RE: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
I wonder how many copies of that damned mini-calculator and the job-watch thingies are hiding on people's (hard) discs then ? H . Regards, the 'Mighty' Dunbar. - Norman Dunbar Database/Unix administrator Lynx Financial Systems Ltd. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 0113 289 6265 Fax: 0113 289 3146 URL: http://www.Lynx-FS.com - -Original Message- From: Geoff Wicks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 8:32 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House I now know that it was the words of the Mighty Dunbar incorporated in PEK that put me on the EasyPTR trail. The thought overwhelms me. I shall have to sit down and rest. This email is intended only for the use of the addressees named above and may be confidential or legally privileged. If you are not an addressee you must not read it and must not use any information contained in it, nor copy it, nor inform any person other than Lynx Financial Systems or the addressees of its existence or contents. If you have received this email and are not a named addressee, please delete it and notify the Lynx Financial Systems IT Department on 0113 2892990.
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
- Original Message - From: Roy Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House > I have always given PEK (Pointer Environment Kit) away for free with > Easyptr. I do not think I have ever sold a copy of QPTR. > -- Indeed it all comes back. That's how I started to write pointer programs. Roy kept nagging me and sending me things like PEK until I could resist his demands no longer. Prior to that I had bought QPTR, but like practically eveyone else I could not understand it. It was the first thing I ever bought from Jochen Merz and, in spite of that, he has been taking money off me ever since. I now know that it was the words of the Mighty Dunbar incorporated in PEK that put me on the EasyPTR trail. The thought overwhelms me. I shall have to sit down and rest. Geoff Wicks
RE: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
Roy wrote : >> I have always given PEK (Pointer Environment Kit) away for free with >> Easyptr. I do not think I have ever sold a copy of QPTR. I do believe that the author of PEK requested, and was given, permission to include my Easy Ptr tutorial in the PEK distribution. :o) Ha Ha, fame at last . Regards, Norman. - Norman Dunbar Database/Unix administrator Lynx Financial Systems Ltd. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 0113 289 6265 Fax: 0113 289 3146 URL: http://www.Lynx-FS.com - -Original Message- From: Roy Wood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 12:23 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House -- Roy Wood Q Branch, 20 Locks Hill Portslade. Sussex. BN41 2LB. UK Tel : +44 (0)1273 386030 Fax : +44 (0)1273 430501 (New number!) Mobile +44(0)7836 745501 Web : www.qbranch.demon.co.uk This email is intended only for the use of the addressees named above and may be confidential or legally privileged. If you are not an addressee you must not read it and must not use any information contained in it, nor copy it, nor inform any person other than Lynx Financial Systems or the addressees of its existence or contents. If you have received this email and are not a named addressee, please delete it and notify the Lynx Financial Systems IT Department on 0113 2892990.
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
> >> QLib/EasyPTR allows you to make some professional looking programs. It's > >> just a pity that the latter is such a b*gg*r to learn. > > Have you seen the (excellent) tutorial that was published in Quanta and I > think is available on Dilwyn's web site, on using EasyPTR ? > I thoroughly recommend it :o) Yes, on my site - goto QL documentation page, scroll down to 'articles' section and you'll find a 250K-ish download of the said "(excellent) tutorial" there, written by said Mr Dunbar Anyone unhappy with such large downloads can also get it on disk from my PD library service. Easyptr needs a little knowledge of both pointer environment and superbasic or sbasic programming in general. I'd suggest reading something like Mr Dunbar's other excellent guide, the PE Idiot's Guide first (learn the basics, PE terminology etc), then work your way through the Easyptr guide. Easyptr is not bad at explaining itself, but the concepts are not too brilliantly explained. When I first tried getting into it, terms like "primary window", "secondary window", "application sub-window menu", "blobs", "dynamic sprites", "append", all the different extensions files (easymen, easybmen, easymenr, easybmenr, ptrmen, ptrmenr) and the different ways of calling menus in interpreted and compiled programs, "events", "bars", "outline", "hierarchy", "pointer request", "sleep", "wake",. That will either have put you off or encouraged you to seek out the Easyptr Tutorial. I hope it's the latter, because the latter does have a key by key account of building a simple program from scratch. Without it, I doubt I'd have mastered it. I think Roy and Jochen could probably do the QL world a favour by bundling the tutorial in with Easyptr sales in the same way as a QPAC2 guide was thrown in with sales of QPAC2 at one time by QBranch IIRC. Certainly, back in DJC days, the littlee pointer environment guide leaflet I threw in with QPAC2 sales overnight killed the initial help requests since it provided that very basic bridge between those with no experience of QPAC2 and the QPAC2 manual which is not really meant ot be the best ever beginners guide. Don't think Norman was showing off about the Easyptr tutorial, it's a brilliant help to learning Easyptr. -- Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
