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Re:Ask HN: Good languages for closed-source desktop apps by patio11 on Saturday October 02, 2010 @06:30PM (#1751523)
I do not disagree that Java is a major pain in the keister. I played around with JRuby and an MVC framework (Monkeybars) which let you code a Swing app in a more civilized fashion than actually coding Swing apps. The tradeoff is a 20MB hit to your download size, which would have mattered to me back when I started. These days that is less of an issue because folks typically have nigh-ubiquitous high speed Internet access, but there is a fairly straightforward way to take advantage of that which is superior in every fashion.
Re:Ask HN: Good languages for closed-source desktop apps by euroclydon on Sunday October 03, 2010 @10:01AM (#1752716)
Patrick, BCC is a web app but you charge a one-time fee, correct? Doesn't that present a structural problem is sales tail off and you're on the hook to spin the servers indefinitely
Re:Ask HN: Good languages for closed-source desktop apps by patio11 on Sunday October 03, 2010 @10:34AM (#1752764)
I get asked that by desktop software people a lot. While the one-time fee wasn't my most brilliant business model move ever, there is no structural problem here. Very, very few of my customers use BCC on a year to year basis. (I have a loyal few dozen, but something like half use it twice or less.) If it became impossible for me to sustain BCC going forward, I'd turn off sales and then gracefully shutdown after six months of notice. If they complain after that, I'll write them a check for their purchase price so that they can use one of my competitors.

However, since software doesn't rot and the BCC monthly server fees are mouse droppings even when it is going gangbusters, I could probably arrange for someone to support it for my entire natural life and beyond.