open source

[windandwaves]

Hi Folk

For the last few years I have been working on an application for small
hotels, bed and breakfast, function places (e.g. restaurants) and the like.
Slowly, the application is starting to work
better and better. It has now been installed in a few great locations and
it is doing very well.

The application has been written with the following philosophy:

1. not so easy for novices, super fast and easy for regular users. Not for
dummies but for smarties. For example, not so many icons and the like, but
easy data-entry.

2. modular design (same concepts are used throughout)

3. very large application (85Megabyte compressed FrontEnd), but with lots of
tools to make the maintenance easier

4. very strict and easy to use naming rules with short names

5. should encompass all parts of the business (from bookings through to
accounts, project management, invoicing, working hours, direct marketing,
business performance measures, procurement, etc... etc...) and can therefore
be used by a wide variety of businesses.

6. Application should be updatable real fast and easy, with separate tables
for location specific settings so that each user can download the new
version

7. Application is open source. My dream is to make the
application available for free for anyone, anywhere. I would like to earn
my money by implementing
the application and helping people to do better business. Not by selling
the software. The idea is also that others will make money from the
application and that they will share new developments.

Some development features include:
- many forms are created automatically (three for each table (list, edit one
and subform)
- complete development interface, including
- report builder
- search functions
- table builder
- query management
- etc... etc....
- commands that can be used in the immediate window to make development
faster
- etc...

user features include:
- personalisation per user
- printing manager makes printing easy and super versatile (100s of filters)
- lots of graphs to show data
- amazing data-entry model that makes data-entry really fast and efficient
- smooth search function whereby, similar to the find in firefox, but with a
filter
- zoom function to increase/decrease form size
- modular design makes learning new parts easy (once you know one part, you
know it all)
- etc....
My idea is to post the application on the web so that people can use ideas
from it.
In return, I am hoping that people will get involved in the development of
the application.

I don't care if other people make money of it, I just like it to be a
success and sell my consultancy services for implementing the application.

At the moment, I give away the application for free and I sell a maintenance
contract. This seems to be working well, because people get a lot more
than just a piece of software. They get assistance in making their business
work.

There is still a million things to do to make the application better, but I
can not do it all by myself. I was planning at setting up a website where
people can log changes and the like, to smooth out that process.

I was wondering if anyone is interested to be involved or has any other
ideas on how to develop this idea further.

Look forward to your comments

- Nicolaas

[corey lawson]

windandwaves wrote:

Hi Folk

For the last few years I have been working on an application for small
hotels, bed and breakfast, function places (e.g. restaurants) and the like.
Slowly, the application is starting to work
better and better. It has now been installed in a few great locations and
it is doing very well.

The application has been written with the following philosophy:

1. not so easy for novices, super fast and easy for regular users. Not for
dummies but for smarties. For example, not so many icons and the like, but
easy data-entry.

2. modular design (same concepts are used throughout)

3. very large application (85Megabyte compressed FrontEnd), but with lots of
tools to make the maintenance easier

4. very strict and easy to use naming rules with short names

5. should encompass all parts of the business (from bookings through to
accounts, project management, invoicing, working hours, direct marketing,
business performance measures, procurement, etc... etc...) and can therefore
be used by a wide variety of businesses.

6. Application should be updatable real fast and easy, with separate tables
for location specific settings so that each user can download the new
version

7. Application is open source. My dream is to make the
application available for free for anyone, anywhere. I would like to earn
my money by implementing
the application and helping people to do better business. Not by selling
the software. The idea is also that others will make money from the
application and that they will share new developments.

Some development features include:
- many forms are created automatically (three for each table (list, edit one
and subform)
- complete development interface, including
- report builder
- search functions
- table builder
- query management
- etc... etc....
- commands that can be used in the immediate window to make development
faster
- etc...

user features include:
- personalisation per user
- printing manager makes printing easy and super versatile (100s of filters)
- lots of graphs to show data
- amazing data-entry model that makes data-entry really fast and efficient
- smooth search function whereby, similar to the find in firefox, but with a
filter
- zoom function to increase/decrease form size
- modular design makes learning new parts easy (once you know one part, you
know it all)
- etc....
My idea is to post the application on the web so that people can use ideas
from it.
In return, I am hoping that people will get involved in the development of
the application.

I don't care if other people make money of it, I just like it to be a
success and sell my consultancy services for implementing the application.

At the moment, I give away the application for free and I sell a maintenance
contract. This seems to be working well, because people get a lot more
than just a piece of software. They get assistance in making their business
work.

