The thing about holding down a full time job is that is does rather interfere with my writing of software for CoderTools. Five or so years ago I head dreamt of handing in my notice and working fulltime on the thing that I loved. And that was writing software, which many people use day in and day out. Unfortunately my lack of business sense has left me wondering how one does get to the pot of gold at the end of the small software house rainbow. To this day TotalEdit costs more to run and the few dollars it generates.
I am currently working on the next version of TotalEdit Pro, which includes a handful of bug fixes and enhancements to features. This work though has left me thinking about what it takes to create a viable piece of software. Something that will generate an income. I began to wonder if TotalEdit is too feature rich leaving those opting for the Pro version few and far between.
Personally I am still looking for that pot of gold and a means to work fulltime on writing good quality software. I have come to the conclusion that I have long past the time when I should have followed a different software path. And it is time for a shake up. Playing around with the price of TotalEdit Pro hasn't helped. Even at $10 the price appears to be too much for most. Is iTunes to blame with the market shifting to a $1 per app culture? But I doubt this is true especially as I have never succeeded in selling TotalEdit in any great number.
Hopefully TotalEdit Pro 5.6 will be out shortly and as always free to any existing license holder.
Any idea if syntax highlighting for cmd.exe shell scripting will be supported in version 5.6?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a user of the free version of TotalEdit, maybe you do have too many features available! Looking at the features of the Pro version, I can't see anything that I personally would want; the free version has everything I need in an editor as a programmer (fast startup, syntax highlighting for different languages, open as binary, support for different encodings). Maybe take a look at the features that UltraEdit and TextPad have. You don't have much that distinguishes the Pro version from the free one. Here are some ideas for more things that could be in a Pro version:
ReplyDelete- project files (e.g. a vcproj-like system)
- built in diff
- XML tree viewer (so you can view your XML in a tree)
- HTML tag list (I know you have the toolbox but maybe a list would be more useful)
- source control integration (plugin-based with plugins for various popular SC systems)
Maybe you need to take a step back and create a road map of where you see TotalEdit going. It certainly seems possible to sell a text editor for a decent amount of money (UltraEdit is US$60!).
I'm wrestling with similar problems at the moment. I love my job (I work in games as a programmer) but at the same time I'm a bit sick of making money for other people and want to do something for myself!