Paying an Amiga developer

I'm for porting things because:

- More amiga programmers could have the skill for the job (I think).
- We need 3 to 5 native program, like 328gts said.
- Converting GUI to amiga GUI maybe not take lots of months than an original project.
- More people want to pay because It's basic programs (excel, word, chat,....).

Don't know samurai crow but I really would like to give money for a good amiga programmer who work with motivation and explain often the state of the job.

@abalaban
I don't know what a freelance makes here and I don't know wheter there's actually enough work for developers here atm.

Also keep in mind that the living expense is very high here and tax is 60% when you earn that kind of money.

@Elwood
It's an exiting project but I find it to be a really hard project to succeed with. You also need to find a developer you could trust to actually work 40 hours a week and deliver on time. It's not impossible at all but we would really need to get things planned carefully in every detail.

@Troels

Maybe hiring a programmer will cost too much?
Maybe instead choose a program we want ported/created. Then collect the money,lets say 10k. Then check for good programmers to get the work done? Like a bounty really.

Another potential problem which comes to mind is that following the developer and be sure he doesn't lose motivation is not an easy thing to do (no, money is not the only thing to think about).

@Elwood

Bounties have a motivating factor in them: you have the lump sum right before your eyes, and can only get it by finishing the project. While regular pay that covers all your needs is a motivation killer, I can tell you.

@Elwood

Well, good Idea basically... but wouldn't it be better to support current schemes and maybe change them a bit ? Lets but effort together in a big project !

Did you already contact amidevsupport ?
What about bundling up with Trevor Dicks support scheme he just revealed on AW.net

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/v ... 100&viewmode=flat&order=0

Anyway, I would be in with say 10€ a month.

Some more suggestions:

- port/develop a little app first as proof of concept
- meetings open to all donators should be held (maybe together/same place with Amiga Show/Meetings) the hired programmer has to be there as well !!!
- What a about Jamie Krueger ??? Is he still with Amiga Inc. ??

@gerograph

Carrot-dangling bounties are OK so long as the project can be finished in a reasonably short timeframe. A project that is likely to take 2 years to complete is no good as a bounty as it provides no income.

This leads back to developers working in their spare time again, and the whole thing taking too long.

Simon

@Rigo

are you refering to Trevor Ds Scheme ?
Anyway maybe you misunderstood me... I absolutely agree with you, bounties is on thing, a paid developer is another one. For a bigger project we need a fulltime developer, definitely. But what I was trying to say is:

1. One of amidevsupport is to hire a fulltime developer (looks like they can only afford a cheaper Indian one, maybe this can be enhanced...)

2. Donnot know about Trevors Scheme, but maybe on could make a partnership, or extend it somehow to scheme for fulltime developers as well.

Anyway, if people donate money on a regular basis, there needs to be a personal contac somehow to the developer too build up a trustworthy relationship...

greetings

@Elwood

I liked the idea of amidevsupport (exept I think they were wrong wanting to hire low cost developers) so I like this idea ! If I were unemployed, I would like to take such a job.

$6500 is a very high value for french engineers but it is certainly what a company pay for an engineer for one month.

In my opinion, to start a project like that, we must have a big list of things to do (short tasks), so the developer can choose what he is able to do.
We also must trust the engineers or the structure that hires them (and fire them if they fail or doesn't really work).
Last, we must be informed : for each full day worked, the developer could be able to describe shortly what he did, the problems he met, how he sees things for the day after, ...

I remember that at a time in Haiku there was a paid job, Axel found many bugs and reported regularly to explain what he was doing, what he fixed, ...

About what could be done, this is an example of one of my development. I wished to see someone else porting libwmf while I could work on the core of PointRider. Of course, I had to port the library myself and of course it was not so easy. Read the first entry of this blog. If it was done externally, I would expect a serious job, with tests made, bugs or workarounds reported, diffs provided, etc.