How I start a desktop project

Before I open an IDE, I write down who sits in front of the program and what they do in the first ten minutes.

Desktop software is close to the person using it. A web page can be left. A tool someone opens every morning cannot. If the first screen is confused, the rest of the architecture will not save it.

I usually decide three things early:

• The one job the program must finish without help
• Where the data lives, and who is allowed to change it
• Which toolkit fits the desk: WPF when the work is Windows and rich, Qt when it must travel, JavaFX when the team already lives in Java

Then I make a thin slice that does the real job with boring data. Not a mock. If inventory is the point, the first build receives an item, finds it, and lets it leave.

Clean code is a kindness to the next month. I would rather ship a smaller tool that another person can read than a large one that only I can touch.

If you want to build something in that shape, the studio is open.