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2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

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Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#31

Post by djrogers »

CalRobert wrote: post #17
dokem wrote: post #13

Does anyone choose to write this kind of software?

Most software isn't somebody's dream. It's just dealing with "dumb stuff somebody's gotta do" because there's a paycheck. (See also - basically every profession. I don't know how many architects choose to design parking garages or dreary subdivisions, but hey, they gotta eat too.)

> or dreary subdivisions

There are a million little details that can go in to making a house more livable, pleasant, or delightful to live in. An architect that loves these details and enjoys knowing how much her work affects the lives of the families that live there would relish working on a subdivision...

Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#33

Post by hodgesrm »

dokem wrote: post #13

Does anyone choose to write this kind of software?

Absolutely! I love problems that have an easily understandable value proposition like "we take the grief out of doing taxes." In my experience it's the biggest single success factor in writing good software.

So if you like to write successive business software--and get paid--this is a great problem to go after.

Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#35

Post by JadeNB »

microcolonel wrote: post #6

Good to have it, better not to need it.

> Good to have it, better not to need it.

The same can surely be said about any problem software is meant to solve (that it's good to have test cases, but better not to have the problem); and such an impossibly general remark seems not to be very useful.

Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#36

Post by CalRobert »

djrogers wrote: post #31
CalRobert wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most software isn't somebody's dream. It's just dealing with "dumb stuff somebody's gotta do" because there's a paycheck. (See also - basically every profession. I don't know how many architects choose to design parking garages or dreary subdivisions, but hey, they gotta eat too.)

> or dreary subdivisions There are a million little details that can go in to making a house more livable, pleasant, or delightful to live in. An architect that loves these details and enjoys knowing how much her work affects the lives of the families that live there would relish working on a subdivision...

That sounds like just the architect we need! I didn't mean they're all dreary; I was just trying to pull an example of a job someone does for the check and not because it's the pinnacle of their craft.

For that matter, some parking garages are quite visually interesting. Most are horrendous, though, in my view at least.

Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#37

Post by madeofpalk »

madeofpalk wrote: post #30
kss238 wrote: post #2

A government website with a decent mobile version. Is this a first?

There's been a lot of effort put into 'government digital transformation' over the past few years.

You should see how I file my personal income tax, or my quarterly business tax account, in Australia. Completely responsive and accessible.

Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#38

Post by codingdave »

dokem wrote: post #13

Does anyone choose to write this kind of software?

If by "this kind of software", you mean software that solves a problem that almost every adult in the country is guaranteed to deal with on a yearly basis... which involves mostly logic, forms, and arithmetic, without any really hard problems... yet which is too complex and ever-changing to want to do it without software tools, and also dry enough that the SV/VC crowd leaves your niche alone...

Yeah, I think that sounds like a pretty good area in which to choose to write software.

Re: 2017 Tax Software Developer's Guides and Test Cases

#39

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #15
dokem wrote: post #13

Does anyone choose to write this kind of software?

Isn't most software a variation on this type of thing, payroll, invoicing, etc.

I doubt it's most software in percentage of code, but I suspect it's by far the biggest value of software to the economy.
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