Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many small businesses are making money shipping software on windows ?
Probably more than are making money shipping software on Android.
I have no idea what Android has to do with anything? :S
Software in 2014
241–250 of 265 posts
Re: Software in 2014
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many small businesses are making money shipping software on windows ?
What classes as a small business? Up to what size? I don't have figures but I have worked for 2 in the past that wrote software for Windows, one solely existing for the software, the other for complimenting their services with a side software product. They managed to turnover > £1million and >£4 million respectively. Do we need to have thousands of companies listed in order for their software to qualify as "software"…
You can use any definition you like. 50-ish employees?
>Do we need to have thousands of companies listed in order for their software to qualify as "software" in your eyes?
No, I just asked a simple question because I didn't know. I have no idea what you think you're replying to. But from your reply I get that you don't have the answer to my question.
>I am not sure what your point is or why the size of the business is important to what software is being produced...?
I just asked a question. I don't know of people starting companies to ship commercial windows software. Ofcource custom software development is certainly a vibrant domain, but that was not the focus of my question.
When you see tons of people starting companies to ship software on a platform - that gives you an idea (in general terms) of the 'profitability' of that platform in terms of small business being able to make some money. I have not seen that on the windows platform in quite a while.
I don't know why you're assuming I'm some kind of anti-native pro-web person. I'm primarily a low-level C++ programmer.
Re: Software in 2014
#243I'm betting on Ember.js or Angular (leaning towards Ember) to really take hold in 2014: it fixes everything that's currently wrong with the web front-end, and (if done right) is that last bit of magic missing from a native app.
Add to the mix some kind of Appcelerator/phone gap/something else that can be a thin wrapper around your web interface (but do it in a way that you can't tell it's not native and still have instant code pushes) and we've got ourselves a shiny roadmap to the future of development.
Re: Software in 2014
#244"It’s a pity some people still build important apps in PHP..." Getting real tired of seeing these baseless statements from so called software professionals. Here is an off-the-top-of-my-head list of features of modern day PHP: * yield * event * pthreads - yeap, real threads. * closures (including support for $this) * consistent hashing api * "finally" added to try-catch * empty() now supports expressions, rather than…
Throwing a bunch of buzzwords or features at the problem doesnt mean the language magically becomes elegant, consistent and logical.
PHP with these features has become more of a headache.
Re: Software in 2014
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yet, because it runs in the browser and is available everywhere, that's why I use Google's Docs. And GMail's web interface is better than any email client I tried until now. IMHO, this is a case of solving a problem at a wrong level. I also find that matches provide neither a sufficiently long-lasting, nor a sufficiently intense fire to cook. Longer and thicker matches would obviously be a solution to this, and it…
> Yes; and I do think smartphones are a terrible piece of engineering. I can't read that and not scoff. I don't know how you can seriously argue that smartphones aren't a great piece of engineering. The power, accessibility, and flexibility offered in a device that easily fits in your pocket is pretty amazing in my book. Yes, battery technology isn't the best, but to say somehow that what has happened in the smartpho…
They are an impressive feat of technical prowess, no questions asked there. Whenever I look at the innards of an iPhone or a Galaxy I am not only impressed, but -- with all the wear and tear of the EE that's buried inside my soul -- I can only shrug and admit that the electronic design is way, way past my skills.
That being said, the impressive design of the PCB and of some of the chips aside, smartphones are a failure of engineering. As mobile phones they have to do two things:
- Move, and
- Allow you to talk on the phone.
Very much like a mobile seat, say, a car, or a wheelchair. If I were to build a car or a wheelchair that could only go for fifteen kilometers or so -- and generally move, but not at an impressive pace, would you be happy? I, for one, wouldn't,
Battery technology is, indeed, the major setback, despite the incredible research activity that goes into it. However, I think they made the wrong trade-off, not only regarding to battery life, but also regarding software development and deployment options and especially user interaction. Choosing trade-offs is the root of engineering.