RE: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
Morning Geoff, You wrote : >> QLib/EasyPTR allows you to make some professional looking programs. It's >> just a pity that the latter is such a b*gg*r to learn. Have you seen the (excellent) tutorial that was published in Quanta and I think is available on Dilwyn's web site, on using EasyPTR ? I thoroughly recommend it :o) Regards, Norman. - Norman Dunbar Database/Unix administrator Lynx Financial Systems Ltd. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 0113 289 6265 Fax: 0113 289 3146 URL: http://www.Lynx-FS.com - This email is intended only for the use of the addressees named above and may be confidential or legally privileged. If you are not an addressee you must not read it and must not use any information contained in it, nor copy it, nor inform any person other than Lynx Financial Systems or the addressees of its existence or contents. If you have received this email and are not a named addressee, please delete it and notify the Lynx Financial Systems IT Department on 0113 2892990.
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
- Original Message - From: P Witte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House > > George Gwilt writes: > > > > I have had some useful feedback from Geoff Wicks but from few others (if > > any!). Anyone who has suggestions that can be implemented will probably > find > > these incorporated in an update. Nice to hear that George appreciated my comments, and I can certainly testify from the experience that George listens to feedback and tries to incorporate your ideas in his work. At the time I did not feel that I was a particularly good QPTR tester as too many other things, including Just Words! development came in the way. This is all part of the problem. Most QL users are busy with their day jobs and other things and there is little time to give others feedback. (This also happens in the none QL world.) After a busy work period I am trying to catch up with a Just Words! backlog to get a new program out by the end of the month, and that means that a reply to an email from Al Boehm about pincodes and investigating possible QTYP bugs with Dietrich Buder get further delayed. I still have to look at a suggestion for Style-Check that Roy Wood emailed me over a year ago! > > Will this lead to a flood of new ideas? I find the best way to come up with new ideas is to get people talking at shows. Spelling-Crib was conceived in this way, as were a lot of changes to QL-2-PC Transfer. I am hoping to release another new product in the Autumn that from conversations at shows I think may interest some people. (However I am seriously behind schedule on that product.) I think we have to be realistic. We are unlikely to get any new major applications unless we can find some benefactor who would fund a programmer to write them. However less ambitious products are still possible and viable. With some products, such as QL-Rhymes, I say "If I sell ten I shall be happy. If I sell twenty I shall be ecstatic." (And I am very near to being happy. Ecstacy must wait!) Per wrote: > I did have a look at TurboPTR in the early days. But the problem for me is I > dont get on with Turbo! It wont compile anything Ive written these last ten > years without a complete re-design, which is why I gave it up in the first > place. > > I think it is great that you have taken on Turbo development. I download > every new version to keep an eye on how things are moving. A lot has been > achieved already. Its also the only S*Basic compiler thats going anywhere. > By writing TurboPTR you have made possible using Turbo in modern programs > and applications. > > For me personally, Ive had to make a choice and that choice is (at present) > QLib/EasyPTR. I very much hope though that there are enough others out there > to support you - practially, or at the very least by letting you know that > they do! For now, all I can offer is my appreciation. > This is similar to my experience. I spent a lot of time designing a house style for Just Words! and that would not be easy to transfer to Turbo. My main quibble with Turbo is that you cannot build machine code routines into a program in the way that is possible using REM $$asmb in Q-Liberator. QLib/EasyPTR allows you to make some professional looking programs. It's just a pity that the latter is such a b*gg*r to learn. TurboPTR is worth looking at as an alternative. Geoff Wicks
RE: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
