Want to get into development

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

Soldato
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I have abit of development history, but most of it was back in uni about 4-5 years ago, I have done some web-developments and developments in VBScript in work since but nothing else really.

I want to start getting back in to it but want to make it benificial (financially) by setting myself maybe a 6-12 month project where I will then have a finished product.

Only thing I want to know is do you think it is possible to get a good gain if I come up with a good idea? How easy/hard do you think it would be to take this to the market on the internet?

I dont know what launguage I was going to do yet, but I want to develop and application that would be useful to to have and use rather than just for fun.

Any tips appriciated. Thanks
 
I would've thought the only significant financial benefit you'd gain would be from employment, unless you think of something absolutely ground breaking and have a top notch marketing strategy.

As for language I would personally go for c#, but that may not be the best option for you.
 
I agree with above.

Problem is not only do you have to think of a concept, you then have to see if it's a marketable product in terms of demand and the way it's presented then finance it. With so much freeware on the market nowadays it's not something I'd like to take on, but hey, you never know.
 
DJMK4 said:
Only thing I want to know is do you think it is possible to get a good gain if I come up with a good idea? How easy/hard do you think it would be to take this to the market on the internet?
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Very, very hard. You need a useful product which people will want enough to purchase and not "make do" with an inferior option, but you also need your product to be specific or obscure enough that it hasn't already been thought of and produced by a developer or team with more experience and/or resources.

I'm not saying such projects aren't out there to be thought of - of course they are - but for someone looking for a hobby project and with little experience of modern programming languages and frameworks, I think it's very ambitious.

Start off with hobby projects to familiarise yourself with a language, and go from there!
 
DJMK4 said:
OK, What about for experience, something to do, learning project, maybe small dollars :)
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Get a project first, then pick a suitable language to learn and develop in (this will take research if you're not familiar with the options). Forget about the money for the first couple of months and focus on building a good "product" using solid software development techniques.

There is so much free software available now, selling your products can be really, really difficult :(
 
Will do :)

Thanks all, so c# you recon is ok? iv done c++ in uni but was a while ago. havnt touched it since.
 
If you have a good idea and get it into the market at the right time you're pretty much good to go as a Micro-ISV (shareware). Providing you can implement your ideas that is.

I did this in in 1999-2001 and made quite a packet. Been trying to come up with ideas ever since but nothing. Everything I come up with has either been done before to some degree or I just don't have enough time to implement the idea. I will do it again some day though. If you put enough time into it you can actually beat existing market players at their own game.
 
Maybe you should look at the whole Apps market and look into developing something for a mobile platform which you can flog for a few quid. Granted it probably won't earn enough so you can leave your job and buy a yacht but it may provide a modest pub fund income.

But first you need to learn the development process and the basics of an object orientated language like C# or Java (i would recommend Java for 1 reason in your situation, theres plenty of platforms it can run on although i do like C#).

I personally like looking into small projects like Windows Sidebar/gadget apps, a simple mobile app or a plugin for a dev tool i use a lot. I think its better to not aim too big to start with and just make something thats useful and well polished. Especially if you ever look for a job you can say this is what i made.
 
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