All about Goatbits Software

(draft)

History


In 2003 my older son started really getting into school and they were teaching him the Dolch sight words.  These are a set of words that if recognized allow a person read 75% of written material.  After several weeks of seeing him struggle with memorizing these words and being a programmer, I thought a computer could save the day.  I searched the Internet looking for a program that would not only help them learn the words, but would also track how well he was learning the words.  I found a lot of programs out there.  They were either too complex to use, not allow me control of the data, too expensive, more flashy graphics than actual learning, or in development and not functioning.  I decided to develop my own program that would provid the functionality I wanted.  Being a proper software engineer, not just some hack, I started with the requirements.

Requirements:

  1. Easy to use:  The interface and function of the program shall be self explanatory.  Any person that knows how to used "Note Pad" should be able to use this program without direction.
  2. Configurable: The user of the program shall not be tied to proprietary formats or utilities in order to change the images or sounds of the program.
  3. It is about learning:  The program shall not be for entertainment.  There are more than enough programs that combine entertainment and education, but do not aid in education or fail at both.
  4. Stable: The program shall be stable.  It is not possible to make a program that will never crash, but there are things that can be done to have the fewest amount of program crashes as possible. 
  5. Small:  The program shall run on a Pentium II with 156megs of RAM.  The current direction of programs these days is to throw more powerful computers at the new programs.  Even though the new programs do not do much more than the old ones do. 
  6. OS independent: The program shall run on these three operating systems.  There are three main operating systems that dominate the market right now.  Windows, Linux, Mac OSX. 

Development

With these requirements in hand I began developing the "Reading Bug".  The name was a play on words from "Book Worm".  I started development on the program and changed the design three times in the process.  All through the design and development, I got feedback from various teachers and parents.  I also would get my kids to play with it, as I got it functioning.

Current Status

I have worked on the program for three years now.  With time for a few hours each week, for work on design and coding, development has been slow.  The base requirements remain the same, but the program has taken on a whole new direction.  By making it extremely configurable, I found that I could also support many different types of exercises and subjects.  The program will now aid in the memorization of any subject; state capitals, spelling words, parts of the body, and even math.  To support multiple operating systems, I chose WxWidgets for my graphics library.  This is an open source library that also supports multiple languages.  This multi language support will allow me to support more than just English.

As of July 07 2006 a beta version was released.  The editor will allow setting up the configuration files needed for "Reading Bug" to be set up without needing to under stand any special programming languages.

Formats

I am currently using the BMP format for the images and WAV format for the sounds.  I have plans to support other formats in the future.  I will continue to support open formats to provide plenty of options for the users.

Availability

Currently, I am giving a functioning version of the program away for free.  It runs on Mac OSX 10.3.  It currently supports sight words, spelling, and math. 

I have a small lab and have to done much in testing yet and I have not had much feed back from the ~10 people that have downloaded the program.

Near Future Work

Currently, I am working on documintation and proting the program to linux and windows.

Other Projects

Diversify, diversify, diversify.  I have no plans of failing in my endeavor to have my own software company.  Software tends to get stale and people just stop buying it.  So I have several other programs in various stages of development.  These other programs are for entertainment only.  I know, another computer game.  What makes these games different, is that they will not only be fun to play, but also be violence free.  Unlike the so called rated E games that include fighting, bashing things with a mallet, or eating fluffy sheep.  These games encourage fair play, planing, and thought.  Currently one game, Shapes, is down loadable for free.  There is not much play in it yet and it may crash.

Needs

I am currently looking for a sponsor/investor who would be interested in all or part of the programs that I have developed.  Frankly, I need funding to support my family, while I finish the program.  With out the funding, I continue work at a snails pace.

  July 07 2006