As I putter away...

[swestrup]

Still doing vast amounts of data entry for taxlady. While so engaged my brain doesn't have a lot to occupy me, so I've been mentally re-engineering the Quickbooks program I'm using to enter the data.

Its actually not a bad program, but it could be far smaller, far more general, and simultaneously more powerful and easy to use. The key is the recognition that what it is doing is essentially performing general spreadsheet-type calculations (with some minor constraint propagation) over a large number of cells that are imbedded in pretty forms and stored in a database. They have specialized forms for all sorts of things, when what they should have is a completely general engine and a way to build and edit custom forms and to explain the relationships between the cells, just like you can do in a spreadsheet.

The resulting program would be more flexible, more customizable, easier to maintain, and could support such things as activity templates so that when I am entering all the mileage for a vehicle, I don't have to keep telling it that yes, its for the same damn vehicle as the last 400 entries...

Given such an underlaying engine, one could also build the ultimate spreadsheet, which I'm still surprised no one has written. (I designed it when VisiCalc first came out, but I assumed it was an obvoius progression and it would soon arrive. It never has.) One could also make a day-timer style calendar, contacts list, appointment minder, etc database as well.

I wonder if I could turn this idea into a money-making project?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grey_knight/]

Nah, most data entry people just want a set of simple forms to fill in, no thought required. No design required either, because that requires thought...

As for the all in one ultimate spreadsheet, THAT I'm sure you could flog to Blackberry for an ungodly amount...

[swestrup]

Well, yes, most data entry folks are mindless drones, but many of the folks who use quickbooks are small businessmen who tend to ask questions like "Why do I always have to answer question 'X' on these forms, when my company doesn't DO that?"

My answer is that it should take a moments work to tweak the form so it no longer asks that question. That requires the forms be data objects, not code objects, and that implies that a form can be designed from scratch by the user. Most biz people wouldn't bother, but it would mean the program could be adapted to changing conditions as the business grew.

The final product would also be smaller, faster, and easier to maintain for the developers than Quickbooks is.

[sps.livejournal.com]

Huh. I thought it meant that the forms needed to be code objects, not data objects....

[swestrup]

Po-TAY-to, Po-TAH-to.

I suspect we are agreeing but using different terminology. What I meant was that the shape and fields of a form, and their relationships to each other should not be compiled in, but needed to be modifiable and storable independant of the main engine.

[sps.livejournal.com]

I know it.

And what I meant was that they need to be interpreted as input rather than being, um, little turds of passive output.

And you know that.

Have we known each other too long?

(Waves to the peanut gallery. You guys all knew it too, am I right?)

[sps.livejournal.com]

...Though I will say that anyone who says poTAHto should be osterised.

[capj.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of the story you told me of Reed Richards, who was shingling his roof and thinking of ways to improve it. Then he slipped and was hanging from the eaves, unable to stretch without giving away his identity. His wife showed up as The Invisible Woman and publicly "saved" him, giving him a lecture about not doing such dangerous activities since he's an elderly man (as he was disguised -- he kept his face stretched in a way to look different and older). Later she said, "Serves you right. You were going to do something to our roof, weren't you?"
Later I found the story and read it for myself. I since collected the entire John Byrne FF run, of which I originally only had the one issue in which Dr. Doom's body got blown up by the Silver Surfer fighting Terrax.

[swestrup]

Yes, I confess that I did see much of my own behaviour in that story.