I am a happy user of Adminsoft. But for my needs it still could use dozens of things. This is not a reflection on Mike, just that accounting software is a massive project. We need better invoice layout control, deposit management, US payroll, different printer selection control, sub-accounts, and more.

So mike, let us help. I think everybody would agree you deserve any money that comes from sales or ad revenue, but open the source and allow others to contribute under your control. Open source completely, or just to those you select, and I can easily set the whole thing up or show you how to do it. You can retain all control over accepted or rejected ideas and changes. Even if you accept an idea you retain control over whether the resulting code is up to your standards.

I know source code is a multi-year labor of love and the product of many man hours of effort. But by opening up this awsesome product even just a bit, you will get the additional man-hours to expand it further. open source does not have to mean free, should you ever decide to charge, and it does not even have to mean everyone gets the source code. Could be compiled version free with ads, source not available for free but costs, or we could even do open source more in spirit than in actual GPL license.

I have worked with every accounting company in xBase, AccountMate, SBT, etc., and what always hurts them is the manpower required to keep going with an accounting system is very high. But I am committed to a good system in VFP, and others are as well.

Thanks.

Tuvia

.

So how can we convince Mike? I wish he would respond here.

Lots of good things going on with this
program . You can tell a LOT of work went
into it, not an easy thing.. Still prity weak on
the banking side . Would like to see at least
something on the check reconsiliation side.
Would also be nice to be able to transfer info
from one to anouther as in a field tech imputting
his daily invoices into the system without having
to rewrite everything...As far as payroll not a big
thing.. BUT then I have only been checking this
out for a few days , maybe I'm just missing some
things, anyway GOOD JOB. Keep up the good work.

Dont forget to remember
Tish
Seattle WA USA

Mike,

I knew you were lurking around . . . .<s>

You do not want more than me and johnain responding. As a senior VFP developer from the original Foxbase days who has worked from everyone from IBM to Joe's Grocery, read on and allow me to elaborate. . . .

I hear you loud and clear, and I can imagine it seems daunting. But to those of us who have worked with collaborative projects, your needs are all easily solved. On the one hand you want to add all kinds of features, on the other hand you also need time for marketing, and on the other hand . . . .

Your three issues can be handled easily and thus: Source code security is easily managed with any of the collaborative tools. SourceOffSite, MS Teamviewer, all can manage that. In addition, you do not start with 100 programmers, even if there were 100 programmers interested. You start with 1 or 2. Source code theft, interestly enough, has been shown in studies to be inversely proportional to how tight the system is closed to outside input. Nobody is going to steal source code and try and compete against you; doesn't happen, especially not in a VFP platform. But I would bet money there are users who have hacked in and added the features they wanted themselves. You have _less_ control now.

The look and feel is even easier to handle. I do not know about johnnain, but developers such as myself are used to collaborative projects with an established look and feel. This is not open season for any and sundry people who read a VFP book and want to sign up. It would be restricted to seasoned pros, and they will never stray from the look and feel.

As for losing control, that is an understandable fear. This is a long time labor of love. But getting some help does not mean losing control; you can easily assign tasks, modules, etc. The software exists for you to so easily do that, that it would add almost no overhead.

Your goals are contradictory. If you want more time to do all the things you desire, and you want to do all the programming yourself, you will never, ever be able to release all the modules and features you desire. While I am not advocating open source, we can still learn from how all these hundreds of little guys have taken on Microsoft et. al. and trounced them -- collaboration gives users what they want faster and more efficiently. If you add the payroll features you want, while you are doing that programming, you will not be able to also put in bank recs and deposits and sales orders. But you can if you are writing payroll and I am writing bank recs and F. Flinstone is writing something else -- all with the same look and feel.

IOW, you do the same amount of programming but get more done. Your concerns about getting too many programmers is simply not realistic unless you plan to add more than 5-10. I doubt you will end up with more than 2, maybe 3. In fact, if you got 3 I would be pretty shocked. Most projects generate initial interest, but it takes a certain type of developer experience to work in collaboration and be committed to a project that does not pay you anything. I was pleasantly surprised when johnnain replied.

Foxpro, more than most development platforms, was built to a success by a community of developers working together around the world. That same idea works on a smaller scale for a few guys who believe in the product.

You've got a great start here. I see companies I work with all the time comment bout how if it had all the standard accounting modules they would snap it up. i don't mean to sound impudent or ungrateful, but you are letting the fear of the unknown paralyze the growth of the product. At this current rate, people will not wait for what they want. Have some fun and do the programming you want, and let other crazy people as well help out, for free, so you can achieve your goals.

Good point. Mike does not realize that if somebody wanted to steal his source code they could do it in under 10 minutes quite easily. Maybe that is or protection should Mike ever go out of business, but even then it is unlikely he would grant permission for people mto take his source code.

Mike is way missing the boat, based on concerns that are either inaccurate, such as that people want to steal his source code if he made it easier, or just based on lack of knowledge and experience, i.e. how to manage additional programmers without taking time from his love of programming. It's unfortunate. He does not have any legitimate concerns that would prevent him from expanding the program if he wanted to. He will never have large adoption without basic things like bank reconciliation.

I already wrote a few things like that, and they access the data from the dbf files externally. But it is not practical to have tons of little programs external to the main program. He is really on to something here, he just doesn't know what to do and doesn't trust advice from people he does not know, even if they are well known in the Visual Foxpro and accounting community. Given the geographical distance, I am unlikely to run into him in person, and I am at a loss as to how to communicate these things to him in a way he will believe.

I have to agree with all the above about allowing other developers to join the project. I've looked around at OpenSource and GPL accounting systems (including Turbo Cash) and this is the best one I've seen. I think if you allowed other developers in you could probably give TurboCash a run for its money.

This is far easier software to use than TC which has to be a huge advantage.

If more people were involved in the project you might also find that there would be more people invoolved in promiting the finished product too.