On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 8:10 PM, Steve Obbayi <steve@sobbayi.com> wrote:

Peter, code reuse is part of good practice and i am totally for it, without it coding life would be total hell and productivity would be next to nothing. am from an old school of sorts the days when we would hack to hardware in assembly ourselves rather than use libraries even when MS came with directx coders then used to hang on to dos for game development... in short this decision is just a matter of discussion i guess, maybe Benard has his reasons as to why he wants it from scratch and we should be able to support him if it comes to that.

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Peter Karunyu wrote:

Bernard, you have my blessings then to do it as you see fit (not that you needed them in the first place :-) I have understood your perspective perfectly.

Steve, not that I mind creating stuff from scratch, but i belong to the school of programming where the mantra "don't reinvent the wheel" is a bit strong, which leads to lazy developers who piggy-back on the efforts of others.

Skunks who are familiar with the ISV marketplace locally could have some interesting perspectives though, Peter Muchemi??

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 3:06 PM, bernard kioko <bernsoft@gmail.com <mailto:bernsoft@gmail.com>> wrote:

Peter,

Without any intention to brag or showoff...let me tell you a story
about a previous project i got involved in....

A couple of years ago, I challenged myself to create Kenya's first
true Travel Distribution system....I felt that it was so hard...
that we chose to call it "EasyFlight". I had some people advise me
to build on an existing system...others told me it cant work
because international companies like galileo and amadeus are too
big.....but i stuck to my opinion....while appearing
stubborn....we chose to start from zero...

WIth time.... the system ended up in use by 5 airlines (in kenya),
several bus companies(in Kenya)...hotels (in Kenya), etc...plus
over 1000 travel agents.......and finally if you dial *711# on
your safariocm....or visit http://www.easytravelpoint.com you will
see what we have done which the "other" systems havent done yet
for Kenya! Oh...and that small system eventually became an
independent travel software company .....

Enough of that....but I hope you understand the reason i see a
future bigger than OrangeHRM.

This said, I dont disagree with you. I agree with you on all 3
points.

Whether to start a fresh or to build on an already existing system
is subject to a debate IN THIS CASE.

To base the free payroll on OrangeHRM means a number of things are
already decided for me/us. Being a developer i feel i will lose
the freedom that a developer needs to make a 5 year plan....

Also I am not entirely worried by visibility/market
penetration....because if we build a local product and do it well,
the usage will go a long way.

Then there is the fact that I strongly want to believe from the
start that we are kenyan, building a solution in Kenya, for Kenyan
people/businesses (maybe not a strong point but is critical for
the drive).

Finally, just imagine if we build a better product than
OrangeHRM......which is actually my goal.....

Needless to say, we will study OrangeHRM and other systems (like
any other programmer would do).

Convinced?

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 2:29 PM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com
<mailto:pkarunyu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Bernard, I still think that building upon a base is easier
than starting from scratch due to the following reasons:
1. They have ironed out a lot of small issues e.g choice of
PHP design patterns, coding standards
<http://www.orangehrm.com/wiki/index.php/PHP_Coding_Conventions>,
development process
<http://www.orangehrm.com/wiki/index.php/Development_Process> etc

2. They are more visible in terms of market penetration
<http://www.itwire.com/content/view/13030/53/1/3/>.
3. You don't have to setup APC or unit tests etc . A lot of
decisions have been made for the developer.

Disclaimer: I do not work for orangeHRM :-) I just think its
more productive to build upon it than to start from scratch.

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 1:53 PM, bernard kioko
<bernsoft@gmail.com <mailto:bernsoft@gmail.com>> wrote:

No answer from Muthoni yet.......and i still think i would
like to start something new.....and grow it to a world
level......while solving local problems gradually.....
that temptation is overwhelming....also...my target is
mainly SMEs.... who have bigger issues dealing with
payroll than HRM (many of them dont really even have a
true HRM section).

Am I wrong?

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Peter Karunyu
<pkarunyu@gmail.com <mailto:pkarunyu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Bernard, how did it go with the payroll module for
orangeHRM done by openworld?

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 11:31 AM, bernard kioko
<bernsoft@gmail.com <mailto:bernsoft@gmail.com>> wrote:

If you read my post the other day, this should not
sound new......

So the decision to make a free payroll system
(geared towards kenyan market) has been made.....a
coding team will be put together soon.

We are looking for people with knowledge on
payroll processing who are willing to contribute
by giving us requirements and testing the
same.....mainly on email and chat.

Developers interested (we will mainly use PHP and
MYSQL).....please email me directly....

But even before we start.......we need a name (or
codename)........

Please send in some suggestions......am sure we
will credit you in the final product......

Haya.....

Regards

Kioko

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