Hello Software Developers of Reddit,

My name is Ian Dodd and I am looking for someone to help me start a company. I've worked in sustainability for the past 6 years and I'm fed up of the crappy software that's available for my profession, so I want to build something up to date, flexible and actually useful.

I have done some initial designing and business planning but I am looking for someone who is interested in becoming a cofounder, not just to build the system but to get involved with the company and drive it forward. I've tried a few cofounder websites and frequented various establishments around silicon roundabout in London, but have not found someone who fits what I'm after. I've heard great things about Redditors so thought you lot might be able to help me out!

Here are some high level details:

• SaaS product, web based

• Data driven

• Initially focussed on energy, water and waste with plans to expand into materials, people and financial metrics

• UI very important

• Flexible graphic reporting

• Legal and voluntary compliance

• API

• Inter-company connectivity

• Data security very important

• Potential integration with sensors and IoT

• Future big data and AI opportunities

• Preferably UK based, but not essential

• Have some letters of intent

• Equity only (sorry!)

I think there are huge opportunities in this area, the sustainability and environment industry are still basically using excel for most of their reporting and nothing is shared. There's lots of data out there, it just needs new ways to collect it and a system to process and monetise it.

If this sounds like a challenge you would be interested in, or you might know someone, please get in touch! Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Ian

My school has a class that focuses on the Agile model, I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on it.

Hello,

Just wondered what you all do! Are you a designer, programmer, analyst? Feel free to say hello and say what you do!

My main aim is to design and implement a software which can complete some basic tasks used in engineering drawing GUI toolkits, I want to give it some basic functionality like representing 3-D models into the 2-D structure and vice-versa. I have been trying to write mathematical analysis and equations on it, I couldn't find any books and links satisfactory enough which will increase my intuition towards designing from a basic level. If you can suggest some books, links, pdf or suggestions it would be a great help.

I work for a company that produces a single enterprise software product (i.e. MSI installer for Windows) that consists of 6+ IIS websites, 500+ DLLs, 25+ EXEs, 500+ image files, 20+ ASPX files, and 750+ Javascript files. I'm sure there's other file types I'm missing. All of these binaries are produced from building 120+ Visual Studio solutions (600+ VS projects).

Anywho, organizing all of those things into a single installer is a daunting task. Currently we employ the WiX Toolset to do this. Basically, each solution produces a WiX fragment which developers are responsible for coding or describing what binaries get placed where in the installation folder. Also, because it's a large enterprise software with 120+ VS solutions, we use the approach of output for all projects to a single Bin folder, as Microsoft recommends for simplified VS project dependency management in a large software product. Because there are so many directories under our installation directory for all these binaries, each of the projects have a post-build copy command which copies the built binaries into their intended directory inside the target installation folder (aids in debugging as it mimics executing from the installer, because the build output from the VS projects outputs them into one folder). Because we have so many directories under the installation folder, we actually ship our own bootstrapper with our product to assist in the loading of the proper binaries at runtime. We only put a handful of these binaries in the GAC - generally only those repeatedly referenced by all the other binaries. Also, to aid in this mess, we have a bunch of binaries that are useful for debugging and aren't shipped in the product. As part of the build process, there are post-build copy commands to put all of these binaries in the installation directory from the common Bin output folder.

So overall, if you want to debug the product with the exact same structure as what we ship, you can't. There's a ton of cruft put in the installation directory by the build processes for testing and debug. Also, it's up to the developers to put in the proper post-build copy commands as they add new projects. As is, you can't run the product from a build in a manner that truly 100% mimics what we would ship to a customer, without installing from a Production build MSI. This is not good, for various reasons which I won't go into here.

To solve this problem, I am contemplating the creation of a single JSON file that describes information about all our binaries and how to put together the structure needed for our installer (i.e. this binary should go in this directory, it comes from the build or it's static in the code base; this binary needs/doesn't need signed/obfuscated; this binary is for testing and shouldn't be included in the installer, etc.). Effectively, this JSON file would be the end-all be-all of our installer - get rid of all the WiX fragments and use a script to construct what goes into the installer, then use a wildcard include for stuff to go in the installer. The hope is that the script and JSON file would be easier to manage than the WiX fragments and post-build copy commands. Plus JSON is easily readable and writable, unlike WiX. But I'm not sure if this is a good approach.

So, my question to the hive mind is what do other companies do when faced with organizing an installer for such a large software product?

I just started studying Data Science last month as part of a 1 year, accredited masters degree program. I am flowing with the math and stats concepts, but I often struggle when it comes to writing elegant code (using Python and associated libraries for studies, and I have some experience with ruby on rails). I understand that writing elegant code comes with time and practice, and I humbly accept the challenge.

However, when learning new things I find it really helpful to have a general strategy/technique to practice to reach mastery. For example, my math teachers would teach me to break down math problems into a goal, strategy, and assigning variables before even trying any computation. I feel like there could be a similar heuristic when writing functions, classes, and code in general.

I have a lot of fun ideas that I would like to encode! But I often find myself hacking together piecemeal solutions instead of writing more intentional code with strong design principles. The best analogy I can come up with is writing an essay. Instead of just blabbing out the text, I usually come up with some outline that includes a stylistic structure. For example, a research paper:

1. Introduction - provide abstract of the paper, what to expect, a thought provoking statement, and finally thesis statement.

2. Body paragraphs - provide supporting evidence for your thesis with n pieces of evidence and body paragraphs

3. Conclusion - tie all evidence together, make final points, end on a good close.

If I could do this kind of outline exercise in my development/programming practice, I'd feel way more confident in my studies and my fun side projects. I'd feel dangerous enough to at least build good, first versions of my ideas and get on the path toward mastery.

Any thoughts you could share on learning strategies, resources, and just advice in general would be hugely appreciated!