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[REBOL] Re: free REBOL?

From: rebol::techscribe::com at: 1-Aug-2003 9:01

Hi Mike. You wrote:
> I know I'd never suggest my company use REBOL > because I know I can accomplish the same things > with python, ruby or Java for free, even though I like > using REBOL.
1. Why do you like REBOL? In my mind REBOL is superior to the languages you list, because it makes me by far more productive. I can produce results much faster and more easily maintain existing solutions using REBOL. My increased productivity translates into significant savings for the company I'm working for. The $$ they pay me generate more results for them, therefore the per-result-cost is lower. Since when do companies prefer to spend more money on labor, rather then invest in tools that lead to a higher degree of productivity? No business entity I know of relies on the existence of free tools, in order to be successful. Everyone understands that superior technology has a higher price that is rewarded by improved results and increased savings over time, i.e. lower cost-per-unit. In short, IMHO you are not doing your company any favors, by assuming that the cost (free vs. commercial) is the most important criteria for choosing the appropriate tool for a job. This may be true for the impoverished hobbyist, who'll make do with substandard tools, since he can't afford anything better, and does not have to deliver commercial quality results within a set deadline, but certainly not in a professional/commercial environment, where money is meant to be spent, invested, used as a tool to improve productivity, the ability to compete on the market place, and the ability to optimally satisfy the needs of critical customsers, who want to spend as little as possible in return for as much as possible. Here, in the commercial environment, money is not intended to be saved and hidden away under the mattress and stretched to last as long as possible, here money is a means, a tool for accomplishing these commercial goals. If REBOL can improve the company's ability to accomplish these goals faster, and with less payroll costs, then REBOL is worth every penny of its price to your company.
> And I certainly wouldn't consider it for a commercial > project if faced with the choice of giving RT a percentage > of my profits or just writing it in another >language and keeping all the profits myself.
2. Commercial project? You mean you expect to get paid for your work? Guess what, so do others, such as RT. Share the wealth! The same arguments that I used above apply here as well. If you are going to make your choices based on pricing only, and choose inferior tools because they cost less, then you are reducing your ability to deliver the commercial project, and increasing the labor cost of production. You will be spending this "saved" money one way or another. Either it'll go to your landlord, grocery store, energy company, and so on, because the additional time it will take you to complete your commercial project will force you to spend more money on your livelihood, until the commercial product is finally completed, and begins to pay you back. From a false "selfish" point of view (I want to spend my money on myself, and not pay others) this may sound perfectly acceptable. But really it is not even sound logic in terms of selfishness. A healthier selfishness, that incidentally is also more consistent with a sound business logic, is the selfishness that says, if I can accomplish my commercial goal more easily, faster, then I will see the rewards out of it faster. RT's flagship product - Command/SDK - sells for $448 (US) (see http://www.rebol.com/purchase.html). How long can you live on $448, and how much more time will it take you to complete your commercial product using a different scripting language? If the additional time it will take you to complete the same feature set in one of the free languages, is more than the time you are able to survive on these $448, then you are wasting money. Consider also, that Command/SDK enables you to complete any number of commercial products, and therefore you should really assume only a fraction of the cost of Command/SDK per commercial project. Finally, I hope that your observation that Java, Python, and Ruby are popular because they are free is not quite precise. If indeed that would be the only nice thing you can see about the trio, then yikes! (Are you saying, "admittedly they're garbage, but - hey - their free"?). The great thing about Capitalism is that it harnesses selfishness as an engine for compassion. Take Care, Elan [mh9831--comcast--net] wrote: