> I'm interested to find out how everyone handles clients'
> requests for source files.
this comes up here fairly frequently. some folks never give out
source, some charge extra for it and some always give it to the client
(after the final check is delivered & cashed of courst). personally I
have always given the client the source code. almost all of my clients
come back to me when they need modifications to the code. many
corporations insist on maving copies of the source as a prerequisite
to working with outside people. I have had a number of clients who
have come to me when they needed help with a project that needed to be
changed, and the original programmer was no longer available. if they
have the source that makes things reasonable. if not, I have to recode
the entire project & they are very very unhappy.
when I was a softw3are publisher, in a different life <grin>, I always
insisted in getting versions of the code as the project went along.
there was no way I was sell something that I was unable to fix if
necessary. I just don't see it being a big problem. but I am confident
that others may. once I had a project that was quite a long way along
and the programmer kept telling me they were going to send source, but
never did. they unexpectedly passed away & the code was tied up in the
estate. it was a real disaster for me. I decided I was never working
that way again. of course this was a worst-case-scenario, but one
which can certainly happen. put yourself n the client's shoes.
FWIW - I always make sure that the deal includes a clause in the
contract such that the client has a non-exclusive perpetual license to
the code. that way I can use stuff that I create in later projects. if
not then I say that I will take 3x as long to do a project because I
cannot use my existing code library since I have to recreate
especially for them! everyone backs off at this point. <grin>
hey, if you can get away with charging more for the source, more
power. I'll just bet that they won't keep coming back if you do.
hth
Al Hospers
CamberSoft, Inc.
al<at>cambersoft<dot>com
http://www.cambersoft.com
Shockwave and Director development, Lingo programming, CGI scripting.
A famous linguist once said:
"There is no language wherein a double
positive can form a negative."
YEAH, RIGHT
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