Programming Suggestion of the Day: Test Test Test!

Assuming things work just because you can run a program and not have it crash is a sure path to failure.

If you are using automating testing, that will catch a lot of issues before they become a problem – provided that you did a good job with your test coverage. But, either way run your program many times. Make sure to test every option, or combination of options. Try things that don’t make sense – put words in a number field. Try to break your program, and when you are done with that get it in front of other people and let them attempt to break it also.

Only then can you begin to feel confident that your program will do what you expect it to do and users won’t run into issues.

Well, I should back off that last statement – errors will still manage to show up and people will find them like magic. It is amazing how many things manage to get missed even after thorough testing.

So, just keep testing. Even if you think you’ve tried everything, try a few more things.

Project Pricing – A Popular App of Mine to Price Projects.

One of my most popular apps right now is Project Pricing. This is an app that I wrote because I needed an easier way to figure out how to price items that I was selling on Etsy. This was my solution.

The app solves some common issues that people have when they price their own items – such as including enough to pay themselves. The simple layout lists several fields that allow the user to enter their own numbers. It also allows you to decide if you want to calculate how long it took to make the item in minutes, or hours.

It then allows you to play with the margins you want to make and lets you quickly see how that affects the overall price of the item. Since I personally use Etsy to sell items, it included an option to include Etsy fees in the cost.

This app is as educational to explaining pricing downfalls as it is useful to those that understand how to price their items.