George Gwilt writes: > TurboPTR, available from the SQLUG website and from Dilwyn's, is intended to > allow programmers to use SuperBASIC to write PE programs. This system also > allows these programs to be compiled by Turbo, which considerably speeds them > up. > > I have had some useful feedback from Geoff Wicks but from few others (if > any!). Anyone who has suggestions that can be implemented will probably find > these incorporated in an update. I have yet to try out TurboPTR on the ground of not having enough time to do anything recently. I do intenmd to have a look at it and try it out when I do have some spare (!) time though. I always preferred Turbo to Qlib but Qlib allowed me to use the PE. Now that TurboPTR has arrived, I can hopefully do some work with it. > > Will this produce a flood of ideas? > Time will tell, but I suspect not too many :o) > Incidentally I recently took a course in VB partly to see how similar it was > to TurboPTR and found the latter much more modest though along the same lines > as VB. Some of the VB possibilities have been added to TurboPTR already. Last time I used VB was version 3, but when Delphi came along, I swithched over and never went back. VB is just too clunky with all its different versions of runtime dll files. Of course, now M$ build them into the OS, so everyone has them (as it does with its C runtimes) and then blags about hos much smaller their C and VB programs compile down to that other compilers manage. Another lie ! VB was good in its hey day, at least at V3, but I can't comment on advances since then. Will we be seeing TurboVB in the future :o) Regards, Norman. - Norman Dunbar Database/Unix administrator Lynx Financial Systems Ltd. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 0113 289 6265 Fax: 0113 289 3146 URL: http://www.Lynx-FS.com - This email is intended only for the use of the addressees named above and may be confidential or legally privileged. If you are not an addressee you must not read it and must not use any information contained in it, nor copy it, nor inform any person other than Lynx Financial Systems or the addressees of its existence or contents. If you have received this email and are not a named addressee, please delete it and notify the Lynx Financial Systems IT Department on 0113 2892990.
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
George Gwilt writes: > TurboPTR, available from the SQLUG website and from Dilwyn's, is intended to > allow programmers to use SuperBASIC to write PE programs. This system also > allows these programs to be compiled by Turbo, which considerably speeds them > up. > > I have had some useful feedback from Geoff Wicks but from few others (if > any!). Anyone who has suggestions that can be implemented will probably find > these incorporated in an update. > > Will this produce a flood of ideas? > > Incidentally I recently took a course in VB partly to see how similar it was > to TurboPTR and found the latter much more modest though along the same lines > as VB. Some of the VB possibilities have been added to TurboPTR already. I did have a look at TurboPTR in the early days. But the problem for me is I dont get on with Turbo! It wont compile anything Ive written these last ten years without a complete re-design, which is why I gave it up in the first place. I think it is great that you have taken on Turbo development. I download every new version to keep an eye on how things are moving. A lot has been achieved already. Its also the only S*Basic compiler thats going anywhere. By writing TurboPTR you have made possible using Turbo in modern programs and applications. For me personally, Ive had to make a choice and that choice is (at present) QLib/EasyPTR. I very much hope though that there are enough others out there to support you - practially, or at the very least by letting you know that they do! For now, all I can offer is my appreciation. Per
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
In a message dated 11/06/02 09:58:45 GMT Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I think that to start the ball rolling, we need someone to take on the reins of easyptr - bring this up to date and possibly enhance it to create the bare bones of a SuperBASIC procedures to call the menus at least and cater with standard functions in menus, similar to how Visual Basic on the PC does things. This is surely not that a difficult task, as many users of the program will already have fairly standard PROCedures/FuNctions which they start of with... I have a library of ones which I have were based on the original series in Quanta on how to program EasyPtr and I have used these to good effect to produce Q-Help, Q-Index and Q-Route fairly rapidly. Anyone willing to take this on?? TurboPTR, available from the SQLUG website and from Dilwyn's, is intended to allow programmers to use SuperBASIC to write PE programs. This system also allows these programs to be compiled by Turbo, which considerably speeds them up. I have had some useful feedback from Geoff Wicks but from few others (if any!). Anyone who has suggestions that can be implemented will probably find these incorporated in an update. Will this produce a flood of ideas? Incidentally I recently took a course in VB partly to see how similar it was to TurboPTR and found the latter much more modest though along the same lines as VB. Some of the VB possibilities have been added to TurboPTR already. George Gwilt
