[zanyterp]

How do you decide on what type of applications to create? If there is something you would like/think would be cool to have, do you use that and figure that if you would like it, there is a chance someone else would? and additional practice is probably usually a good thing?

Thanks!

[TheoCryst]

It depends. I've written three full-blown Mac applications so far (only one available to the public at the moment). Two of them were simple "man, I wish there were a really simple program to do X" moments. The third, which is still under development, was a favor to my university's CS department. But the one that's public has netted almost half a million downloads in just over a year and a half (plus a few hundred $$$ in donations). Start by writing what you want to write, and worry about other people later.

And yes, practice ALWAYS helps. Programming is one of those things where you just have to keep writing code to improve.

[zanyterp]

Thanks, TheoCryst!

[Arkham_c]

The only shareware app I ever wrote that really made me some money was a little $5 program called DropImage I made several years ago. I was working at CNN.com and was frustrated browsing through hundreds of images trying to figure out what they looked like and how big they were. Opening in Photoshop took too long, and this was pre-OSX, so there were no Finder tools to do what I wanted.

I made DropImage in an afternoon, and liked it so much I put it out as shareware. I updated it whenever I wanted to to do something else. I made about $1500 at $5 each, so it must have been a decent idea at its time. The key to writing successful software is for it to fill a niche that is currently unfilled, and to do so at a price point that is compelling.