(Original creator: lammersma)
These are the first lines I write in this new year, 2017. I want to start with wishing you all a very good and successful year. How strange is it. On New Year’s Eve we look back, while on New Year’s day we make plans and start with our New Year’s resolutions.
Some things will start, some have ended and some continue. For most of us, Uniface is one of those continuing. As I wrote before, sometimes I wonder how long it shall. But on the other hand, why care. There are thousands of software development tools. Most of them are bigger (whatever that may be) and perhaps some better than our beloved Uniface. The concept of programming is, from a certain point of view, always the same. Sure, you need to learn. You quit being a Uniface senior to become a junior in something else. You will enter a whole new world, with new and probably many young software developers. And between these hipsters you are the oldest junior they have ever seen. Wow, interesting, isn’t it? Your New Year’s resolution can be becoming a junior again!
In a previous blog I’d bet you a beer. I wrote about this company where I once worked. They tried several software development platforms. Maybe they found something else more tempting. Eventually they did choose Uniface. You did not expect that, did you! To be honest it was a close call. Right on time Uniface invited the management for a lab visit in Amsterdam. Uniface product management listened and that did some amazing magic.
But software development isn’t about magic. No fairy tale with software generating magicians. We all know that. It’s just hard work. One of the most heard complaints is the lack of standard components or add-ons in Uniface. The management of the mentioned organisation also asked this to the Uniface product management. Why do we need to build everything by our self? Why can’t we download standard solutions instead of building them?
The answer is simple: just because...
- Your problem is unique, no one ever had it before
- It’s been built, but the solution is too specific
- Or the solution is built in a previous Uniface version (what the f…, Uniface is upward compatible!)
- Or the quality is poor, there is no documentation, there is no source code available or someone wants money for it (and you believe software should be free)
- Someone built it before, but did not share it with you.
Is this a problem? Yes, it is. Can we fix it? Yes, we can. And I believe it’s simple. Whenever you think ‘Hey, why can’t I just find this on the web?’, do the following:
- Look once again, perhaps it is somewhere around
- Design the most generic solution
- Build it
- Test it
- Write some documentation
- And…. share it.
Maybe it’s a good New Year’s resolution. Emphasize your Uniface seniority and build to share. How? Where? Who? After reading all of the reactions on my previous posts I have a plan. I am working on it and I’ll explain it to you in the next posting. Happy new year!!!!