ano@blake.acs.washington.edu (John Michael Ano) (08/04/89)
First of all, to those individuals who responded to my post about memory
management and data structures, thank you very much for your comments and
suggestions. In a few days, I'll post a summary which might prove useful
to first-time app'ers like myself. But now I ask you seasoned programmers:
How long did you take to write your first full Windows
application?
By "full Windows application" I mean an application similar in magnitude to
Write or Paint. If you are willing to divulge such information, also
approximate how much $$$ was invested in this project. This would include
pay (if applicable:->), hardware and software expenses, and whatever you might
think applicable toward the development of that first app. If you were part
of a development team, I'd like to hear from you too. Also say whether or not
you did this app commercially or for academic purposes.
There are several reasons why I ask these questions. Just last night, a
friend mentioned that Mac developers typically take a year to a year-and-a
half and about 40K-57K dollars to get through their first app. I'd like
to compare and contrast that with Windows developers.
As a graduate student, I was asked to write some tools for a special lab
in our department which was partially funded by IBM for the specific purpose
of working with GUI's (guess which one..). As time progressed I became
increasingly and painfully aware that my department was not well-suited as
a software development environment. This sounds obvious, but the project
demanded a finished product, so here I am...
Do you think that Windows app development should be left to professional
developers, or is there something to be gained by having universities
write their own Windows software in-house? There is much to be said on this
topic and I leave it open for discussion. As for the question of "how long
and how much," I would appreciate replies e-mailed directly to me. I will
post a summary next week along with a summary of the memory management posts.
John Ano
Department of Psychology, NI-25
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
email to : ano@blake.acs.washington.edu