[REBOL] Re: Follow Up: What's Up Rebol?
From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 7-Mar-2002 13:01
> Now this might interfere with RT Inc. current busines plan and attempts to
get revenues but how many people are actually buying and using /Pro &
/Command when they can get the same or more functionality & libraries freely
from other languages like JAVA, Javascript, Perl, PHP, Python etc.
> These languages are all available for NO FEE and are entrenched in both
the client and server sides.
Yes I agree. This is very important point. Even a recent trivial example
reveals the problem:
I just added a link on my admin web page to run a Linux shell script to
update my server log reports. I had to do it in PHP, as I only have
REBOL/Command for win32:
<?php
system("/etc/webalizer_all_sites", $return);
?>
If I want to keep using REBOL on this site [and I do], I imagine I'll be
doing lots of hybrid programming with Python and PHP to overcome REBOL's
default system/shell limitations. But its messy and annoying.
Or did I miss something ??
I cannot really convince [not-for-profit] site owners to spend a $350 for
something we don't functionally need. As a developer, I would be in a
stronger position if I paid the /Command $350 price once, but were then free
to take the preferred tool with me across platform and project.
At least if REBOL/Command offered inclusive cross-platform support for one
price, it would been consistent with write-once run-eveywhere philosophy.
RT follows Macromedia strategy where developers must buy Mac and Win32
copies at full price everytime. Most only use the second copy for testing,
and have been railing [unsuccessfully] for years against MM to offer
developer incentives.
If not willing to offer single cross-platform proce how about a radical
discount for the additional platform copies.
I think RT is in a terrible bind here..
How to generate income without discouraging or obstructing developers?
Decent income comes probably not from selling a handful of developer kits
but from selling applications made with it. There's *many* more people
willing to buy cool, useful easy-to-run easy-to-install applications for
$19.95, $49.95 than innovative off-the-radar languages. I guess that's the
thinking behind IOS but somehow it does not hit me that way.
The catch-22 is that people buying applications really don't care what they
were written with as long as they work well. Except when the applications
features openScripting with 'xyz' language.
AREXX anyone?
./Jason