Simon wrote:
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You disclose without disclosing. That's your magic but only to us, novices. What is co-written routine and what are three dimensional calculations in the business ??

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By co-written routines, I meant to suggest that after writing a routine, I immediately write the test routine to prove that it is really working. Co-written as in "at the same time" while all issues are fresh in my mind.

I then load that module into the accumulating code and run it with its tests. After debugging any problems, I disable the test routine for that module and begin the next module.

I don't know if this is the most efficient way to write code. I just do things the way I like - its my company.
I try different methods and this is what I'm happy with today. I have the luxury of not doing team effort coding and I like that.

About the only team coding I've used around here is to assign an apprentice to write code to check out the first circuit prototypes built. None of that code is used in the product and it saves me time and gives a novice a lot of valuable experience.

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Disclosures:

As I've said before, my market is nothing special. Its an unnoticed niche and I want to keep it that way. My competition is dumb and low tech. I plan to take over this niche with high tech solutions.

One thing I learned long ago is that the only way to protect secrets is with lots of misinformation; its makes real info that slips out, indistiguishable from the noise. After awhile, the noise is deafening.

Awhile back we caught a competitor trying to get info on our development. Their friendly contact was fed a canary (a tag quote) with some misinformation and then we waited to see if it arrived where expected. A few days later we confirmed the canary had arrived. Knowing this person was working for their company president allowed us to exploit the contact with lots of believable, bad information. A year or so later, that company is no longer considered a significant competitor.

:)

aka j