Re: software help for a hardware guy..
- From: Tad McClellan <tadmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:11:50 -0500
crazydubi@xxxxxxxxx <crazydubi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am a hardware guy
That is curable, I used to be a hardware guy. :-)
Now I need to create a software tool for
The usual software development cycle is:
requirements specification
design
implementation (programming)
testing
deployment/maintenance
Any phase may require "backing up" to a previous phase when more
is learned about the task.
automatically creating code for one of our parts
If it requires human intervention, then it is only partially automated...
(and unfortunately we
don't have a software team.)
If you can't afford a lot of stumbling around and rework, you should
give serious consideration to hiring a SW contractor to handle it
for you.
I could go ahead and start hacking this
thing right away, but it would be great if I could get some advice to
point me in the right direction.
Most excellent!
You have already discoverd yourself that it is best to complete the
requirements and design phases before the programming phase. :-)
The program would be a four step process,
A "work flow".
where the each part affects
the menus and behavior of the following parts. Each step of the
process would have a pop up form that needs to be filled out.
It is hard to keep from inserting design elements while developing
the requirements, so you need to be on the lookout for that problem.
"menu" and "pop up" are design elements, not requirements, so you
are not ready for them yet.
Each step of the process needs to allow user input.
or some such.
Other requirements:
-Ability to save the process at any time to a setup file on the user's
hard-drive to continue later.
Does "any time" mean in the middle of a "step"? Or only between steps?
-The application should work as a standalone or as web based program.
-Should be platform independent.
All of engineering is trade-offs, so that much of your HW knowledge
applies to SW too.
If you specify that both ends of a trade-off go the "good" way,
your project is doomed to failure (or re-specification).
Those 2 requirements there really back you into a corner, making
it near impossible to comply.
It must work with Apache and IIS and Mac OS and Linux and Solaris
and Windows and Palm and cell phones?
I doubt it.
"platform independent" is marketing-speak not engineering.
That requirement is much too ambiguous to proceed...
Questions:
-Programming language to use? Java, html, perl, other?
HTML is not a programming language!
It is a markup language (thats what the "ML" in "HTML" stands for).
An important concept to keep clear in SW engineering is to not
confuse what is "code" (programs) from what is "data".
Java and Perl (not perl) are "code".
HTML is "data".
-Estimate of scope of project? I figure a week, but I could be way off.
I think you are way off. It could easily be a man-week just to get
to a workable specification (yours obviously has a ways to go).
--
Tad McClellan SGML consulting
tadmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Perl programming
Fort Worth, Texas
.
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