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Pricing Opinion

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    Pricing Opinion

    Feedback??

    I don't mind paying 3-400 for a program to make a program. I dont min paying a few bucks to people who have established a good set of UDF's or other files I can use. I don't mind paying a few dollars (say $100) for a second person to help me with a project. I don't mind paying for a third or fourth, but do believe it should be on a per node basis. Very few small companies (Alpha type users) will use more than a few people, and most will have only one main programmer, if that.

    I dont mind paying a few bucks for run time(say 1-200.00) and then a few bucks for each add on node(say 100.00 per). I think that is fair. Most of the companies I have dealt with only have 1-3 computers, and it is hard for them to come up with money to get one going right. Yes there are a few out there with over 50 puters running, but most in tat range have their own programmers. The tech support for 1 computer to 5 is very little more and the software is already written. Runtime projects are supported by the programmer anyhow, not Alpha.

    Is this making sense to anyone??

    I just figured out a while back that it was gonna cost me 1400.00(just to alpha) to set up a small company with a network. It only cost me 600 to do it with another product. It would have taken a shorter period of time with alpha, but the job was the same either way. I only ask that the field get flatter.

    It would be nice to be able to add the Alpha pricing packages up in my head. I have sold cars since '56 and can easily handle automotive math in my head.

    I am working on a set of UDF's for vehicle financing that includes apr, addon,, simple interest, precomputed simple interest, more tha 30 days to 1st payment, converters, taxes, doc stamps and more. Would anyone be interested?

    Thanks.
    Dave

    #2
    RE: Pricing Opinion

    Hi Dave,

    I say this with all due respect and with no hostility whatsoever. This whole thing on pricing has been beat to death when v.5 first came out. I'm not sure it would be productive to get people all worked up again, not that that is your intent. Your comments are fair and reasonable. I'm curious though, when you say you would pay some other developer $100, do you mean lump sum or hourly? I guess some developers would easily charge $100/hour. If you are saying lump sum, then I suppose you imagine someone spending about 1 to 1.5 hours to assist you, OR are you (perhaps very rightly) assuming that they have prebuilt functions, etc. that they might sell you outright with little or no tweaking?

    Respectfully,
    Peter
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


    Comment


      #3
      RE: Pricing Opinion

      Peter,

      There are developers out there who have written UDF's(Functions) for jobs that they have done and have thme laying around with no further purpose to them that could make someone else's life easier. Why not get a small renumeration for that spent effort? One must also assume it is easier to pay a few dollars for already written material than to rewrite it.

      I am having to write some UDF's for a job right now. I am getting paid for that time. I am not selling my functions in the package. I still own my work. After, I have it done and debugged, could it make your or someone else's life easier? Would a set of 6-8 really good Functions be worth a 100.00? That is the final question. My answer is a definite YES if I need them.

      In most Languages there are packages you can buy for almost any purpose, if you look around for it. I am not proprosing anything knew. I am not proposing anything really.

      Our beating the pricing thing to death seemed to have no effect. I hope the money GURUS at Alpha make it right somewhere down the road. ENOUGH SAID about the pricing.

      Thanks
      Dave


      Comment


        #4
        RE: Pricing Opinion

        Thanks for your explanation, David.

        Peter
        Peter
        AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

        [email protected]
        https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


        Comment


          #5
          RE: Pricing Opinion

          Dave (and others),

          If you look back a few issues in the newsletter, there was a questionnaire about creating an AlphaBay for selling things like UDFs. There was also a follow-up about the results of the questionnaire and I know they are working on getting the site set up.

          As I recall, the site is being set up to advertise existing addins, functions, etc. or for users to enter requests for things they need or would like to see.

          I suspect most submissions will be in the form of addins.

          Personally, I have a couple ready and waiting. One does a standard Data or App backup without any need for going to the control panel, the second is a Lister adding that works with A5_Doc, and the other - I think developers will love this one; I certainly do - will format layout objects in groups such as selecting all objects on the form and changing the text from Times Roman to Arial without affecting the font size, bold, underline, color, etc. You can even highlight everything (or a group of objects) then do all the following at one time: change the font of all fields without changing text objects (or vice versa or both at once), add a color equation, set vertical position to 'middle', make sure 'hide' is turned off, turn word-wrap on, set date format, set character format, set number format, set logical format, and a few others although I'm confused enough by now to have lost track of what I'm doing.

          I often use the backup routines just to protect myself when making changes to an app or to data because it beats the heck out of asking somebody on the other side of the country to restore some data from their network backup (which they probably don't know how to use anyway) because it accidently got ruined!

          If anyone is interested now, there is more info on my website at www.aimsdc.net/programs.htm

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Pricing Opinion

            Cal and?,

            I do believe thinkgs like this are a plus for any language like Alpha. It enhances the whole customer base to get things done that they may never get done with only tech support or reading books. Everybody has different ideas and abilities to share and should get rightfully paid for their efforts if the output is usable.

            I have web space available if necesary and would let someone use it for free to get a "Alphabay" started. It would be better if Alpha did it, but may not be in their best interest for leagal issues and so on.

            Thanks
            Dave

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Pricing Opinion

              I believe Alpha is providing the server space but AlphaBay itself will only be an 'advertising location'. Any purchases will be handled strictly between the buyer and developer. (Price is up to each individual so it could be anything from $0 to $????)

              I keep hearing things like, "I'd buy something like this if..." but I would like to start hearing, "Yeah, I've got (or will build) a really neat addin to do xxxx that I can post on AlphaBay."

              I think the site has the possibility to provide a lot of good stuff for all of us. Although I don't think anyone will make their fortune this way, it would be a good way to get a few $$ for yourself while providing some valuable benefits to other users.

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Pricing Opinion

                Cal,

                Sounds as if we are on the same page.

                I did C, c++, VB, Basic and Clipper before and a few others as a have to and most of these languages had lots of side products available to the programmer. With Clipper, you could get about any Function(s) you wanted.

                VB today has all kinds of stuff available to do just about anything if you rather pay than do it yourself. We purchased a side product for VB that would have taken us over 100 labor hours to get right and it cost us only 185.00. That's a bargain, not to mention the actual time saved that caught our behind project up to date. This had to do with a communication module to send files and do registrations over the phone lines.

                Thanks
                Dave

                Comment

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