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Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#191

Post by dejv »

vram22 wrote: post #179
dejv wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three main things: - memory space for printers and sound cards changed in Vista, so when you have some constellation of printers and you change the printer in dialog whole program just crash, because it is trying to touch restricted memory or something. - running Paradox in network is quite difficult. Whole database was written in 80s before things like tcp/ip was thought as a good thing and all the networking part w…

> (250+k lines of code) How big is the EXE?

6 mb for typical binary, but there are around 10 different exe files compiled from this codebase, most of them overlaping and sharing big portion of functionality.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#192

Post by cdennison »

I wrote (C#) desktop apps for several years that did manufacturing QA analytics. We went the desktop route because 1) UI development was faster for us (C# vs. jQuery) and 2) Users wanted to interact with Excel in real time (e.g. export).

My experience when I went to look for a job was that I got about 10 interviews and was turned down for all of them because I didn't know about JavaScript, Distributed systems (e.g. load balancers, HTTP caching), WebSockets, deployment pipelines, web services, etc. Don't get my wrong I spent a lot of time reading about all these types of things but until I built an actual API/website it was hard to answer questions about them.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#193

Post by ralmeida »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #3

Obviously people still are, or else commercial desktop software would no longer exist/be maintained. Not being snarky, just saying it's a non-question (and that our company certainly is a "we do" response to your post).

I believe OP would like to know about solo operations or very small teams, side-project-sized operations.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#194

Post by brokenmachine »

cylinder wrote: post #133
lj3 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you still choose a desktop app over a web app if the web app's response time was within the 100ms window[0]? In other words, is speed your only complaint with web apps these days? [0]: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-...

I think so, assuming the web app has full keyboard shortcuts. But if I notice response time, we're in bad shape - I'm admittedly ADD and will likely switch to another tab while waiting for the page to load.

I am the same, I have buttons mapped on my mouse for switching to the last-used tab (Ctrl-Tab), closing the current tab (Ctrl-W), etc.

Usually I will middle-click any link to open it in a new tab, then immediately switch back to the original tab while that one is loading. Only when I see that it is loaded (text on the tab turns red) will I switch to it.

All too often I see web-apps as a regression. We have super-fast machines now, but we're choosing to make ourselves dependent on the slowest link in the chain, the network. Might as well go to Pluto. https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-infinite-space-between-wor...

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#195

Post by beamatronic »

DizzyDoo wrote: post #23

I'm making video games for PC, Mac and Linux (like this one - http://store.steampowered.com/app/386900 ), it's a very traditional release cycle, I work on a project for x months, and then I release it, moving onto the next game after a few weeks of post-launch support. PC games are generally seen as more valuable than mobile games, so I don't need to sell a terribly large volume in order for me, a single developer, t…

Steam is cross platform right? Would it be insane for me to develop an Enterprise application on the Steam platform?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#196

Post by luxpir »

gambiting wrote: post #185
vram22 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind saying, what sort of area in the UK do you live in, where 25k pounds/year is a good salary?

North east. My partner makes 30k(as a web developer, no less) so together we can easily afford to rent a 4-bedroom house, have 2 cars and save enough to get a mortgage soon. On top of that having a job that I really enjoy is just icing on the cake, really not complaining.

Refreshing attitude! Nicely put. Midlands here, and while I always want more 'stuff', reality is I'm quite steady. Still, happy to try new projects a few times a year just in case.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#197

Post by vram22 »

danieltillett wrote: post #189
vram22 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My big problem is I have so many code paths that I can’t fully test the interactions between the different modules and functions (there are over 10^25 different possible paths). Interesting. Have you considered the pros and cons of writing a custom fuzzer for your app, and whether it may help?

I actually have written a custom fuzzer. It has been really useful in chasing out bugs caused by improper handling of corrupt files, but fuzzing won't help solve the combinatorial coverage problem.

>possible paths

But don't all those paths depend on the inputs, ultimately? Trying to understand this here. Can a fuzzer that generates lots of different inputs, not be used to exercise all those paths?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#198

Post by danieltillett »

vram22 wrote: post #197
danieltillett wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have written a custom fuzzer. It has been really useful in chasing out bugs caused by improper handling of corrupt files, but fuzzing won't help solve the combinatorial coverage problem.

>possible paths But don't all those paths depend on the inputs, ultimately? Trying to understand this here. Can a fuzzer that generates lots of different inputs, not be used to exercise all those paths?

Not when you have 10^25 paths to cover and each path takes around 2 seconds.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#199

Post by vram22 »

danieltillett wrote: post #198
vram22 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>possible paths But don't all those paths depend on the inputs, ultimately? Trying to understand this here. Can a fuzzer that generates lots of different inputs, not be used to exercise all those paths?

Not when you have 10^25 paths to cover and each path takes around 2 seconds.

Wow. Got it.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living off of desktop applications?

#200

Post by hermitcrab »

vram22 wrote: post #183
fidz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What GUI Library do you recommend?

For Python, wxPython is good. Dropbox desktop clients are written in it, IIRC, and so are many other apps. Take a look at the demos in the Docs and Demos (separate EXE) that you can download from the wxPython site. Pretty good and gives an idea of wxPython's capabilities. For C++, wxWidgets (which wxPython is a wrapper for) or Qt should be good. Andy Brice, mentioned as a desktop product ISV in this thread, uses C++…

Is wxWidgets still under active development? The last 'stable' release was in 2014.
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