Application Development
While in general I suggest that organizations find the commercial application that best meets their needs, and then as far as possible conform to that way of doing business, not every requirement can be addressed in this way. Naturally, I'd be pleased to help determine your requirements, search for a commercial product, and finally help you integrate that product and train your users.
However, there are at least two classes of requirements that don't fit that bill. The first is that your needs are so unique that nothing except a custom product will do. The second class is the systems that no-one has bothered with commercially because the market is too small or the degree of flexibility required to fit all cases would swamp the product. Or maybe someone has met the need, but built in so many other needs that the product is unwieldy, too expensive or both.
I specialise in small MS Windows workgroup applications which can be produced economically. Although the database programs I write are scalable to larger products, I use MS Access, Paradox or other data engines in conjunction with a compiled program; a combination that does not require the user to obtain and maintain expensive per-seat database licences. While you may choose to get one copy of Access or Paradox for a data administrator to use, normally, for average data volumes, the basic product is not needed for data maintenance.
I have licenced commercial component add-ons that allow me to quickly develop applications with built in on-screen data sorting, filtering and reporting, and active drop-down lists that change as the user types, to reflect the choices that begin with what has been keyed so far.
As well as traditional application development. I can help with adding function to advanced spreadsheets or word-processing applications.
Where possible, I will charge by time while we document your requirements, and then provide a quotation for the actual development, based on a weighted functional count of the the specifics you have asked for. (That means: I hope my guess is pretty good.) If I am learning something new, I'm doing it on my dime, not yours.
If you have any questions about how I might be able to help you, please feel free to contact me by phone or e-mail.
| Software Tools | Delphi, Access, Paradox, Excel, PHP, mySQL |
| Technologies used | Relational database, object-oriented, event driven, RAD, Pascal, Quantum Grid |
| Specialties | Windows-based database applications for small groups; utility programs, Data-driven design |
| Locality | Typically, I communicate via email, and occasionally phone and this works fairly well for application development. For face to face contact, you'd need to be in Oakville or possibly Burlington or Milton. I tried commuting, and didn't like it. |
| Ideas | Documentation, Applications, Event Driven, Work Group, Quattro Pro, MS Access, Multi-User, Database, Data Edit, Objects, Paradox, Testing, Pascal, Delphi, dBase, Excel, Help, RAD, BDE, SAS, Components |