I actually do see this in code. Generally speaking, where a subtle error like forgetting an equal sign could lead to a hard to find defect for software running in kernel mode this practice is followed.

gull,

remember 6-12 months ago when i said you would know when it was time to hire a sysadmin?

it's time to hire a sysadmin. this proposed solution is so bad that i'm genuinely scared for you and your company.

the parent project completely changed its api but your library can interop with both statically? that's weird.

as you know the standard solution is just to support the versions separately (for Foo 3.1.1, use Bar 1.0. for Foo '95, use Bar 1.1). this is clunky but i don't know if it's worse than adding a bunch of goofy shim code to do dynamic version detection.

the first thing i thought of was using a preprocessor at compile time. this is also weird, but it hides the complexity in the right place (the build process, when you know for sure which upstream version you're linking against).

The interface is basically for an event listener. Different versions have different events you can listen to (a couple were removed and some were added). Both the project and my library will trigger events that the listener needs to handle.

Luckily I only use stable events (aka the same in all supported versions) from my code and the parent project code obviously only triggers events that it knows about through its interface for the event handler.

So I think my hacky solution works...

Average gross margin is usually 30% fwiw and in mark-up that is about 1.45.

What exactly are you trying to seek for an optimal outcome? I worked in "recruiting" on the business side as a consultant to software development projects, and while I didn't work with candidates, I was the one who determined what to bill the client.

If you better explain your desired outcome I can probably tell you what to say to arrive there.

Out of curiosity, is this for Android?

Alright, I need some advice.

Basically, I agreed to build a site for a friend (yes, I'm a noob), who already hate the same site on the internet. It had stagnated, and was in need of a major design/infrastructure overhaul. I decided it'd be faster to redo the whole site, and would be an interesting learning experience in angularjs. She had raised a bit of money right out of college to get the site built and running, but it failed to gain too much traction. There certainly was a market for it, the site was just too crappy.

Fast forward 4ish months and I'm basically done with the site. At least done enough to launch into some sort of beta... but it seems pretty solid at this point. She starts asking me all these questions like "when is it going to be done? I want to talk to investors, blah blah." Well, about 90% of the work for a website is finishing up the boring minutia. I've long since passed the point of learning anything new, or getting much value from my time beyond launching a site for portfolio purposes.

She also got another friend to help out with making a cool design for the site (I cut up the css). I have the code in a private github repo. I never signed anything. I've probably spent 200 hours learning and coding in my spare time (I'd be able to build it much faster now).

She hasn't offered us any sort of equity or cash, and the thought of her trying to raise money to piggyback the work I agreed to do for her seems kind of gross. I hadn't thought much of it until I got to the boring grunt work at the end, and realized that I was learning nothing, and not benefiting at all.

So tl;dr I'm holding onto the code until we can sort out some sort of agreement. What should I ask for? I did agree to help, but I'm probably about 100 hours into not really wanting to work on it anymore, and not getting anything out of it. I was thinking just signing an agreement for $3-4k if she ever raises money paid out over a few months, with potentially some more contract work to come.

Nope.

@Nchabazam - Holding the site hostage after you agreed to do it for her for free and leading her on all this time seems pretty ****ty to me. I'd lean towards telling her that you don't really want to do a bunch of the grunt work anymore since you're not learning anything anymore. You can tell her that you'd be happy to finish it for her in exchange for some equity or money (whatever you feel like you'd need to make it worth your time). You can also say that you feel like you deserve some equity/money for the work you've already done. I think its fair that she gives you something, but if she refuses I think you should still honour your original deal.

Edit: And because this was for a friend I think equity is the right thing to ask for here. That way it doesn't really cost her anything unless she succeeds for real.

I'm splitting this into 2 parts: 1) what you have done and the compensation you want 2) the leverage you have

So, in summary, you started out offering to build a site for a friend, and now want to get paid $15-$20 an hour for the site you built for that friend.

Key Questions:
1. Would the friend have agreed to $15-$20/hr at the beginning of the project?
2. Has your friend ever mentioned compensation for your effort/ time?
3. Have you spoken to the other friend doing the design work about this?
4. Since she raised some money to get the site up and running, why are you surprised she is looking for investors or revenue from the new site?

Have you told this friend you are holding the code hostage until you come to some sort of agreement?

Personal View on situation:

No one's winning a business ethics award here.

What kind of money is she raising and what relevant skills does she have? It doesn't sound like she's someone you'd want to work with and you two don't seem to be real friends anyway but you have become cofounders at this point.

eh, you're all correct. I won't hold the code hostage, but I'm done working for free. If she wants to come to some sort of understanding about a potential compensation, UPON raising money and trying to monetize the site, I will be happy to finish, and finish well. If we're just going to complete it for portfolio purposes, I'll also finish it.

It's mainly her attitude that started bothering me. "Can you give me a finish date? I want to get investors ready to see this. The sooner the better."

Lesson learned, no more freebies.

Just on this part - I don't see how you have the ethical obligation to finish the work. If you're doing someone a favour for free I think you always have the right to say you've changed your mind and aren't going to spend any more time on it for free - especially in something like this where handing off the current code is really easy and still helps your friend out a ton.

Yea, this is true.

You definitely do not have to finish the work at this point, and should feel free to walk away. I was inserting my personal opinion into there that he should probably finish the work since he has come this far, and it would at least feel good to get a finished product out the door.

There is some tangible value to the work he has done for his portfolio tho, and seeing it through to the end would be a better story.

This one should be simple to resolve. Just tell her you have higher priority projects that need your attention and that you intend to finish but not sure when you can. Offer to hand over the project in its current state and say she is free to do whatever with it. If she objects just point out the obvious, you're doing it as a favor, you've done a lot of valuable work which she can use and you intend to finsish but no schedule was ever agreed upon. Let her make a decision at that point. Under no circumstances bump the priority without pay.

Ehhh I basically sorted it out with her. We're going to hash out the logistics on skype sometime soon. I was really just in a foul mood the last few days, and overreacted to sort of what I perceived as a bossy request.

I'm friends with the girl that I agreed to do this for, which is why I agreed to help.

Besides, I want to get users on the site.

"It's done"
/end

I think gaming_mouse brought this site up:
http://www.webflow.com/

Its live.

ha, thanks. i had forgotten all about that. i hope they did a good job with it.

I'm not in a beta-testing mood. Hopefully someone can take one for the team.

it looks cool but basically every single one of these tools (build this code-like thing with a gui!) that has ever existed has been terrible. maybe This Time It's Different; maybe it's lightable or a bret victor concept painstakingly brought to life.

yeah it's really true. but i believe in this case, it's possible to do, though obviously much harder than it seems

My desired outcome is to maximize my EV in a buyer's market. But its very very difficult to determine what that is exactly. For example I'm currently working a contract where the number offered to me seemed fine/OK, and I accepted it and am working, but just by overhearing things I'm fairly certain that I'm not even close to making 70% of what the recruiter is billing.

But what is the right way to go about making the most money here? Insist on "transparent billing"? Honestly at this point in time I have no problem in working 1-3 or more month contacts to make the most money as possible. But its tough to figure out the right path to making that happen.

It would be awesome if you could use it live to build a testpage without signing up (signup should be linked from that page so you can keep your work which would probably lead to decent signup rates because once you spend 5 minutes or so clicking around you're already decently engaged)