Date & Time Activated Discounts For Selected Items

[Guest]

As Dale mentioned, if he implemented auto price discounts and had to leave out the much looked forward to Customer Accounts feature, there would be a lot of people who would think that (a) should have been implemented, and lots of people who think (b) should have been implemented.

The tough job Dale has, is figuring out which feature will add the most value to the program and improve the use of the program for the most retailers.

e.g. if a poll is taken and 10% want feature (a) and 90% want feature (b), which is Dale to choose?

BINGO! Now you've got it! Why should Dale choose for the user? The user knows what he needs better than anybody else... and any application with a claim to greatness should have these options available to the user. How? Modular programming... Closing features that are not needed... opening features that are... stating these trade-offs at the menu level... letting the user choose... Now please don't tell me you'll use up all 640k at this stage!
Unless of course you declare all files public....

[Tats]

Just came across & tried DHPOS and it really is a very good application as far as functionality is concerned... Dale Harris really did a good job here...! But having implemented POS systems used in 250,000 lanes, I just have to agree that it is indeed limited. Its 5,000 inventory item limit is disappointing. Some retailers I've worked with carry as many as 12,000 barcodes for pants alone!
I really have no business comparing this cute freeware with other commercial POS applications but if I could have one feature improved, it would have to be the capability to enter an infinite number of inventory items.

[peewee3ie]

We are not putting limitations on this software. It just happens in dos. I admite i do not know dale but if we keep ask to add different features it is very hard to deside which ones to add which ones not to add. you have good ideas but some is not posable because of the dos limitations

[Lennon]

QBasic may have serious limitations... not DOS

[Jon Simpson]

Why are there limitations in DHPOS? Well, when you get right down to it, it comes to a few big things. First, memory: there are 640K available in DOS for programs AND Data. There are ways to increase this, using EMS, XMS, and a few other methods... however, adding such functionality would take a fairly large amount of time, probably several months, at least. Additionally, and almost as important, not all computers support these expanded memory methods.

What does this mean, exactly? Well, POS uses most of this space just to store itself... the data gets the leftovers. In particular, the indexing method used by POS to lookup stock table items takes 20K. Dale knows better than I what other parts use memory, but that is one of the biggest.

Can this be fixed? Does it need to? Well, here is my opinion. I work in a grocery store, with over 200,000 items in inventory... obviously well beyond what POS is capable of. I would like to see more stock items, and indeed, we WILL see more stock items (13,000, anyway), but an unlimited number poses some problems. I've worked on some routines that would work for stock lookups, but not for reports, which require sorting huge amounts of data. Personally, I have yet to come up with a way (short of a full featured data base system I.E. SQL) that handles all these issues. Using something like SQL totally bashes one of the best things about POS... it will run on hardware from your closet... stuff people would otherwise throw out, and it will run faster on it than a brand new POS package on a multiprocessor P4.

Well, those are just a few of my opinions. If someone happens to have some routines that can handle hundreds of thousands of items in both searching and sorting that would work in qb, I would love to see them , but if not, I'll keep plugging along, and passing things on to Dale.

In the mean time, It continues to amaze me just what POS can do. If you told most programmers that this thing was written in qbasic, they quite simply wouldn't believe you. "You cant do that in qb.", you would hear. But guess what... Dale did it anyway.

Jonathan Simpson

[Andrew]

Users Choice

Why should Dale choose for the user?

Well, he doesn't Eli, he listens to what they want and usually a feature gets put in if a large prportion of the user base request/need it.

So, you see the users are choosing, whether you agree or not.

Stock Table size
On the stock table topic - after POSnet, I believe Dale is starting work on increasing the item limit to 13,000. I large enough figure for a number of stores, this fits within memory requirements, while still allowing DHPOS to retrive the produt details speedily during a sale.

Memory Limitations
I'm not going to argue about memory limitations - Dale and Jon are much more skilled in that area than I, however you must accept that there are limitations, and although we try our best to work around them, this is not always possible.

