The companies projects span most of the range from simple electronic sensors or devices to complicated desktop systems.
Desktop programs are mainly for the Windows or Linux operating systems, (one of these days a customer will ask us to do a Mac program and we can buy some nice hardware to support this, but it hasn’t happened yet!)
"Just because we use bulldozers to build highways, does not mean we have to use them to drive on it afterwards"
I’m not sure of the origin of the above quote, but it does agree with what myself and a lot of people believe, which is use the right tool for the right job. This also means programming in what your comfortable with; For me desktop systems are written in either Delphi or Lazarus (the open source Delphi clone) and standard C (C90/C99) when we program lower level stuff such as micro-controllers or firmware. If your going to store lots of data or complicated information of any type I will use whatever SQL database your company currently has, or if your up to your ears in Microsoft or Oracle licencing charges I will create a nice free one for you in MySQL. We are very proficient in writing fast complicated SQL queries and structured database designs up to any size. Though my fees go up substantially for boring stuff such as reports 🙂
As you can probably guess I’m not one for fad’s and I’ve been using both pascal and C since the 80’s and SQL since 1990 so I’m pretty familiar with them and know there (and my) limitations. Using tools you are familiar with makes it is easy to move from creating very large multi-user systems storing millions of records down to a box that goes ping.
There is a lot of FUD in this industry, a lot of people will try to make things seem harder or costlier than they are, you just have to remember even the most complicated problem can be reduced to a set of simple steps, and all those steps have been well trodden before and I can generally explain these steps even to non-technical people to make it understandable.
Removing uncertainty in any project should be everyones goal, always having full access to the source code or design files is one less problem you have to worry about, it means you can see the insides of what is going on and even have someone else take over the project if required and of course you are free to share them or improve upon the design as technology forever progresses on.
Proprietary Source and Hardware
Not everyone agrees with open source and we will respect Non-Disclosure Agreements if that is your wish, in this case the design files and code will remain with you without any IP claim by us.
Note, My Open Source projects are mainly supported by and developed as a spin off to supporting the wine industry in New Zealand and Indevin especially. So if you do find any of the information useful buy yourself a nice bottle of New Zealands finest to celebrate!
For Open Source, design information will generally be made available either Public Domain (no restriction) or under the Lesser GPL Licence (the least restrictive public licence), Both basically allow unrestricted use and do not require you to post on any changes you make or value you add (though kudos if you do!). If you are going to use designs from this site without becoming a customer, feel free to do so, but check they are fit for purpose as there are no guarantees or support if you are not a customer.
Remember, with open source designs, the whole point is that
you have all the information to check the designs, improve on
them, use them in full or part and therefore make any informed
decisions for yourself.
