I was also looking at ERP after working in the field for a number of years. I was planning on coming from a very different angle. Hosting a very configurable system that required little or no manual intervention. Aiming at small business for a $20 per month per user fee.
Then I discovered I hate running a business, not just dis-like but hate so much I never want to do it again :-(
I think your idea could take off but the software has to be malleable, this is in contrast to nearly every piece of software written to this day which is brittle. I was looking at this as just a way to predict how software will be written in the future.
First off read a couple of books to understand better where I'm coming from :-
Necessary But Not Sufficient by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Naked Objects by Richard Pawson
From a business perspective I want a group of classes that mirror real world items e.g. Order, Invoice, Address, Amount, Price, Date etc. Then I want another group of classes that handle business actions e.g. Enter Order, Print invoice. Lastly a group of classes that handle business process e.g. Process Order, Calculate invoice etc.
The above would give you a group of objects that you can model the business with and forget about technical details.
Then the underlying system could be built e.g. fully temporal, fully redundant etc. etc.
The idea being that you could focus on business processes without thinking about implementation details. In true naked object style the UI would be automatically generated from the business action/process classes.
To make what you are thinking about work _ALL_ design has to be KISS and DRY. Also, the more you can generate the better you'd be.
I was thinking of using Lisp or SmallTalk to gain an advantage, must use a VM to be able to separate business from technical. I want to my software running 24/7 with zero downtime including during upgrades, automatic rudundancy, load balancing etc.
If you are thinking of something along these lines then drop me a line and I'd love to help.
If you just want to re-implement the current paradigm don't bother contacting me. The current paradigm is so broken it's not even funny.
The quality (and apparent sincerity) of your reply merit a full inhaling of your 2 references. I'm off to Amazon as soon as I finish typing this.
"The idea being that you could focus on business processes without thinking about implementation details."
Bingo! In 18 months of sharing this concept, I think you may have closest to understanding it (or at least explaining your understanding).
"Then I discovered I hate running a business, not just dis-like but hate so much I never want to do it again :-("
I may be the yin for your yang. I can't wait to have a business to run and customers to serve! Seeing a customer achieve their goals with my support is like oxygen to me. I have to have it. I love hacking, but it's only a means to an end. If I had something to implement, I'd be implementing, not hacking.
Kindly put your email address on your profile and stay in touch.
I'm in the same boat as ajmoir. I thought of implementing is as a DSL for businesses - let the "tigers" specify it in the DSL and then the implementation can be upgraded underneath the definition. Naturally, Lisp would be a good fit. I do enjoy the success of seeing customers achieve goals, but I prefer the tractability of engineering systems over the political systems of the real world. I'd certainly love to hack for businesses if there was a thin wrapper over them (ie business oriented cofounder). I've already emailed you expressing interest in your project, so keep me in mind too!
I haven't read naked objects - maybe that would help me get over my general distrust of OO. Thanks for the recommendation!
I was also looking at ERP after working in the field for a number of years. I was planning on coming from a very different angle. Hosting a very configurable system that required little or no manual intervention. Aiming at small business for a $20 per month per user fee.
Then I discovered I hate running a business, not just dis-like but hate so much I never want to do it again :-(
I think your idea could take off but the software has to be malleable, this is in contrast to nearly every piece of software written to this day which is brittle. I was looking at this as just a way to predict how software will be written in the future.
First off read a couple of books to understand better where I'm coming from :-
From a business perspective I want a group of classes that mirror real world items e.g. Order, Invoice, Address, Amount, Price, Date etc. Then I want another group of classes that handle business actions e.g. Enter Order, Print invoice. Lastly a group of classes that handle business process e.g. Process Order, Calculate invoice etc.The above would give you a group of objects that you can model the business with and forget about technical details.
Then the underlying system could be built e.g. fully temporal, fully redundant etc. etc.
The idea being that you could focus on business processes without thinking about implementation details. In true naked object style the UI would be automatically generated from the business action/process classes.
To make what you are thinking about work _ALL_ design has to be KISS and DRY. Also, the more you can generate the better you'd be.
I was thinking of using Lisp or SmallTalk to gain an advantage, must use a VM to be able to separate business from technical. I want to my software running 24/7 with zero downtime including during upgrades, automatic rudundancy, load balancing etc.
If you are thinking of something along these lines then drop me a line and I'd love to help.
If you just want to re-implement the current paradigm don't bother contacting me. The current paradigm is so broken it's not even funny.