>Hi All:
>
>I was turned down for a programming job today , no biggy, but I've not run into this problem before and would like your opinion(s) - I'm not a real professional like most of you here on UT.
>
>The job was to write a POS program for a small retail store. I spoke with the owner for about 3 hours. The job was straight forward - I think I had a lot of it already written, in my head, at the end of out meeting.
>
>The owner then threw me a curve. He said he wanted to get a manual first - then we'd work out changes (deletions, and/or additions) to the design and functionality. I told him that I don't think that's possible. He said that all professaional programs starts with manuals then after approval from the hirer the actual programming begins. I again, told him that it wasn't possible. He told me "good day", and I left confused.
>
>Can someone tell me if what this guy said is true or not? If so, how can you write a manual before at least a proto-type is done - in other words, before any coding?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Mal

Hi Malcolm,

As Doug and others have said, he must've been asking for the functional specification, not the user manual. But you wanto to charge good money for this one, since once its done somebody else can pick it up and create the program from it. IOW, he can choose another developer to do the job. I second William K.'s suggestion of reading Whil Hentzen's "1999 Developer's Guide".