Yes. Mostly it boils down to the fun! --sm On Nov 19, 2012, at 5:41 PM, John Weinshel wrote:
> There may be some unnecessary over-reaction here. It seems to me you're > offering an honest description of what you want, which is a good thing in a > client (no, I'm not looking for work!). Few gigs show up perfectly aligned > the way the book says they should, and anyway, there is no book. > > One of Filemaker's great strengths is its ability, and that of its > developers, to tackle unorthodox projects. I suspect many developers on this > list have acted as a 'consultant'-- what the subject line says-- to clients > who want to do most of the work themselves, either to save money and/or > because it's fun; the consultant in turn has the luxury of being compensated > for their hard-won expertise while avoiding heavy lifting. It's true such an > arrangement can find many ways to go south, but so can well-mapped waterfall, > well-managaged Agile, and anything in between projects; with a good > client-consultant matchup, this could work out quite happily. > > I take Corn's point that there shouldn't be any substantive difference in the > quality of the work between someone working on their own or as part of a > shop. > > You might also try the Filemaker Experts list, which I believe is a bit > larger, as well as FMI's site (http://developer.filemaker.com/search/). > > Good luck, > > John Weinshel > Datagrace > Vashon Island, WA > (206) 463-1634 > Associate Member, Filemaker Business Alliance > Certified For Filemaker 12 > > > > From: "Steven J. Messner" <[email protected]> > Reply-To: FileMaker Pro Discussions <[email protected]> > Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:39:51 -0500 > To: <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Consultant > > I will keep your advice in mind. It's never a good idea to ignore a man with > strong opinions. (And it's never easy being thoroughly dressed down.) > --steve > On Nov 19, 2012, at 3:28 PM, [email protected] wrote: > >> >> >> From: "Steven J. Messner" <[email protected]> >> Reply-To: FileMaker Pro Discussions <[email protected]> >> Date: Monday, November 19, 2012 3:51 PM >> To: <[email protected]> >> Subject: Re: Consultant >> >> >>Point taken. Let's hope you're mistaken. Check back with me in a month and >> >>I'll let you know how it went. Or maybe I'll be forced to get in touch >> >>with you when disaster strikes. -:) >> >> Thanks, but I am retired; well, semi-retired. (This business is like the >> mob. You can never really get out.) >> >> That notwithstanding, there is no chance I would ever get involved in any >> job for any amount of money with these kinds of beginning requirements. >> >> Someone is blowing smoke up your dress, trying to sound like they know what >> they are talking about when they definitely DO NOT. Building a database >> simply doesn't work that way. What you describe as the "mundane tasks" are >> not mundane at all. Field definitions, navigation and scripting are the easy >> parts??? That is certainly news to me after nearly a quarter century in the >> DB business. And field definitions are not separate from building tables, >> they ARE the tables! A database is not something assembled from parts, some >> made here and others made there. It takes a real top notch project director >> to coordinate work done by multiple programmers so that it all fits together >> and works. There are maybe two dozen people in this business all together >> who can pull that off and clearly, none of them are in your employ. >> >> Now, as I said, I am semi-retired and have no dog in this fight. But if you >> are smart, you will fire whoever is giving you this extraordinarily bad >> advice, stop trying to tell developers how to correctly do the job they >> already know how to do, and let someone like Corn Walker or any of dozens of >> others on this list tell you the correct way to get where you want to go >> without being handcuffed by your roadmap. Not only will you get there >> faster, it will be much cheaper than doing it the wrong way over and over >> again. >> >> And BTW, if there is ANYTHING I know more about when it comes to FMP >> programming than just about anyone else in the business, it is navigation. >> See "AutoNavigator" under the products tab on our web site; I wrote the >> entire thing. Putting a high quality tab and navigation system into a >> database is supremely difficult: exactly the opposite of "mundane". >> >> It sounds like Mr. Walker might be willing to take the time to coax you >> along to a more wise and productive decision and, unlike this grouchy old >> geezer, do it more diplomatically. That would be one of the smartest >> decisions you ever made. >> >> >> David Kachel >> Foundation Database Systems >> Custom Software Developers >> >> Publishers of: >> >> "AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro™ " >> [An incredible time-saving tool for Developers - >> Build tab-sets up to seven levels deep, >> up to twenty layouts per level, 140 tabs per layout; >> thousands of layouts without writing a single line of code. >> To learn more, visit our web site (below).] >> >> "White Paper for FMP Novices" (a free download) >> "Database Design for FMP" (a free download) >> "Developer Storage" (a free download) >> "Universal Capitalizer" (a free download) >> "Universal Time Formatter" (a free download) >> >> email: [email protected] >> web site: http://www.foundationdbs.com >> ICQ: 308137637 >> Skype: DavidKachel >> iChat: [email protected] >> Yahoo Messenger: davidkachel >> >> Tel: (432) 386-2121 >
