stage, nobody buys 'em because they ALL
always assume that everything will be okay.

Remember all of my open source stuff was writen before the birth of
the web. Some of it is older than most of the people reading this.
Some of it was written over twenty-five, Oh shit!, almost thirty,
(I've gotten old,) years ago. That almost a two hundred and ten in
dog/internet years. :-)

The first piece of software that I ever wrote (a payroll system) is
STILL RUNNING in at least one municipality that I know of.

But I have learned so much since then that I could do a much better
job of it. However the software belonged to (Cogebec, a since defunct
system house,) and I am NOT going to touch it. 

I'd rewrite it for the public domain but the calculation enines and
the pre- & post-tax allocations and calculations are so ideosyncratic
that I'd need a re-immersion into the domain before attempting it
again.

If I wanted to set up something like that on SoftwarePrototypes.com
I'd have to re-implement all of it (in php?) since the software
platform I was using (Digitalk Smalltalk /V, /V286, /V PM, /V Win,
VisualSmalltalk Enterprise,) is also defunct. (Man I feel old.) Some
of the stuff in VisualWorks and Visualge Smalltalk would land me in
jail for violating conditions of employment and confidentiality
agreements.

-Charles-A.

> From: "Ted Shieh" <liquidm3 at hotmail.com>
> Organization: New York PHP
> Reply-To: talk at nyphp.org
> Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 17:59:29 -0400
> To: NYPHP Talk <talk at nyphp.org>
> Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] Finishing with the open-versus source
debate.
> 
> Charles,
> 
> That's great that you have written so much open source code.  But
it's not 
> clear to me where on the web I could go to view and download it.  
> softwareprototypes.com would seem to me to be a natural place where
you 
> could place your open source code, as coding samples for potential
clients 
> to examine.  Many clients lack the necessary background to evaluate
code 
> quality, but sometimes clients do have a technical background, or
at least a 
> team member with a technical background.  Even if the code is in
Smalltalk, 
> I'd think it would be a plus for potential clients to have a chance
to 
> evaluate your understanding of algorithms and OOP.
> 
> Ted