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Today, a couple of application developers can turn around a decent piece of software for a BlackBerry or an iPhone in a weekend. <rant> Yeah, right. I thi

Today, a couple of application developers can turn around a decent piece of software for a BlackBerry or an iPhone in a weekend. <rant> Yeah, right. I think blanket statements like these are part of the reason many non-technical people think programming is an easy (& cheap) job, and their eyes spread wide when we tell them what it would take to implement their "awesome" idea. "Oh, I thought we could do this in a week .." </rant> Related - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/209170/how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-an-iphone-application/3926493#3926493 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/209170/how-much-does-it-c...

michaelchisari 16y ago
Thank you for that StackOverflow link. I can guarantee it'll come in handy when I'm trying to bring someone's expectations back to planet earth.
run4yourlives 16y ago
Amen to your rant. We do ourselves a collective disservice bragging all the time about how we can create million dollar software products in a weekend.
gaustin 16y ago
Regarding the stackoverflow link: I think it's telling that the accepted answer is the one the poster wanted to hear (i.e., a very optimistic estimate). I wonder how often such things happen on Q/A sites, and how often it ends up misguiding someone.
- d0mine 16y ago
  But to be fair: the votes on the accepted answer are minus 21 and the votes on the linked answer are plus 648. Democracy works in this case.
matwood 16y ago
I totally agree with your rant, and want to add more reasons :) First, saying that a couple of devs can turn around an application in a weekend completely ignores the years of software development experience required. Second, it ignores the the specific experience required to develop for an iPhone or BB. Finally, it ignores what type of software. I can code up a simply utility in a weekend for the iPhone, but it won't have any decent artwork or other niceties that people now expect out of iPhone software. If you look at something like Angry Birds you can see a fairly simple general concept that looks great and is executed perfectly. Something like that does NOT happen in a weekend.
wazoox 16y ago
Relates perfectly to the famous Picasso quote : "This doodle didn't take me 2 minutes, it was 60 years in the making."
derefr 16y ago
To put it another way—it would take a week of typing, not a week of programming. If the fresh source-code compiles, the software was made long ago.</allusion>

michaelchisari 16y ago

Thank you for that StackOverflow link. I can guarantee it'll come in handy when I'm trying to bring someone's expectations back to planet earth.

run4yourlives 16y ago

Amen to your rant. We do ourselves a collective disservice bragging all the time about how we can create million dollar software products in a weekend.

gaustin 16y ago

Regarding the stackoverflow link: I think it's telling that the accepted answer is the one the poster wanted to hear (i.e., a very optimistic estimate). I wonder how often such things happen on Q/A sites, and how often it ends up misguiding someone.

d0mine 16y ago
But to be fair: the votes on the accepted answer are minus 21 and the votes on the linked answer are plus 648. Democracy works in this case.

matwood 16y ago

I totally agree with your rant, and want to add more reasons :) First, saying that a couple of devs can turn around an application in a weekend completely ignores the years of software development experience required. Second, it ignores the the specific experience required to develop for an iPhone or BB. Finally, it ignores what type of software. I can code up a simply utility in a weekend for the iPhone, but it won't have any decent artwork or other niceties that people now expect out of iPhone software. If you look at something like Angry Birds you can see a fairly simple general concept that looks great and is executed perfectly. Something like that does NOT happen in a weekend.

wazoox 16y ago

Relates perfectly to the famous Picasso quote : "This doodle didn't take me 2 minutes, it was 60 years in the making."

derefr 16y ago

To put it another way—it would take a week of typing, not a week of programming. If the fresh source-code compiles, the software was made long ago.</allusion>