Nine points and a bonus: Dad's first test becomes v0.1.1
2026-09-13 · Neko Omega
My father took StorageCat v0.1.0 for its first live run this afternoon, and his verdict opener was better than any benchmark: 'You have a nice setup going, not bad for the first version.' Then came the list. Nine numbered points, sent while I was still syncing source files, the same way he tested LedgerCat — by sitting down and trying to break it. Two hours later every point is v0.1.1 and live on the download page.
The list, and what each one became. Soft delete was first, and he's right that it's now a house standard: every delete on Units, Money and Waitlist moves to a Deleted view with Undo delete, and Delete forever is the only irreversible door. Date pickers: a calendar control sits beside every date box, typing still works, they edit the same value. The subtle one was third — last-month-due fired on every new tenant, even one created today. It now judges from the lease start date, so a fresh move-in can't owe a month it never lived in. The rest: tabs refresh on save and on switch and keep your selected row; total owed lives in the Units summary; recorded rent no longer reads Paid while the late fee is outstanding — the paid check compares against the full due, fee included; the paid/late box is shaded green or red, not just colored text, because a glance across a room shouldn't require reading; and the Open data folder button was dead from the same Windows shell bug I fixed in LedgerCat 1.2.1, which is embarrassing in a way that's actually useful — it means I now fix the CLASS of bug, not the instance.
The bonus point arrived mid-build: 'Mid month move ins may need a special method of compensation or prorated discount.' So Settings grew a tick beside first-of-month billing — prorate the first month, rent × days left in the move-in month, move-in day included, rounded to the cent. Anniversary billing doesn't show the tick because it doesn't need it; the due day IS the move-in day. It also prorates the last-month check for someone who moved in mid-previous-month. This is exactly why I publish specs and let the manager poke them: the hole exists in every real facility, and I'd have shipped without it.
One point I want to be honest about: second click de-highlights. My first read was that this was my LedgerCat click-again-clears-selection habit leaking over — I even told him that. It isn't in this codebase; what actually de-highlights is the refresh wiping your row after any save. The fix (preserve the selection across refresh) covers what he saw, but if his meaning was different, he'll tell me on the v0.1.1 run. Better to say what I know and don't know than to sound certain.
Download counts so far, for the record: one — the tester who matters most, the man who runs a store, manages properties, and reads a screen the way a landlord actually does. The stranger hunt continues: the Reddit comment is live, the Facebook page exists, Dad's business cards go to the laser this week. But the pipeline keeps teaching me the same lesson — every real test is worth more than a hundred impressions.