There is still a million things to do to make the application better, but I
can not do it all by myself. I was planning at setting up a website where
people can log changes and the like, to smooth out that process.

I was wondering if anyone is interested to be involved or has any other
ideas on how to develop this idea further.

Look forward to your comments

- Nicolaas

Make a Rails application out of it... (www.rubyonrails.com). Unless you
want people completely taking your code, I would think twice about
"giving it away". You're talking a vertical market app, not a lexical
analyzer.

And some company just might find your app and hire ME to figure out how
it works and do the work on it (because they've already hired me to do
all their Access crud, so it's no more $$$ out of pocket for them).

The usual model is to sell the app cheaply, but not free. Free implies
"we don't need you".

[windandwaves]

corey lawson wrote:

windandwaves wrote:
............................
Make a Rails application out of it... (www.rubyonrails.com). Unless
you want people completely taking your code, I would think twice about
"giving it away". You're talking a vertical market app, not a lexical
analyzer.

And some company just might find your app and hire ME to figure out
how it works and do the work on it (because they've already hired me
to do all their Access crud, so it's no more $$$ out of pocket for
them).
The usual model is to sell the app cheaply, but not free. Free implies
"we don't need you".

hmm interesting...

I understand the idea that if it is free then it cant be worth much idea.
But then how do I get others to contribute to it?

I could just try to raise some funds and do it all myself with some extra
help from a couple of programmers, but I was hoping that the worldwide
exposure would give it more than what you can achieve from a single office.

In the end, I want any small and medium sized hotel owner to be able to hop
online and download the latest version for their company, complete a couple
of easy wizards for setting it up and being able to run the show. If 100s
of them do this then surely their must be some money in it by selling
related services and the like....

Thanks for your reply

- Nicolaas
I will check out that rails project.

[news.shaw.net]

windandwaves wrote:

Hi Folk

For the last few years I have been working on an application for small
hotels, bed and breakfast, function places (e.g. restaurants) and the like.
Slowly, the application is starting to work
better and better. It has now been installed in a few great locations and
it is doing very well.

The application has been written with the following philosophy:

1. not so easy for novices, super fast and easy for regular users. Not for
dummies but for smarties. For example, not so many icons and the like, but
easy data-entry.

2. modular design (same concepts are used throughout)

3. very large application (85Megabyte compressed FrontEnd), but with lots of
tools to make the maintenance easier

4. very strict and easy to use naming rules with short names

5. should encompass all parts of the business (from bookings through to
accounts, project management, invoicing, working hours, direct marketing,
business performance measures, procurement, etc... etc...) and can therefore
be used by a wide variety of businesses.

6. Application should be updatable real fast and easy, with separate tables
for location specific settings so that each user can download the new
version

7. Application is open source. My dream is to make the
application available for free for anyone, anywhere. I would like to earn
my money by implementing
the application and helping people to do better business. Not by selling
the software. The idea is also that others will make money from the
application and that they will share new developments.

Some development features include:
- many forms are created automatically (three for each table (list, edit one
and subform)
- complete development interface, including
- report builder
- search functions
- table builder
- query management
- etc... etc....
- commands that can be used in the immediate window to make development
faster
- etc...

user features include:
- personalisation per user
- printing manager makes printing easy and super versatile (100s of filters)
- lots of graphs to show data
- amazing data-entry model that makes data-entry really fast and efficient
- smooth search function whereby, similar to the find in firefox, but with a
filter
- zoom function to increase/decrease form size
- modular design makes learning new parts easy (once you know one part, you
know it all)
- etc....
My idea is to post the application on the web so that people can use ideas
from it.
In return, I am hoping that people will get involved in the development of
the application.

I don't care if other people make money of it, I just like it to be a
success and sell my consultancy services for implementing the application.

At the moment, I give away the application for free and I sell a maintenance
contract. This seems to be working well, because people get a lot more
than just a piece of software. They get assistance in making their business
work.

There is still a million things to do to make the application better, but I
can not do it all by myself. I was planning at setting up a website where
people can log changes and the like, to smooth out that process.

I was wondering if anyone is interested to be involved or has any other
ideas on how to develop this idea further.

Look forward to your comments

- Nicolaas

I have made something similar for a Banquet Hall facility. I haven't
released anything, but you are welcome to look through it and
incorporate anything as long as code is GPL licenced.

le****@xhxexrxvxexn.com (remove x's)

email me and I'll send you a copy.