preferences and re-inventing the wheel

[william humphrey]

I've never made software that anyone else had to use so I never noticed how
many things are missing in RunRev.
1. There is an excellent menu builder.

2. There is no preference file builder. This should call a sqlite plist file
or something for your program so it can load the information necessary to
run any version of your software. It should also have a flag so you can know
if the computer is meant to host the server or if it is one of the clients.
It needs user name, host name, database name, password, and all kinds of
other stuff like whether it is a Valentina server or a MySQL server.

3. There is no automatic "update my program from a remote server on the
internet". This is something everyone is familiar with in commercial
software and it is crazy (in my opinion) to make every developer re-write
this. The above preference file would be necessary first especially if you
also update the database schema and have to run a back-up of that data
first.

4. Serial number versioning system and protection scheme for unlocking
compiled copies of your program after a 30 day trial period. Every
commercial software has this too. I read this list about various people
trying to invent this. Shouldn't it be available for everyone?

It seems to me that there are many genius developers on this mailing list.
Why can't one come forward (like maybe Andre for the automatic update my
program over the internet substack) and the rest of us all offer him $100 a
piece to make that substack? In these down economic times maybe a socialist
solution like this would be a good idea? Unless, of course, some one is
already working on these solutions or has them already and will sell them
for a reasonable price?

Thanks, I'm going to go back in my grass hut now...