[thelist] What's a Programmer To Do?

[Hassan Schroeder]

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 5:19 PM, Martin Burns <martin at easyweb.co.uk> wrote:

>> Uh, "billing you more"? What? Where does that come from?
>
> Which is quicker: write a (eg) login system from scratch, or take one
> off the shelf?

Uh, one more time -- what in the heck does that have to do with
"billing you more"?? Revenue models, technology choices -- not
the same.

> Which is more likely to be mature: the system that you've knocked up
> in a few days, or the one that's had thousands of days, and hundreds
> of implementations behind it?

Yeah. Matt's FormMail. Everyone uses it, must be good.

Security through popularity. Excellent. We'll be here all week. Tip
your wait staff generously, please, and try the veal.

> Where's your time better spent: understanding the client and doing
> customisations to a system that's 80+% there already, or building bog-
> standard functionality from scratch?

You know something that's "80%+ there already" for the needs of my
clients? I had no idea you were on such good terms with my clients. :-)

-- 
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder at gmail.com