[Elecraft] Ham software (was: [K2] Remote control programs)

[Julian G4ILO]

On Nov 9, 2007 4:56 PM, Vic K2VCO <vic at rakefet.com> wrote:
> Julian G4ILO wrote:
>
> First, I'm a professional programmer.
>
> I've paid good money for some ham (and other) software, and it has
> turned out to be junk. Much ham software is written by hams who are not
> professional programmers, and it shows.

Yes, plenty of hams who managed to knock something up in VB think it
will make them the next Bill Gates. But that doesn't invalidate the
principle that we should be more willing to pay for software.

> Unfortunately, even if hams were more willing to pay for software, the
> market is small. The cost of professional programming is high, so that
> means that the per-unit cost of good ham software would need to be quite
> high for the publisher to make a profit. Do you want to pay $500 for a
> rig control program? I didn't think so.

I doubt that it would cost that much. I paid $50 for MixW and judging
by the number of copies in use, they must have made quite a lot out of
it. But there is nothing else anywhere near it in functionality.

> Another approach that works is the open-source model, which has given us
> the N1MM contest logging program. A little clunky, written in VB, it's
> nevertheless one of the best programs of its genre. And it is free too.

Yes, but open source often means a very slow pace of development. I'm
writing my soon to be K3 control program in Lazarus, an open source
clone of Delphi. I first came across it in the late 1990s and it has
only just got to the point of being really usable.

I accept the point, though, that paying for software is no guarantee
of getting what you want. I'd happily have paid for updates to MixW,
especially to get better K2 and K3 support (such as support for KY
command keying.) But I'm probably in the minority.

-- 
Julian, G4ILO K2 s/n: 392  K3 s/n: ???
G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
Zerobeat Ham Forums: www.zerobeat.net/smf