Applications

[Dennis D.]

Just took a look on SourceForge.net, and couldn't find a single open source
VB.net payroll application.
That is a problem. Financial applications, especially payroll, are the first
indications that a programming language has bit into the real world.

So two questions:
1. Where is VB.net finding application space (being adopted) if not in the
financial industries?
2. I am looking for some VB.net examples that could contribute to the
development of payroll applications for small business. Suggestions?

Note:
I can understand that financial application programmers more likely would
have chosen some C language derivative, but in dot net the language really
doesn't matter, so I would have expected some VB.net financial applications
by now.

Thanks,
Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

 

[Larry Lard]

Just took a look on SourceForge.net, and couldn't find a single open source
VB.net payroll application.
That is a problem. Financial applications, especially payroll, are the first
indications that a programming language has bit into the real world.

Open source payroll applications?! Such things exist? My initial
thoughts would be: open source software generally is written for fun.
Who writes payroll software for fun?

I would suggest sourceforge is a bad place to gather evidence on a
technology's uptake in the commercial world.

 

[JerryH]

Just took a look on SourceForge.net, and couldn't find a single open source
VB.net payroll application.
That is a problem. Financial applications, especially payroll, are the first
indications that a programming language has bit into the real world.

So two questions:
1. Where is VB.net finding application space (being adopted) if not in the
financial industries?
2. I am looking for some VB.net examples that could contribute to the
development of payroll applications for small business. Suggestions?

Note:
I can understand that financial application programmers more likely would
have chosen some C language derivative, but in dot net the language really
doesn't matter, so I would have expected some VB.net financial applications
by now.

Thanks,
Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

So, you're looking for Vb.net open source accounting software? That's
something of a niche, I'd say.

Accounting software is probably some of the most boring, yet intensive
software you can create: boring because you're simply shoving dollars
around, and intensive because there is zero room for error.

But here is a link that might help you:

http://www.payroll-source.com/payroll-services/accounting_softwares_with_source_code_in_vb.net.html

For the record, Microsoft Business Solutions plans to merge their major
finanancial and accounting packages (Great Plains, Navasision, Solomon
and Axapta) into a single, extensible package. Each one of those
individual packages is written in their own language, some of it rather
archaic. However, this won't occur for several years....

 

[Rick Mogstad]

Just took a look on SourceForge.net, and couldn't find a single open
source VB.net payroll application.
That is a problem. Financial applications, especially payroll, are the
first indications that a programming language has bit into the real world.

So two questions:
1. Where is VB.net finding application space (being adopted) if not in the
financial industries?
2. I am looking for some VB.net examples that could contribute to the
development of payroll applications for small business. Suggestions?

Note:
I can understand that financial application programmers more likely would
have chosen some C language derivative, but in dot net the language really
doesn't matter, so I would have expected some VB.net financial
applications by now.

If it makes you feel better, we are porting our software (An entire
accounting package, including payroll) to VB.NET as we speak. We should be
done somewhere around Q1 or Q2 next year, so I guess then VB.NET will be a
real programming language that has "bit into the real world".

Would YOU use an open source payroll application? There is a reason, for
example, that we don't use our own payroll software for our payroll here....

Rick

 

[Dennis D.]

Would YOU use an open source payroll application? There is a reason, for

example, that we don't use our own payroll software for our payroll
here....

Sure if it worked.
Big software machines spewing out overpriced products that are not
integrated with other business tasks makes me wonder why consumers don't
user more open source.

Payroll is not rocket science. As noted, it is a rather mundane task.
Software for investing is more complex, but even that is based on known
mathematical formulas. At the same time, I see bugs (failure to operate
under specific conditions) in all software. When a bug happens at enterprise
level the using corporation calls the software company, which then tweaks
the out of the box software for a particular installation.

Corporations should invent their own software. Microsoft Office, for
example, is a powerful tool that can be used to do just that. It allows them
to invent solutions specifically designed to solve their specific problems
with an out of the box product. What could be more perfect. Or they can pay
the big buck software developer to do a ground up from scratch million
dollar project that will be built in stone, and in the long run inhibit
innovative thinking that allows corporation to reinvent themselves to be
more competitive. It will have outlived it's usefulness.

 

[Jody L. Whitlock]

Just took a look on SourceForge.net, and couldn't find a single open
source VB.net payroll application. That is a problem. Financial
applications, especially payroll, are the first indications that a
programming language has bit into the real world.

So two questions:
1. Where is VB.net finding application space (being adopted) if not
in the financial industries? 2. I am looking for some VB.net
examples that could contribute to the development of payroll
applications for small business. Suggestions?

Note:
I can understand that financial application programmers more likely
would have chosen some C language derivative, but in dot net the
language really doesn't matter, so I would have expected some VB.net
financial applications by now.

Thanks,
Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

Personally, I ported a VB6 application to .NET. This application
wasn't a payroll application, but was used in a caging firm to manage
donations and track donors. It was pretty intensive, and I even wrote
a custom web reporting front-end for it using ASP.NET. This beast was
very fast, and using some of the features of the new ADO.NET, I was
able to bring this application to a new level of functionality due to
being able to "cache" data locally on the client using
DataSet.WriteXML(), which before took about 40 lines of code to write
my recordset out and check concurency. I was able to do this in less
than 3 lines of code under .NET. As for whether .NET has taken a bite
into commercial software, it's everywhere!

Jody W

 

[Dennis D.]

Thanks Jody:

I am still learning the framework after a year, if that says anything about
my belief that it is here to stay. I've also noticed a growing number of
websites, located all over the world, dedicated to the subject.

Considering the great number of VB programmers, I probably should have
expected the transition. When I picked up Balena's book, it seemed that
porting would not be worth the effort compared to starting from scratch on
much software, whereas there is no choice except to port on some, so I
wondered about the reaction to dot net from the developer community.

I have heard both sides of whether to classify it as an improvement on the
product, but my conclusion is that Microsoft will compete with IBM and SUN
on every issue, including XML based web services. Also, the deeper subject
of custom frameworks may begin to see the light of day. So Microsoft has
certainly offered a robust entry into Internet 2 and beyond, and it's fair
to guess on my part, that there will not be any backpeddling on the issue.
So I might as well get to work.

Thanks again.,

D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

 

[J. Clay]

I agree with you on the issue that Corporations should invent their own
software. That is what we have done and it has paid of for us in terms of
employee and customer satisfaction. Also, the ability to grab data that is
in a format that works for you is a huge benefit.

I do think that due to the nature of accounting (I am an
accountant/analyst/programmer), it is much easier to just use a solid
accounting application for your basic functions. Those being G/L, A/P, A/R
and Payroll. I have found it much easier to let someone else worry about
all of the federal and state tax changes that seem to be increasing in there
rate of change. That way I can focus on what really affects our business:
Customers, Products, Production, Sales, etc....

I did the try to fit the accounting system to the company and vice versa for
a couple of years as an implementor for a couple of midrange packages. Man
that could be a head ache when they got outside the realm of the basic
accounting functions. It always turns out that the company has to change
the way they work to accomodate the accounting software.

At this point I am a strong believer in creating software and tools to work
the way the company needs them to work rather than forcing the company to
change for the software.

Jim