Platforms to sell Pascal code

[LemonParty]

What platforms are suitable for selling a Pascal code?

[paule32]

GitHub.com
with GNU Public License (GPL).

OR:
Ember Delphi 12.0 Community Edition -> 5.000 Dollar Limit !!!

[Thaddy]

Or your own website and pay Google to find you....

[Martin_fr]

"Pascal code" is very generic. It just says something that comes with source code. (And that is assuming you meant it literal, rather than meaning "code compiled from Pascal" that can be used (against payment) by others with/on their Pascal code).

Also it could be anything from a snippet library, smaller and bigger components, IDE add ons, full software....

Further, then do you seek a platform that does the actual selling? Or just, present it to the user (make it known) and then have some License, and the user has to pay you in some way.

A lot of commercial packages for Pascal (or any other language) are sold by the Author directly. They are distributed via their own webpage, as well as webpages that offer collections of such packages (like "torries delphi pages" // not sure if they are still any good, last checked them 20 years ago).

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Or does Platform refer to the "development environment" used by you on your PC to develop such sources? And that must not restrict you in your usage of what you produced?

[gues1]

If you want to sell something (including Pascal code), there are three things you should plan on doing:

1) Advertising, which is what your product needs to be known about.
2) A platform—let's call it a showcase—to present your product.
3) A standard and secure payment system.

So, this generally boils down to:

- Build a website where you present your product.
- Publish a link to your site everywhere and in search engines.
- Make an agreement (i.e., pay) with a well-known payment site (there are sites that handle both collection and direct distribution of a product).

In DelphiPraxis, for example, there's a section for advertising your own products, even for a fee.

I don't know the distributors or who can collect the money, but if you do a Google search and browse the forums, you'll surely find something interesting.

Also some typical sites like "Microsoft Store", "Googl Play", "Apple Store" may be a street.

N.B.: take care that you will need some optional too, like for example sign certificates or other things that may be expensive.

[LemonParty]

I was searching in Google for platforms for selling code and found https://codecanyon.net/. And after registration I realize that this platform support only code from PHP and .Net. Which is pity. 2 languages on code selling platform – this is nothing.

I know building the website is an option. But there are downsides of this option like:

• Pay a rent for website
• Buy or build the website itself
• Maintain the website
• I am not an expert in web programing so attaching a payment system seems problematic for me

I would be happy if there are a platform for hosting code without headache.

[paule32]

- before you do something ...
- try out to collect Money by grounding a Club with Members
- try out to collect Money by start a Crouwd-Funding Initiative

- before doing this ...
- learn the System "Market Place" and study the Mechanism, Rights, and Insights
- learn to make a Business Plan ...
- in this Business Plan:
- try to collect your Market Position's
- try to collect your Cost's
- try to collect your "not" planed Cost's (Shave Gel, Food, Clothes, Madness Medicine, ...)

- try to collect Informations, what you would do with the Money you collected per Crouwd Funding ...

- try to collect your Change's on the Market (including your Code Style - not all end-up in Spagettie Code by Beginners that think, they can make Money with this (shit)hub.com Code ...

This Points are only a thinking for your Mind - they are not all listed !
So, a study of a Business or Technologie is sometimes not enogh !

I give you some words to your Journy:
- try to be the best ...
- but don't forget the other's (that can Help you, if you need Help)

Howdy ...

[Warfley]

You don't sell code, code is worthless, you sell expertise.

Writing code that does a certain thing is easy. Figuring out what the thing is you want your code to do, what the real world problem is and how to model it in code is the true difficulty.

This is experience you can only learn when working in the field, working on a long term project (or many smaller projects within a domain).

Look at the most popular programming languages in the enterprise world today, Java and .Net, both of them you can fully decompile and get access to the code. Yet code theft is an absolute non issue because if I take a program and decompile it, I could "sell" you the same solution, but the original developer can give support, incorporate new features, etc. All the stuff I can't do because I just copied code not the experience.

So long story short, you don't sell code, you sell either solutions you develop and maintain, or provide your services to create new solutions

[Thaddy]

I so agree with you. But the issue recurses again and again.
If code is good it will surface anyway.
If you want it commercial, don't publish it, just make sure everybody needs it (Facebook is a good example, allegedly written in an attic by a student, msdos is dubious to this day, but that was allegedly written in a garage, like the first Apple, but that included the hardware too)
So your choice is basically attic or garage. That may bring you ahead.

I lost out: I have only a shed in the garden, hardly a mancave, I have an attic but no garage,,,.
(But the Pascal language payed my pension! and a good one. Not rich but affluent.)

[440bx]

You don't sell code, code is worthless, you sell expertise.

Yes but, it should be noted that what makes code useful is the expertise that's built into it.

IOW, the expertise offered in the form of support is certainly valuable but, it is even more valuable to offer code that requires very little support.

.net, VCL, LCL and other libraries/packages all offer the same thing: enable people that couldn't dream of coding something to actually do it because there is a body of code offered to them that enables them to do it.  It should be noted that, it makes little difference however much support and expertise you can offer those people: they often simply don't have the knowledge to understand the explanation they are given.

Psst... guess why Python is popular

[marcov]

I was searching in Google for platforms for selling code and found https://codecanyon.net/. And after registration I realize that this platform support only code from PHP and .Net.

And only as plugin for certain web packages. More to download and customise features than to solve programming problems.

Selling code shrinkwrap is hard.

[440bx]

Selling code shrinkwrap is hard.

Yes, it is. 

I'm not sure but I think part of the problem with selling source code these days is that vendors seem to be asking too much for it.

I remember when Borland sold source code, e.g, Turbo Editor Toolbox, it was $29.99 and it was worth it not just because of the various ways it gave to implement a basic editor but, because the code was reasonably well tested.  Personally, I find writing code to be nothing special, ensuring the code works no matter what you throw at it, is a different story.  IOW, I think the value in purchased code should be in the fact that it has, hopefully, been thoroughly tested.

Part of the problem is that code that is very specific, which means code that is usually quite complex, has a small market, therefore is difficult to offer at a "popular price".

Once the market share drops below a certain level, it doesn't look like selling code is a viable business model.  Examples, TurboPower Software and Blaise Software.    Both long out of business.

IMO, selling apps is more likely to be successful than selling source code (of course, that depends on the app.)

[duralast]

Look at https://alexedwards.net who sells two Go books online. Just because you sell online doesn't mean you need to setup payment processing; use Gumroad or Stripe. https://bitfieldconsulting.com/courses/learn-go is another website selling Go courses.

I realize they aren't selling "code," but they are online and use alternate payment methods like those mentioned before. PayPal is another option.

[paule32]

I was happy as I bought my first Commodoire 64 Computer.
It came with a small Manual with some Examples in BASIC which cost us many nights to replace mistakes written during the Copy and Type the inline printed Listing's.

Later as I had my first 386 IBM compatible Personal Computer I was happy to be able to bought the PC-Magazine's which had each Month small inline printed Programming Listings of a wide Range of DSL.

So, in the one Month you have a 64 Lines in Length Fractal or Mandelbrot Code that renders very fast in 320x200x256 graphical Mode.

Now adays I don't know if you can win a Flower Pot with Code that you have pay for to get access right to print a small Example in a PC-Magazine.

It is not cewl to read Books or Magazines anymore.

More cewl is it to visit the Carribans WebSite and Co. to download and rip Books in electronic Form without paying any Fees.

In my Eye it is very "not" cewl and not social way for others that take Effort's to make / write a Book to life from the Income of selling Books.

But this is a World wide Problem => getting all for nothing

I am not a Fan of those Intention's.