3 ms·

This is super cool, but I’d worry a lot about passing on the domain knowledge to somebody else without a dead-simple TUI/GUI. Eventually somebody else will need

This is super cool, but I’d worry a lot about passing on the domain knowledge to somebody else without a dead-simple TUI/GUI. Eventually somebody else will need to run things.

spicybright 6y ago
I'd also worry about bugs accidentally inserting bogus data into it. The author says he doesn't like spreadsheets because of all the copy and pasting, but I think that's a feature. You go over every calculation to make sure it's right, and once you have a template sheets to copy and paste for a monthly report or something, you're able to do a lot less of that. It can be hard to view a raw database to track issues down depending on how it's structured. Usually you need more than viewing tables as spread sheets at least.
asguy 6y ago
This reminds me of supermarket clerks running IBM 3270 apps one handed. As long as the UI is straight forward, it doesn’t need to be pretty or slick. It just needs to be second nature.
dm319 6y ago
Training I guess?
codemonkey-zeta 6y ago
Will this be software the author will ever have to pass on? I'd guess probably not, considering it's software for his small bakery. It's software directly tied to his identity - he's the sole consumers. That's exactly the kind of software emacs is great for, and precisely the kind of software "hacker" types use. He's not going to sell this as a "bakery management system" and become a software company, he's just going to bake bread. If he needs to share the _information_, then he can just print reports, that's ostensibly what the system is _for_.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- AlexCoventry 6y ago
  If he wants to grow beyond a single shop, he'll either need a standard entry format, or be prepared to compete for employees against enterprises which actually need a high degree of technical literacy.
  - redisman 6y ago
    A software engineer starting a bake shop doesn't exactly sound like someone looking for a "scalable" business.

This is super cool, but I’d worry a lot about passing on the domain knowledge to somebody else without a dead-simple TUI/GUI. Eventually somebody else will need to run things.

spicybright 6y ago

I'd also worry about bugs accidentally inserting bogus data into it. The author says he doesn't like spreadsheets because of all the copy and pasting, but I think that's a feature. You go over every calculation to make sure it's right, and once you have a template sheets to copy and paste for a monthly report or something, you're able to do a lot less of that. It can be hard to view a raw database to track issues down depending on how it's structured. Usually you need more than viewing tables as spread sheets at least.

asguy 6y ago

This reminds me of supermarket clerks running IBM 3270 apps one handed. As long as the UI is straight forward, it doesn’t need to be pretty or slick. It just needs to be second nature.

dm319 6y ago

Training I guess?

codemonkey-zeta 6y ago

Will this be software the author will ever have to pass on? I'd guess probably not, considering it's software for his small bakery. It's software directly tied to his identity - he's the sole consumers. That's exactly the kind of software emacs is great for, and precisely the kind of software "hacker" types use. He's not going to sell this as a "bakery management system" and become a software company, he's just going to bake bread. If he needs to share the _information_, then he can just print reports, that's ostensibly what the system is _for_.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
AlexCoventry 6y ago
If he wants to grow beyond a single shop, he'll either need a standard entry format, or be prepared to compete for employees against enterprises which actually need a high degree of technical literacy.
- redisman 6y ago
  A software engineer starting a bake shop doesn't exactly sound like someone looking for a "scalable" business.