[REBOL] Re: Licensing, components ... Re: REBOL FAQ updated
From: carl:cybercraft at: 19-Sep-2002 19:52
On 18-Sep-02, Ed O'Connor wrote:
> Carl R--
> Thanks for your responses to my comments.
> My take-away from your posts is:
> 1. You believe that OS-specific scripts will be fatal
> (or highly detrimental) to REBOL.
Not quite - I believe it'll be fatal to REBOL as a cross-platform
language. Being OS-specific has been good for lots of software and
lots of companies. It does tend to tie one to a particular OS
though, as that approach guarantees one OS or another will dominate.
Cross-platform software is a way out of that bind.
> 2. You believe that RT should not offer an attractive
> runtime license so that developers can distribute
> OS-specific scripts.
Define attractive. I believe RT should do what RT believe is best for
RT. (I think they'd be betting the farm by making ViewPro and
Command freely distributable though. They wouldn't get the baby back
in the bath after that.) But I'm attracted to REBOL because it's a
cross-platform language first and a good one second. In that order.
The world's not short of OS-specific languages, but good
cross-platform ones with GUIs are a different matter. I want to be
able to surf the Reb knowing that 90% of the scripts there don't care
what OS I'm running. The Reb will be a pointless exercise if they're
not. (Yes, I know it's not much now, but it has the potential to be
very interesting.)
> When I talk coarsely about cross-platform support,
> it's not because I disagree over the merits of PalmOS
> , Novell, etc. It's because my inner business
> marketing strategist warns me that, given finite
> resources, all platforms are not equal (let alone
> identical).
> While I surmise the above is an unpopular viewpoint to
> the REBOL supporters on this list,
I don't think so. (:
> I hope it is accepted as fair input.
Very fair. It's just that I'm old and cynical and don't believe that
humans collectively take all that much care with what they do. If
cans of spray-paint were free to all, do you think that'd make for
better painted walls?
--
Carl Read
