RE: [PHP-DEV] Totally Blue Sky / beta testers?

Hi, > > Seriously, we could use a couple beta testers. I've been told I > > can accept 5 beta-testers. Benefits are that you can distribute > > your first project for free... Interested? > > *IF* I do not have to sign a non-compete, then count me in. If you > end up going the commercial route, then I will probably re-open my > efforts into making a GPL version, and I won't sign away that right. There will not be a non-compete thing or such. The only rule is that you don't use it commercially and that you will give us comments on what works, what doesn't, possible differences between a site on our app (which we dubbed 'localsite' for now) and on an actual webserver, anything else you notice that is either odd or good, and two-way communication to solve any issues that arise. > Small, amateur developers like me would be very unlikely to drop that > sort of cash unless the program was packed full of slick features > which made it invaluable. The competative product is Visual Basic > and I think that's <$100. I tend to look for shareware products in > the $40 and less arena. Our expected target audience is a developer/company that builds custom applications for clients. This means they can charge the extra costs directly to their client, and usually the project costs a whole lot more than that. Our company builds websites for clients (and more, but that isn't relevant here), but if our client wants a cd-rom application, we build a website and distribute it on cd-rom using our application to make it work in a standalone environment. Added-value here is that there is only one development project for cd-rom and internet, as you can use the exact same php-pages on both. So if a company wants both cd and www, the project costs significantly less if you only have one development route. This means the competative product is not visual basic, at least not in this area. If you just use it to make some windows applications, vb would probably make a better tool... On the other hand, we didn't really think about amateur developers (or shareware developers or the like) who create simple applications. Since we have a project-based background, that was our first thought. But then, our plans to create a project-based licensing scheme would probably be no good to a shareware developer either, they just want to buy it once and then use it whenever possible (at least, this is what I would do). I'll discuss it here, and we'll see what emerges :-) > Corporations would have no problem spending that sort of money, but > they also tend to hire professional programmers who would not be > daunted by the challenges of programming Windows in VC++. But then, a VC++ (or VB) project cannot be put on a webserver, which is where a php-application has the edge... About the beta, I'll create a package tomorrow or early next week and mail it to you, ok? (about 100k zipped). Cheerio, Marc.