Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

A5 book for $80.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    A5 book for $80.

    OK, now that I've got your attention, here's the question:

    How many people would be willing to pay real money $50 MINIMUM and up to $100 for a good A5 book? That seems to be a pretty reasonable range based on the prices of other books. Taking into account the limited market for A5, this would actually be a bargain price.

    Here's why I'm asking the question... I once built a well cross-linked A5 Xbasic Help file just using copy and paste from the existing A5 data. (ie, I didn't have to think about the text - just cut-and-paste!) This took hundreds of hours but only about 6-8 people were interested enough to send me a 'donation' of at least $5 to encourage me to do more in the future. This tells me that people want a lot but won't be willing to pay what it costs. nbsp;I have built help files for some of my apps and can tell you that it takes about as much time to develop a good help file (or book) as it does to develop the program.

    Many have commented that they would like to see better documentation but what are your really willing to pay?

    #2
    RE: A5 book for $80.

    Hi Cal,

    And if you actually have to write the book, with plenty of examples, and clear, consise language, I know it takes even longer than that. I think it would take me all day just to write 1 good tip with explanations, much less an entire book (in fact it did when I wrote for Alpha Forum Magazine).

    As far as writing a book, I'd rather have my 3rd grade teacher scrape chalk across the blackboard, give birth (unlikely however), or set myself on fire(ouch)!

    I think at least 2000 copies would probably have to be sold to make a decent book worth an author's time.

    Just my thoughts,

    Ira
    Regards,

    Ira J. Perlow
    Computer Systems Design


    CSDA A5 Products
    New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
    CSDA Barcode Functions

    CSDA Code Utility
    CSDA Screen Capture


    Comment


      #3
      How about an online reference?

      In light of this situation, and the excellent support on this forum, would it make sense to develop a web based reference tool?

      Alpha Software can host it, and probably ought to mediate it. Folks on this board are making contributions to the Code Archive, how about a Reference forum. The mediation part is to cross reference comments. The latest upgrade to MYOB has an online reference. As a comment it sucks royally as the indexing is simply the letters A to Z. There is no search tool. But just because theirs sucks doesn't mean it is a bad idea... And once it has evolved for a while, perhaps it could be converted to a print version?

      Start by putting the existing reference books into HTML and see if they work...

      Just an idea.

      Comment


        #4
        RE: A5 book for $80.

        Cal,

        I have found that computer books run an average of $39.00 to $59.00 at the bookstore (somewhat less for bookclub editions). I'm not only willing to pay that kind of money, but have done so on several occasions.

        Years ago when I was training to become a professional artist, I asked my mentor what a work of art (sculpture in this case) was worth. You see, my college roommate and I had gotton into quite a discussion one night about this. He said that as a "true" artist money shouldn't matter as much as that someone who appreciiated the piece having it; I, on the other hand, said that if a viewer liked the piece, they should be willing to pay for it -- so I asked a practicing pro what he thought. Over the years, his answer has proved to be eminently pragmatic if not elegant: "A work of art is worth what someone will pay for it when you need the money."

        The real question in my mind, as a buyer, is: does the book cover what I need, in enough detail and with adequate examples to actually get me through at least one serious situation in whatever project I am working upon at the time I need it. If the answer is yes, then I buy it -- and, condsider it money well spent.

        Ira has a point: at about $10.00 to $20.00 a book, how many do you need to sell in order to make it worth your while? It's one reason I always stuck to articles; although that's probably going to change soon.

        As always, Cal, my best regards,

        Geoff Hollander

        Comment


          #5
          RE: A5 book for $80.

          Cal,

          I have found that computer books run an average of $39.00 to $59.00 at the bookstore (somewhat less for bookclub editions). I'm not only willing to pay that kind of money, but have done so on several occasions.

          Years ago when I was training to become a professional artist, I asked my mentor what a work of art (sculpture in this case) was worth. You see, my college roommate and I had gotton into quite a discussion one night about this. He said that as a "true" artist money shouldn't matter as much as that someone who appreciiated the piece having it; I, on the other hand, said that if a viewer liked the piece, they should be willing to pay for it -- so I asked a practicing pro what he thought. Over the years, his answer has proved to be eminently pragmatic if not elegant: "A work of art is worth what someone will pay for it when you need the money."

          The real question in my mind, as a buyer, is: does the book cover what I need, in enough detail and with adequate examples to actually get me through at least one serious situation in whatever project I am working upon at the time I need it. If the answer is yes, then I buy it -- and, condsider it money well spent.

          Ira has a point: at about $10.00 to $20.00 a book, how many do you need to sell in order to make it worth your while? It's one reason I always stuck to articles; although that's probably going to change soon.

          As always, Cal, my best regards,

          Geoff Hollander

          Comment


            #6
            RE: A5 book for $80.

            Ooops, sorry, didn't mean to post this twice...

            GH

            Comment


              #7
              RE: A5 book for $80.

              Cal,

              I would pay it. . . I have paid that much for other applications. The problem is just because it is a �book� or the cover contains words like �The Official Guide� does not guarantee the content of the publication is worth two cents. I have several books (using the word �books� loosely) that aren�t worth the paper they are printed on.

              I am very skeptical about parting with my money just because of a �cute� title or a lot of advertising hype. I have been burned many times paying for basically nothing. A good publication that saves me time and is easy to use is well worth $100.00 or even more. It is about content and ease of use - not the number of pages or the fact that the pages are bound together.


              John



              P.S. What was this �cross-linked A5 Xbasic Help file� you created? Sounds like the basis for a good reference.

              Comment


                #8
                RE: A5 book for $80.

                I should be glad of a book provided that the examples came on disk - i always make so many silly typo's when trying to copy scripts and programs from text.

                Peter

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: A5 book for $80.

                  Count me in. It's on the high end for books with wide circulation, but a well written, well indexed book, with lots of examples on CD would easily be worth twice that to me.

                  I wonder if a subscription model would make this feasible for an author? Updates to the text could be released as the product evolves?

                  -- tom

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: A5 book for $80.

                    I think that a well-written book would be good not just for us to get instruction from, but would be great for the popularity of the software, which in turn, would be GREAT for us. Toward that end, I would think that many of us (at least I would) be willing to invest more than usual for just a good book. It's an investment in the success of Alpha.

                    Just a thought ...

                    Gary Traub
                    Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: A5 book for $80.

                      I would definitely be willing to pay $50 to $100 for well-written Alpha Five book. And I do believe that this book, if properly publicized, could have a significant impact upon Alpha Five sales.

                      -Tom

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: A5 book for $80.

                        OK. Maybe I exagerated (sp?) the cost a bit but then I have two girls in college and I'm used to the cost of college textbooks. I wish they were as cheap!

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: A5 book for $80.

                          Cal,
                          When you think about this group, most of us will pay reasonable prices for anything we can use to our advantage. Even the hobbiests among us are willing to fly/drive to get together for a weekend of Alpha training and then upgrade to V4.5 just to play with and will gladly upgrade to 5.0 with no profit motive in mind - just for the fun of it. As I see it, it's still cheaper than golf and wild parties. IOW, I'd gladly pay $50 to $100 to further my knowledge and enjoyment of database programming in general and Alpha 5 in particular even if I never use it for anything other than my own enjoyment.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            RE: A5 book for $80.

                            Cal,

                            One thing I think all of us would like to see is more books on developing
                            in A5.

                            Blessing on your head if you do.


                            Nick
                            dbd

                            Comment


                              #15
                              RE: A5 book for $80.

                              Ditto for me, Ohlen.
                              You hit the nail on the head, AFAIAC !!

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X