jecasc - 2:26 pm on Oct 13, 2010 (gmt 0)

Way back in the dawn of time (the 1980s) it was possible to knock up something useful in a few hours or days.

This is still possible today - I use dozens of programs I wrote myself in only a few hours - exactly for the same purpose as the Original Poster wants them: For me and my business. Nothing fancy, nothing that could be useful for anybody but me. For example I use a inventory management system that is great - runs on MYSQL. But it lacks some features like certain statistics. So if I need information I write a short program to tap into the MYSQL database and extract the info I need. Or another example: For international shipments I need the weight of the products without packaging. So I wrote a simple program for a scale that is connected to the computer. So instead of writing the weight on the parcel and printing the shipping labels manually the packer can now put the products on the scale, scan the invoice and the program injects the product weight for the customs declarations into the database and the shipping labels can so be printed automatically. Took me two days to write, but has saved hundred of hours over the last years.

I guess that's what Broadway has in mind. Individual time saving applications. I have started to write most of my applications in PHP, so they can be accessed at any computer in my business in the browser. Programs that need features PHP does not provide - like the ability to access COM Ports - I write in JAVA using Eclipse.