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I am considering of prototyping a web based point-of-sale system. I don't have programming skills but I'm thinking of using this project in order to learn.

I would like to ask you the following two questions:

  1. Do you think the above task is achievable within the period of 6 months (for building a rough prototype of the basic functions of a POS)?
  2. If yes, which programming language would you recommend me and why? (I was thinking of Python)

Your advice is greatly appreciated!

sp_key
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  • Hi Wooble, as I said I have not programmed before. I am asking a genuine question and looking for advice from people who have been in my place before. Thx – sp_key Apr 19 '12 at 20:40
  • sp_key, if you haven't programmed before, just start programming. There's a lot of debate that you can read on the internet about what language you should start with, but it doesn't really matter. Just find a tutorial/book that you jibe with and dig in. Your time frame is entirely dependent on how much time and thought you're willing to put in to the project. – Wilduck Apr 19 '12 at 21:04

2 Answers2

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Python is a very quick and productive language to develop in, so that would be a good choice, IMO. Personally I find it the most pleasant language to develop in.

But I think a POS system is a terrible first programming project. A proper POS system covers too many aspects like security, authentication, data storage, client-server. Each of those has its own gotcha's and significant learning curve.

If you want to go through with it nonetheless, chop the project up into manageable pieces that can be built and tested separately. You could start by writing a simple program that accepts text commands from the console and stores the transactions in e.g. a text file or in a pickled Python dictionary. This would be the start of the server. Later you can add a web or GUI front-end, or have the server store transactions in a database.

Roland Smith
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1) Absolutely. Given that loose of a description, I can have it ready for you by the end of the day...

2) A language you know and are comfortable with.

Let's be realistic about what you're trying to accomplish though. Prototyping a full POS system just isn't on the plate for you. Not only do you not know the language you'll be using, you're also a novice programmer. You WILL make bad architecture decisions. You WILL make glaring security mistakes. You likely do NOT have good business requirements. You will NOT have any testing framework in place. What you will end up with is a poorly designed, inflexible, bug ridden, wildly vulnerable system that was not built with any particular problem to solve.

Instead, you need to do a lot of playing around at a more basic level to get your feet wet and you should really try to find someone that can help mentor you. You might also pick an existing product and tear it apart trying to figure out how it works. Attempting to add a feature to a poorly designed product someone else designed will teach you a lot about what not to do.

With all that said, Python is a great language for prototyping. The code is concise, duck typing is convenient and the language ships with very powerful base data structures and libraries. There's a pretty vibrant developer community as well. Prototyping a web app is also not an unreasonable thing, but I seriously doubt that's a good place for you to start.

Try http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ (free html version) to get your feet on the ground both with Python and with programming in general. Then, find some app that looks interesting and tear it apart. Then, try fixing bugs for the project. Then, try adding a couple simple features. This will give you a far better foundation than striking off on your own as it will show you when stuff works and when stuff doesn't especially with respect to maintenance.

gfortune
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