The cost of developing an MHP application

Question

I have had for some years an ambition that an MHP application can become written in Java and put into use, an MHP application which implements some of my ideas about a generic application.
The generic application which would be produced would accept as input data a Unicode text file produced on a PC using Microsoft WordPad.
The generic application would respond to user keypad presses.
The effect would be to produce text and maybe vector graphics displays on the screen.
The ideas of my own which the program would implement would be to use various Unicode Private Use Area characters to have meanings, within the application, such as changing text colour, waiting for a keypad button to be pressed, clearing the screen and so on. There are various things which I have thought would be good ideas, including vector graphics and a system for preparing programmed learning texts, though all of them do not need to be implemented in a first application.
The particular generic application would be a specialised sandbox with solid security. If it were implemented it would mean that people could produce safe interactive television applications using a text editor on a PC.
This particular generic program would be for a one-way broadcast system only.
My Quest text font, which is available as a free download from the following web page, has visible glyphs for many Unicode Private Use Area characters, though some are for things other than my ideas about broadacsting technology, being for such things as simple percussion music, chess and stylish typography using ligatures and so on.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/fonts.htm
The glyphs relating to this idea would be used at authoring-time, not at run-time, so the font would not be broadcast with the application. At run-time the particular Unicode Private Use Area codes would be interpreted as commands, glyphs would not be needed for them.
I am unlikely ever to be in a situation where I can produce that application myself. I can program a little in Java, but not very much, and I have all but no knowledge of the special MHP classes. I am not representing any organization.
I have no idea of how much effort the writing, testing and deploying of such an MHP application would need and, following on from that, I have no idea of how much a contractor would charge to implement the generic application and arrange for it to be broadcast. Please bear in mind that I also do not know at the time of writing this post what would be required in terms of getting the application certified for broadcasting.
So, my question is to ask what would be the sort of price level for implementing such a program as an MHP application please?
Once such a figure is obtained then maybe I can try to think of a method to raise it. One idea is that perhaps the development of the MHP application could be used as a case study in a television series about the development of interactive television technology as it would be an open project so there would be no commercial secrets constraints about the program being used.
William Overington
12 November 2007

Answer 1

Thank you for replying.
* XML provides a much better way of adding structure to documents. It is clear what is markup and what is data.The system is not seeking to add structure to documents. It is seeking to add a few control codes here and there into text without needing to restructure the whole document into a format which differs greatly from a plain-text format.
* There are thousands of XML tools out there to help programmers, but there are none for your system - even text editors will have problems displaying the correct codes.Well, WordPad and Word 97 can display the authoring-time glyphs easily if the Quest text font is being used.
* There is a limitation on the number of commands that can be added to your system, with XML there are none.Well, I have not come up against a limitation on adding commands into the system. There may well be a theoretical limitation yet that may be far beyond what I am seeking to use. What limitation are you suggesting exists please?
* The Unicode Private Use Area is there for a reason (to allow character set designers to add unusual glyphs into text. e.g. the characters that represent the film ratings). If you subvert if for other purposes then it will not be available for it's intended purpose.My understanding is that it is entirely proper to use the Unicode Private Use Area in the manner that I am using it. It is not a matter of "subvert it". One can define control codes within the Unicode Private Use Area if one wishes and one may publish those assignments if one wishes. I am not seeking an exclusive assignment at all.
* Software engineers tried this system in the early days of PC computing with the ANSI.sys driver. This was removed and for good reason - it's a pain to use and is limited in scope. It is a tried tested and failed solutionThank you for the mention of the ANSI.sys driver. I looked it up on the web.
* The use of such a system will have limited scope (you are proposing just MHP boxes). This increases the learning curve of potential users, which is going to be hard enough as there is no logical structure to your codes. (This was one of the bigger problems with the ANSI driver).I was only proposing using MHP as I thought that that might be a way to try to get things started in Europe as I am in England. If people wish to use the same codes for JavaTV more generally then they are welcome to do so. I suggested MHP so that I am trying to implement something specific rather than just talk about implementing on various systems.
* Separating out data from control is one of the fundamental principals of good software design (even the weaving machines of the mid 19th century worked by this principal). You are deliberately mixing data with controlYes I am deliberately mixing text with control. I happen to think that it would be a very useful thing to do in the context of adding these control codes into text so as to enable people who are not programmers to produce an interactive television application for, say, a programmed learning sequence which they have devised. People could use a plain-text editor to produce the text file.
* By deliberately mixing data with control you increase the complexity of the code used to interpret the display string, and thus slow down the text output algorithms.Yes, I am increasing the complexity of the Java code which would be needed to interpret the display string in the television set. So, that slows down the text output algorithms. I feel that that slowing down will not be significant bearing in mind that most of the time the software will be waiting for an end user response to what is on the screen.
I'm sure there are other good reasons for not doing this.Well, I am happy to read, think about and to try to respond to any reasons that are put forward.
Simply waiting a few years and suggesting it again is not going to make this a good idea - it is an idea who's time has thankfully long since passed.I am not suggesting that people take it up. That is up to them. Unless other people try it, it will not get tried. I am not representing an organization and I do not own a broadcasting station. I cannot write the Java application myself. I am trying to find out how much it would cost to implement the idea in an application program so that the system can be tried in practice and used by those people who would like to do so.
William Overington
13 November 2007