> I guess we should all go back to our brick phones and blackberries for the business types then?
I'm dead serious about it. Between my tablet and my brick phone, I can do everything that my colleagues who have smartphones can do. I also enjoy a) the benefit of a larger screen estate and b) the laughs when their portable devices are useless in the evening because they forgot their chargers at home. Bonus if I'm the one who has to call the cabs for everyone after a few rounds of drinks, because my phone is the only one still running.
Re: Software in 2014
#246I think this paints a rather meagre picture of software development in 2014: > More or less everything is expected to talk HTTP, and it’s really easy to make things talk HTTP. A lot of things that shouldn't talk HTTP are expected to just because there's an army of programmers who don't know better. Also, it's actually hard to make things talk HTTP, partly due to HTTP itself. However, much of this complexity is hidden…
> In what freezing fucking hell is a dual-core, 1 GHz computer with gigabytes of RAM and tens of gigabytes of storage and 3D acceleration that can fit in my pocket memory-starved and CPU-starved? In the same weird world that an old NeXT Cube is easier to write applications for and has more responsive apps than the modern web client HTML5 apps.
Dear God, yes! That was a beautiful platform. Beautiful.
Re: Software in 2014
#247"It’s a pity some people still build important apps in PHP..." Getting real tired of seeing these baseless statements from so called software professionals. Here is an off-the-top-of-my-head list of features of modern day PHP: * yield * event * pthreads - yeap, real threads. * closures (including support for $this) * consistent hashing api * "finally" added to try-catch * empty() now supports expressions, rather than…
For me, this is the definitive take-down of PHP: http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-de... Even if a handful of those issues have been addressed in the intervening 15 months, the depth and breadth of fundamental problems remains. /$.02
Obviously you believe everything you read on the internet without question .. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7030283
Re: Software in 2014
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
For someone that works on Go at Google I'm shocked by your very much subjective view of PHP. Elitist much?
I wrote PHP code for 10 years. You could say my relationship with the language is pretty subjective.
When did you stop developing with PHP?
edit: you know what would be great, if you could show some common programming examples in PHP and how Go would manage the same situation.
Re: Software in 2014
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
What classes as a small business? Up to what size? I don't have figures but I have worked for 2 in the past that wrote software for Windows, one solely existing for the software, the other for complimenting their services with a side software product. They managed to turnover > £1million and >£4 million respectively. Do we need to have thousands of companies listed in order for their software to qualify as "software"…
You can use any definition you like. 50-ish employees? >Do we need to have thousands of companies listed in order for their software to qualify as "software" in your eyes? No, I just asked a simple question because I didn't know. I have no idea what you think you're replying to. But from your reply I get that you don't have the answer to my question. >I am not sure what your point is or why the size of the business i…
Apologies for the assumptions! I think you're right that the number of items being shipped on a platform is a good indication, but there's no real way to tell outside the walled gardens. There doesn't appear to be a massive take-up of the Metro app store, so I wonder if people are just ignoring it and still shipping native Win32 apps still? Or just nobody is writing anything?
You're right though - I haven't the answer to your question! I wonder where we can get some sort of metric of software being shipped for Windows? As nobody is really funnelling their software through the Windows store, it is probably impossible to get any concrete numbers.
Apologies again for the assumptions.
Re: Software in 2014
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
"haphazardly accumulated features" is not an explanation, it's a subjective point of view. If you really need it, here's a very good write-up which should cover that in an impressively detailed manner: http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-de...
Here's one rebuttal to that: http://forums.devshed.com/php-development-5/php-is-a-fractal...
It was a long one, and I'll admit I only skimmed it.
But from a glance, it looks like the one writing the rebuttal didn't really understand the criticism, and is himself 100% captured by the exact mindset which the original article criticized PHP for having.
This guy is the one who will be standing at the door complaining that you just broke his house. He is what is wrong with PHP.
And naturally, however much sense he thinks his argument makes, it will still be wrong. It's in the very nature of this situation.