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
On Tue, 11 Jun 2002 at 04:55:56, wrote: (ref: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>) >I agree with per that we desparately need new full blown applications, >- Tarquin's web-browser and Jim's QdT are both heading in the right >direction and I hope that they will soon be released, whether as >commercial programs or public domain. We do however, need to also >encourage commercial development before the few software houses which >remain (Mine, JMS, QCelt and QBranch are about the only ones left >aren't they??) have to fold and cease to support the QL users that >still exist. I wonder if any of us can remember the last trading year >we actually made a profit!! ... and that is a very sad fact, considering the software house has the major advantage of their stock being low value (in materials). If a software house is struggling, then what future for hardware? I still stock all the products (bar Astracom and barcoder) I have ever sold, but am finding it increasingly difficult justifying buying more new parts. Probably I won't be buying more RomDisq memory chips, as they have a minimum order value of some £1500. I haven't added up my stock value, but my guess is that it is more in value than my turnover in the last 8 years. Just one example is the Q40 - not only did I make a whopping cash loss, but I still have maybe £300 worth of unused parts which seem no use to anyone. -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:252/67) +44(0)1442-828255 tony@.demon.co.uk http://www.firshman.demon.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
> > Software in the QL community has a much longer life than the Windows > >world, where using a program 2 years out-of-date is considered a sin. In my experience, the PC scene changes so radically in 2 years (not always for the better) that software stands little chance of still working 2 years on. Whereas change on the QL scene is more leisurely. Provided the author is still QLing or the sources are available it ain't long before anything out of date is updated if you ask nicely. The other thing I like about the QL is that the software generally does what you want of it and you are not swimming in overkill features you are unlikely to need and never get updated because nobody uses them enough to find they no longer work on this year's OS flavour! > I very much like JH programs - qtpi and qfax. QFAX in particular simply > works. I have used it 24hrs for longer than I care to recall, and have > not had one problem due to QFAX itself. Yes, I keep hearing nice things (really!) said about these programs. If Jonathan had made them commercial I'm sure he'd have earned a fortune by QL scene standards. But Jonathan believes strongly in freeware/GNU etc etc, to his credit. I've used many of his programs over the years, including wxqt2 which I use almost every day to transfer between Windoze and QPC2 (use that rather than DOS device in many cases just because wxqt2 translates the '.' and '_' separators in filenames and the menu system in wxqt2 is simple and excellent!) > There is a real virtue in simplicity from time to time. Indeed. Of the programs I have written over the years, the simple ones I consider fairly trivial (e.g. the little Sorter_Task program) are the ones I get most feedback on, probably because they are so simple you can fire them up and use them without reading any instructions even if you ai't used them for ages. -- Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
> It is surprising, that out of 164 subscribers to the list, there is only a > small percentage who appear in my customer database (excluding fellow > traders). There is a simple answer to this, which I worked out back in DJC days. The type of person who subscribes to this list on the whole (by no means everyone of course) is the generally self-sufficient tinkerer. For these types of people their only purchases would be (a) hardware (b) major software, in other words, increase their computing power or purchase something to add to their sulf-suffiency such as programming tools or simply somethng they need and don't have the time/resources to do it themselves. I quote myself as an example ;-) -- Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
In a message dated 11/06/02 01:42:10 GMT Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: What we need, I think, are new applications - and/or improvements to existing ones - and programs that address the fact that the world has changed considerably since the final collapse of the QL software market (approx 8-5 years ago, depending on how you reckon). There are lots of, mainly free, utilities out there: File finders, viewers, simple text editors, calculators, etc, etc, but very few real applications that justify so many utilities. Applications that people would like to use, and need to use, would lead to all kinds of spin-off effects as we would then need more drivers, tools and yes, utilities, which us wannabe programmers seem to enjoy producing. Applications, however, are not easy to produce: You need good programmers, or even