[eli]

I never intended to be rude. As I said earlier, DHPOS is a very competent application and a guest even rated it to have at least 80% core functionality for the average POS user. I'd even put its functionality at a higher 90%....

I must have mentioned too, that I have worked for over 30 years in the retail industry evaluating and implementing POS systems used in thousands of lanes daily and applications used in single user environments. But I still have to see a more intuitive system than DHPOS that it requires practically zero operator training.

I've implemented systems that in spite of programmable keyboards still required endless hours of operator training or a masters in computer science so i know whereof I speak when I say Dale has come up with a winner.

If inspite of all the positive feedback DHPOS cannot go beyond where it is now, then so be it!

Sorry guys... This is as far as I go in trying to convince you that this great software should should be made better...

[Lennon]

Andrew,

Eli never wrote that "Why should Dale choose for the user?" I did. The idea was like giving the user a choice of the system configuration needed/desired.
You see, if modular programming is done, features can be turned on or off as configured. This choice can be given to the user even prior to downloading...

Wouldn't that be fantastic?

[Andrew]

Of course it would be fantastic, however it would also be a lot of work. Let us not forget that one man, is the programmer of this software, sure there are other systems out there with modules and this and that, but they have teams of people working on their code.

Some portions of POSCONFG have already been split into a separate file. You may notice a brief black screen pause when loading certain options from within POSCONFG. This is a result of switchin modules as you call them.

Considering Dale holds down a fulltime job a family and still manages to code, check the forum, email and visit us in the chatroom - I am very impressed with his product.

Good things take time, and I feel some of us are trying to gallop before we can walk. I also think we're getting the wrong end of the stick...I think DHPOS is the best thing since...well pretty much anything, I'm really proud to be involved and look forward to many more features and developments along the way.

However I also accept that these developments aren't going to appear overnight and that many of the features I would like, aren't going to be there, but I do love the feeling when something you suggest gets included.

Have patience dear users, and please don't over work our poor programmer, we would like him to last out to version 10.0 without any form of breakdowns.

[Tats]

Guaging from the number of comments on this subject, it seems that someone has stirred a hornets' nest. This can only be good for DHPOS!

[chasmit]

It will be $6000 US per register.

[eli]

Cute chasmit! But don't you think you're way off? I'll deal with your team & proposal if you can give me the number off 911... Quick!

It really is no skin off my nose if DHPOS stays this way forever. But for those who tuned in late, here's what has happened:

-Dale comes up with a great completely free software.
-50,000 downloads later, users want more features (now isn't this so predictable?)
-Dale wants to please everyone but DOS (rather QBasic) won't allow him
-Eli feels that DHPOS has what it takes to be one of the best POS systems ever if only it could configured to meet even the requirements of the "big boys" (which is not saying that the big boys should use it but rather that if Jane & John should play with them, they should have the same toys)
-Dale, Jon, & Andrew disagree since features have to be prioritized because of QBasic limitations.
-Eli insists that the application is too good to be left as is and at the mercy of QBasic
- Dale puts his foot down & says he'd rather go fishing...

By the way, if anyone is interested in a virtually free POS system, no nags, no time limitations, fully functional, packed with features, customizable, and good for 999 terminals working in a multi-store, multi-department environment and update of files can be done through the net, e-mail me. (Requires Windows though)Then you'll get to know the meaning of the best POS for ZERO costs!

[Andrew]

Advertising for the purposes of slagging off DHPOS is not allowed.
Remember what this forum is here for, such posts will be edited or removed in the future at moderator/admin discretion.

As a result of recent events, a new announcement is available from the topic listing page regarding Abuse of the Service.

Sub-Note:
What Dale does in his spare time is his business, making DHPOS is a hobby, and he has no responsibility to continue it's creation or stick to deadlines, he owes us nothing.

If anything, we owe Dale Harris, a great debt and I think a few people should step back, take a look at what this man has created and be grateful. I know I am, show a bit of respect eh?

I don't like policing the forums, it's not fun. This place is here for fun, don't spoil it.