More Pro Plans

We’ve decided not to use QT as a cross-platform development tool for Goldenseal Pro.   It means throwing out some working code that we’ve already paid for, but it won’t be the first time we’ve done that.

QT would let us have one code base that runs on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and even Linux.  That notion is extremely attractive, so this was a very difficult decision.  Unfortunately, QT has plenty of limitations and design flaws, and in sum they seem larger than the advantages it provides.  In the long run we’ll be better off with native code, even though it’s more work.

Over the past year we’ve relied on the judgement of subcontractors on how best to approach the Pro project, since we figured they had already done this kind of update.  That also turned out to be a mistake, and a big waste of time.

On the other hand, we don’t have any prior experience with Objective-C (for Mac) or the Windows libraries, and doing it all in house will be too slow.

So, we will spend a few months designing and writing the “core” of Goldenseal Pro.   Some of that will be in the platform-native languages, but most of it will be rewriting our base code to be more connectable to modern frameworks.  It will be a good way to spend the gray days of winter!

When that is done we will put it out to bid again, with a clearer set of specs, and a code base that is much easier to take over and manage.  We may even break it into smaller sub-projects, so work can proceed in parallel.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
Turtle Creek Software

Author: Dennis Kolva

Programming Director for Turtle Creek Software. Design & planning of accounting and estimating software.

2 thoughts on “More Pro Plans”

    1. That is a very good question. iOS and Android are designed for phones and pads, which have slower chips, and limited screen size, disk space and RAM. There is simply no way to fit a large desktop app into them. It’s the same reason you don’t see MS Office running on iOS.

      What we plan instead is small, single-purpose iOS and Android apps that ‘talk’ with the home desktop via a VPN over the Internet. That way you can prepare a quick estimate in the field, and get it into the system. Ditto for preparing a bill, entering expenses, etc.

      You can run the full Goldenseal in the field, but it will need to be on a laptop using regular Mac or Windows OS.

      D

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