Git Init

LucciTM

Hello all,

28 y/o male. Self-taught dev
I started writing shell scripts 7 years ago to automate my boring data entry job. I now mostly work on react-native (JS)
Looking to make new friends in the field.

Oh and I play WOW on Skullflame (alliance)

samer

Hi there LucciTM,
welcome to LebGeeks!

How did you come across us?

I started writing shell scripts 7 years ago to automate my boring data entry job

That's a classic way of getting into scripting. What kind of data entry were you doing?

rolf

Hello, I think you are not the only one who started by messing with scripts!
I suppose you work with node?

I did a lot of work with PHP but I want to stay away with it. In about a decade PHP have not improved the available tools for debugging. Also the forced move to PHP 7 broke some legacy sites, now I have to "fix" some antique PHP code, because clients call, complaining that their site stopped working, and good luck trying to sell it to them, that they should pay for their site to be rewritten.

Node is easy to debug out of the box. And there is very little risk that Javascript will ever stop being backwards-compatible.

JS comes with it's own set of frustration, however given the choice I would pick this platform.

nuclearcat

Interesting topic!
You need to explain them, that any extended warranty come with costs.
Do they expect if they buy car, appliance, electronics it will run forever and repairs are free?
If they keep refusing, if you are expecting new orders - just think if you can add this support costs to new orders, if no new orders expected - just tell them bye bye, if they dont want to understand.
But always define "warranty terms" for your product, you can redirect blame also on hosting, if they upgraded php.

rolf

nuclearcat wroteInteresting topic!
You need to explain them, that any extended warranty come with costs.
Do they expect if they buy car, appliance, electronics it will run forever and repairs are free?
If they keep refusing, if you are expecting new orders - just think if you can add this support costs to new orders, if no new orders expected - just tell them bye bye, if they dont want to understand.
But always define "warranty terms" for your product, you can redirect blame also on hosting, if they upgraded php.

Back then I was vague. I promised "free support for a reasonable time".
I think that after 5 years I should be charging.

Another thing that I did not consider back then: I realized that I do not agree with the work and ideology of at least one company.

So as a business I will not just refuse to work with them but I will raise my prices because I do not want to do charity work. Like you said, if they do not like it, bye bye!

Yes the blame was on the hosting, they upgraded without warning anyone and I had to work in urgency to "fix" it, which I did relatively quickly. The codebase is small and the upgrade to PHP7 is simple, a matter of a few replaces or short rewrites.

What took the most time was setting up the environment and debugging PHP.

To be fair I actually charged them for that so I cannot complain.

Their whole site needs a rewrite, this is what I would like to be working towards.

They complain that the "situation is not good" but you know what, we live in the same situation!

Anyway thank you, good advice!

nuclearcat

There is always solution for "Situation is not good" that quickly separate from those who just trying to cut price or who is really in need.
Just offer them some economic workaround, but visibly will make them feel they are entering field of "budget solution" and others might notice that. E.g. remove some functionality, make website static, so it will do just necessary functionality, less work and headache for you.
Offer them pricing for full and budget solutions.
On my experience who really have limited budget wont mind, as soon as it does job.
But knowing Lebanese people, if he have money to pay ... he will think many times before admitting he switched from Lamborghini to Fiat, because he can't pay fuel :)

rolf

nuclearcat wrote Just offer them some economic workaround, but visibly will make them feel they are entering field of "budget solution" and others might notice that. E.g. remove some functionality, make website static, so it will do just necessary functionality, less work and headache for you.

More good advice. Modular functionality.
Even if it is the same amount of work for you, it is a good option.
People like to chose, and if you know them you can know in advance what they will chose, but it is important to give them the choice.

LucciTM

samer wrote How did you come across us?

I used to check LebGeeks for PSP emulator guides 15 years ago (lol). I'm more of a redditor myself (been on the platform for 9 years). Thought I'd join because I want to see the extent of our tech culture in Leb and no better place than LebGeeks. I'm surprised it took me so long to join the community. Anyway thank you for the warm welcome.

I started writing shell scripts 7 years ago to automate my boring data entry job

That's a classic way of getting into scripting. What kind of data entry were you doing?

Excel files to Oracle for the most part. I know there are data loaders that come with oracle out of the box, but my scripts parsed, curated and cross-referenced data across excel sheets before uploading into Oracle. Twas fun times. seems so long ago...