teams of programmers, good tools, and last but not least, a market for them! A catch 22 situation. << CUT>> Sorry Rich, for hijacking your thread, but I do believe I have tried to respond to part of your question, at least, in a very general way. I can assure you all that if it had been possible for me to say all this in a few snappy sentences, I would have! I agree with per that we desparately need new full blown applications, - Tarquin's web-browser and Jim's QdT are both heading in the right direction and I hope that they will soon be released, whether as commercial programs or public domain. We do however, need to also encourage commercial development before the few software houses which remain (Mine, JMS, QCelt and QBranch are about the only ones left aren't they??) have to fold and cease to support the QL users that still exist. I wonder if any of us can remember the last trading year we actually made a profit!! I think that to start the ball rolling, we need someone to take on the reins of easyptr - bring this up to date and possibly enhance it to create the bare bones of a SuperBASIC procedures to call the menus at least and cater with standard functions in menus, similar to how Visual Basic on the PC does things. This is surely not that a difficult task, as many users of the program will already have fairly standard PROCedures/FuNctions which they start of with... I have a library of ones which I have were based on the original series in Quanta on how to program EasyPtr and I have used these to good effect to produce Q-Help, Q-Index and Q-Route fairly rapidly. Anyone willing to take this on?? Rich Mellor RWAP Software 7 Common Road, Kinsley, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF9 5JR TEL: 01977 614299 http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rwapsoftware
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 at 18:30:50, Timothy Swenson wrote: (ref: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>) > >I kind of jumped in the middle of this thread before I really read any >of the messages, so I'm sort of guessing a bit about the on going >conversation. I'm assuming that part of the discussion is about the >lack of new programs coming out for the QL, esp. commercial ones. > >One thing that I find that I like about the QL is that the software >that I've been using for almost 15 years is still useable. I still >find Quill to be a useful word processor, esp. since the Xchange >version is freeware and the command set is now engrained into my >fingers. Indeed yes. I often use Quill - because it is perfect for writing a simple text letter, which is often all one needs to do. Sarah (my wife) uses it exclusively (but on a PC (8-(# ) > Software in the QL community has a much longer life than the Windows >world, where using a program 2 years out-of-date is considered a sin. OK one gets vast number of features, but what percentage of them does one actually use regularly? The problem with upgrading all the time is that the new versions implement things differently, and have horrendous bugs. I very much like JH programs - qtpi and qfax. QFAX in particular simply works. I have used it 24hrs for longer than I care to recall, and have not had one problem due to QFAX itself. There is a real virtue in simplicity from time to time. -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:252/67) +44(0)1442-828255 tony@.demon.co.uk http://www.firshman.demon.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
I kind of jumped in the middle of this thread before I really read any of the messages, so I'm sort of guessing a bit about the on going conversation. I'm assuming that part of the discussion is about the lack of new programs coming out for the QL, esp. commercial ones. One thing that I find that I like about the QL is that the software that I've been using for almost 15 years is still useable. I still find Quill to be a useful word processor, esp. since the Xchange version is freeware and the command set is now engrained into my fingers. Software in the QL community has a much longer life than the Windows world, where using a program 2 years out-of-date is considered a sin. Tim Swenson
Re: [ql-users] Plight of a Software House
Rich Mellor writes: > I have just been having a look through the list of subscribers to this list <> > As for those others, what a software house, such as mine, needs to know is > why you are not customers. I appreciate that not everyone on this list > purchases commercial software, and certainly not the type of software I sell. > However, maybe there are some suggestions for other software which I should > be providing which would appeal to these people. > > ** Let us know - your software houses and authors all need feedback if > we are to survive in this market What we need, I think, are new applications - and/or improvements to existing ones - and programs that address the fact that the world has changed considerably since the final collapse of the QL software market (approx 8-5 years ago, depending on how you reckon). There are lots of, mainly free, utilities out there: File finders, viewers, simple text editors, calculators, etc, etc, but very few real applications that justify so