*pfft*, *pfft*, is this thing on?

So it's come to my attention that the whole app-a-week thing needs a little help. And far be it from me to say that Microsoft junkies are, you know, all talk and no go, because Dana sure beat hell out of that theory, but it looks like I'm all they can find. And I ain't your father's Microsoft man.

Dana here, I'll be writing in red from here on out. Sure, blue is more "jedi" like, but I'm not one to conform.

Welcome Michael!


Oh, sure, I used to do the Microsoft thing (back in the 80's when we had to carve our apps from stone and raw machine code, then hand-encode them on the toggle switches on Windows 3.1's front panel). In the 90's, though, I found paid employment in this new-fangled Internet thing, saw how comparatively easy it is to slap a form onto a browser from clean code on the server, and never looked back.

Well -- until I did, of course. I still run Windows on my desktop (some habits die hard) and I still do the occasional desktop coding work. Nowadays I usually use wxPython for GUI work, and for general hacking around on textually oriented or XML-based data, I love Perl, the original write-only language, whether I'm using it on Unix or Windows. I can sling that stuff out pretty quick. Maybe not an app a day (because let's face it, I'm not suicidal, plus I'm 40 years old with a family and my own business and can't spend hours a day coding these days) but I think maybe I can manage an app a week.

Oh -- another bit of disclosure. While I used to code daily for a living, in about 2002 the recession forced me to the realization that my management skillz suck. I was losing money fast because I don't know how to run a software consultancy sole proprietorship (in the 90's it was easy, people just threw money at me and I did stuff). Fortunately, my language skillz, unlike my management skillz, are pretty good. Over the course of the next couple of years, I built a technical translation business from scratch, and that's where my money comes from now. Which is a roundabout way of saying that if I disappear for a few days, it's because I'm working hard on a translation job with a tight deadline -- and they all have tight deadlines, let me tell you.

No problem, here at AnAppAWeek.com we're used to people disappearing!

But be that as it may, here I am. We'll see how long I last. I might actually turn my hand to this .NET stuff you young people keep talking about, but probably not. I'm not convinced it's good for more than flashy desktop toys. Not to mention that .NET may go away tomorrow and Microsoft would just grin at the look on your face. Python and Perl, though, are here to stay, and they're supported by more than just one monopolistic group of people.

Oh yeah, .NET may just go away tomorrow while Microsoft grins... That's as likely as the world abondoning Python. Don't be rediculous.

I've started noodling on a first weekly app, but unfortunately (true to form) the last week has been grueling from a translation work perspective. Interestingly, just today I wrote my own specialized text editor in wxPython. Tell me you can do that in .NET, and I may believe you, but probably not. I'll post details about the text editor as soon as I have time to write it up -- in the meantime, though, I have to use it to finish this translation job.

Aha! A challenge. Please, give details!

And on that note, I close. Dana, I think you're going to have a run for your money if you still want to say that Linux guys can't hack this Jedi thing.

I'll beleive it when I see it. So let me end this post by repeating myself. Linux guys can't handle AnAppADay. AnAppAWeek? Maybe... we'll see.