Thread: Modification of or simbiosis with old software

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    Modification of or simbiosis with old software

    It has been a while since I last posted, so hello.

    I've studied pretty intensely now for about a year and a half. I've spent about 1000 hours in both C and Java, as well as 500 hours in C++ and Python. I believe my Java education, in particular, will allow me to pick up concepts in other languages very quickly, so I don't have much fear towards new languages. I think language learning has gotten both kind of fun and kind of easy.

    I've worked at a family-owned restaurant with food delivery for a few years now, and in the coming months, I would like to change my job and break into a programming field. Before I leave my job that has treated me so well, I may want to help them by improving their Point-of-Sale software if it is possible.

    Pretty much everything that I have built has been as a programming exercise, and never have I built anything that was intended for actual use. I have built a number of things I am proud of such as a paint program, but these are really just personal projects. I don't know anything about interacting with existing programs. I don't know how to break into this kind of coding. I think it may have something to do with hacking as hacking is supposed to be defined as "interacting with a system in a way the creator did not intend", but I really don't know.

    Here is one such way I might be able to improve the current Point of Sale (POS) software:

    The current POS asks the user to enter in customer address information. I would like to have it automatically look up map coordinates for that address and enter them into the customer record. This would save the delivery drivers a minute or so every time they return to the store to collect another set of deliveries.

    Besides this, I have quite a long list of things I could do to improve it. I am not completely opposed to building a whole new POS tailored to their particular business. I just don't know if that is the best solution. What do people normally do if they want better software? Should I study hacking, or is old software often just left in the dust of new code?

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    Registered User Sir Galahad's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jack jordan View Post
    It has been a while since I last posted, so hello.

    I've studied pretty intensely now for about a year and a half. I've spent about 1000 hours in both C and Java, as well as 500 hours in C++ and Python. I believe my Java education, in particular, will allow me to pick up concepts in other languages very quickly, so I don't have much fear towards new languages. I think language learning has gotten both kind of fun and kind of easy.

    I've worked at a family-owned restaurant with food delivery for a few years now, and in the coming months, I would like to change my job and break into a programming field. Before I leave my job that has treated me so well, I may want to help them by improving their Point-of-Sale software if it is possible.

    Pretty much everything that I have built has been as a programming exercise, and never have I built anything that was intended for actual use. I have built a number of things I am proud of such as a paint program, but these are really just personal projects. I don't know anything about interacting with existing programs. I don't know how to break into this kind of coding. I think it may have something to do with hacking as hacking is supposed to be defined as "interacting with a system in a way the creator did not intend", but I really don't know.

    Here is one such way I might be able to improve the current Point of Sale (POS) software:

    The current POS asks the user to enter in customer address information. I would like to have it automatically look up map coordinates for that address and enter them into the customer record. This would save the delivery drivers a minute or so every time they return to the store to collect another set of deliveries.

    Besides this, I have quite a long list of things I could do to improve it. I am not completely opposed to building a whole new POS tailored to their particular business. I just don't know if that is the best solution. What do people normally do if they want better software? Should I study hacking, or is old software often just left in the dust of new code?
    If you have the source code then it shouldn't be any problem. Just be sure to use a good version control system. Adding functionality on top of it is typically pretty straightforward as long as it doesn't rely much on the existing codebase. Otherwise things can get complicated and if you don't understand how everything is interwoven then your changes could easily introduce bugs. In that case you have to take a much more careful and thorough approach.

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