many utilities. Applications that people would like to use, and need to use, would lead to all kinds of spin-off effects as we would then need more drivers, tools and yes, utilities, which us wannabe programmers seem to enjoy producing. Applications, however, are not easy to produce: You need good programmers, or even teams of programmers, good tools, and last but not least, a market for them! A catch 22 situation. I dont think we can ever expect to see anything like Corel Draw or Word or a video editing suit on the QL. But I do think there is a need for simpler applications that do a good job with a minimum of fuss, at a good turn of speed, and in a no-nonsense, stable environment, provided: They are of a high quality, well supported, non-mercenary, ingenious, superior. If we try to emulate Windoze or Linux or Mac we are going to end up being always dissatisfied, always feeling inferior and in a continuous state of terminal decline. My own feeling is that I dont really need, dont even want! 65k colored sprites, vector fonts, fade-out menus or scented icons. I dont mind 24 million colours in a drawing program or route-finder, or postscript fonts in (some) wordprocessors, but I feel I can live a full and wholesome life without all that where I dont need it. To achieve that, though, we need good tools. The standard of programming tools is totally inadequate, because Im not advocating that we remain in the dark age of floppies and monochrome and obscene commandline incantations. To me at least, even comparative to Windoze and Linux, SMSQ/E on QPC or Q60 is about sufficient for what I have spelt out above. Yes, there is work to do in those areas too, but the fact that there is no simple, standard way to knock up a main window with some buttons and a few menus is a major handicap. The lack of advanced structures and types in S*Basic also doesnt help. Sure, C is no doubt great, but it isnt "native" to the QL environment, at least not as it stands (though there are some good examples of programs that, probably through considerable effort, have managed to hide that fact. Ported programs invariably dont achieve an adequate degree of "nativeness" or integration, but may be acceptable where no other alternative exists). Good tools will make possible that even people who arent ace programmers, but that have good concepts or solutions and a certain amount of technical aptitude and discipline, can produce adequate applications. Now please dont think that this whole rant is merely to advertise my miserable little utility, FastFind, in the vain hope that I then can bask in the glory of the admiration of my peers! It is true that I did want to make a statement with it. It is a toy, vastly over-specified in comparison to any utilitarian merit it may have. Only if I were planning to sell thousands of copies would it justify the effort that went into producing it (and it will never be finished according to spec!) What I wanted was to demonstrate - to sketch, as it were - the sort of thing I should like to see in a "modern" QL program: It has icons, cascading menus, (some) colour, interactive window adjustment; employs advanced structures and non-Sbasic data types. It is run-time configurable and has multi-session memory functionality in some areas, re-usable dialogues, plug-in facilities for external programs (only partially implemented) an auto-installation program, etc, etc. Most of this is, unfortunately, written as one-offs whereas in fact a lot of it could have been be made up of pick'n mix, standard components that should reduce development time by 50-90%!. But such components are just not available; each programmer will have to write, and re-write, their own. What a waste of effort and resources! However, writing such components in a re-usable format is no trivial task; I know, Ive been wandering in that wilderness for years! It would take even an ace programmer such as our TT half a morning to write a halfway d
[ql-users] Plight of a Software House
I have just been having a look through the list of subscribers to this list (some of you will have received a personal email) and have been trying to update my own customer database. It is surprising, that out of 164 subscribers to the list, there is only a small percentage who appear in my customer database (excluding fellow traders). If you have purchased software from RWAP Services in the past and not received an email from me over the past couple of weeks, it may be that I do not have your email address in my database - could you please get in touch. As for those others, what a software house, such as mine, needs to know is why you are not customers. I appreciate that not everyone on this list purchases commercial software, and certainly not the type of software I sell. However, maybe there are some suggestions for other software which I should be providing which would appeal to these people. ** Let us know - your software houses and authors all need feedback if we are to survive in this market Kind Regards Rich Mellor RWAP Software 7 Common Road, Kinsley, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF9 5JR TEL: 01977 614299 http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rwapsoftware
