The No.1 reason I want to shift to OOPs is that I don't want to heavily depend on any software to preexist to run my solutions. Just thought of creating my own my file formats and everything if it is required. I know it's a day dreaming so far. But I surely want to give it a try. Just imagine... How Good it sounds when a person questions you like...
"On Which software you are developing your solution?"
and your reply is...
"I make my own
Before I retired, I was the admin on a U.S. Navy Reserve personnel management applicaton using a software package that, when the system was launched, was one of many main-frame packages that offered a GUI and SQL "front-end" environment similar to that provided by Access. This was 1988 and the PC existed but only as small machines. Windows 1.0 had only JUST come out three years earlier and hadn't caught on yet as a development environment. That didn't happen until Windows 3.1 came around.
My assigned machine was a "super micro" main-frame. The VAX 8400 on OpenVMS outperformed most single-CPU computers of the time. We had a dedicated UNIX-based server for our back-end database. In 28+ years, we changed our platform three times, changed back-end database machines at least three times, changed from SHAREBASE to ORACLE on the back-end, changed our NAS disk farm at least three times, changed our tape backup systems twice, changed O/S versions four times... but stayed with one GUI/SQL package called SMARTSTAR. (No relation to WordStar.)
At first, this package evolved with new features and support for different back-end database servers, which is how we were able to migrate from SHAREBASE to ORACLE. However, we were still Access-like in our architecture with a front-end/back-end centralized server environment, just running on a main-frame. Web-based packages were heating up to allow the PC to become a front-end whereas in our system, the front-end was essentially a dumb terminal with limited character-graphics ability. Soon our environment started to stagnate. However, the Navy had many projects cooking at the same time and our package still ran OK, so we stuck with it. (For instance, see also DIMHRS.)
HOWEVER, twice in our history it reached the point that software in our system became single-source. The Navy has regulations against that sort of thing. The makers of SHAREBASE folded. Their engineers eventually founded SYBASE, which is still in business, but SHAREBASE tanked and had no company to take over support. We saw that coming in time to switch to ORACLE for our back-end.
Later, the primary vendor of the front-end package went out of business. Their only competitor - by now, a single former employee who started his own software company - got the software maintenance contract. That condition ALSO triggered an initiative to convert everything to web-based activities. I watched the system I had tended for 28+ years as it slowly lost relevance. I retired before it was fully decommissioned, but I knew it was going to die - and within about 16 months after I left, it was gone. I had two other sys admins who were capable of doing the shutdown so I retired and left behind a big part of my career.
The moral of this long-winded story? When you are the sole source for a software package that isn't open-sourced, you are a weak link in the production chain. Your software becomes a
high-risk element in the infrastructure of the business. The software you wrote could be the greatest thing since sliced bread but if it has no alternatives for periodic or emergency support, it still becomes a business liability, one that many businesses will not be able to afford. Yes, there would be great pride in the software you provided - but the risk in buying a one-man shop's product is so high that your market will of business necessity be limited.
@prabha_friend, you are a good person whom we have come to appreciate over the years. I hope you appreciate that I am enough of your friend to tell you a business truth about building your own package in the absence of a commercial development environment.
Can you do it? ABSOLUTELY YES.
Will it work? I believe you CAN make things work.
Will you make money at it? There is where I have to become your honest friend and say "not good odds if it is a complex package."
"
