On May 12, 2007, at 11:26 PM, Christian Miller wrote: >> That possibility made some people think using a product like RB for a >> long term need this important was too risky. But since I already had >> it up and running and the immediate crisis was over, it was not >> pressed. > > Hmmm... REAL has been around for 11 years, and I'm sure I can use > an older version of RB to create apps that run on the new OSes.
That's just it - you can't. Prior to 2006r4, there was no fat binary support and many RB PPC apps didn't run correctly under Rosetta. Also, prior to 2007r2, there were many inconsistencies with RB apps on Linux. While I'm sure there are similar limitations in the Windows realm, I am not involved there so I can't say specifically. > All companies come to an end, it is just a matter of time. One can > choose Microsoft but there's no guarantee how long they'll be > around. Look at IBM... what was the saying... "no one ever lost a > job for buying IBM." I live near Research Triangle Park... HUGE IBM > presence. They sold to Lenovo... bunch of people lost their jobs. > Now, Lenovo just laid off a bunch of people. Ummm, while I know what you're implying, those people didn't "Buy" IBM for their company's IT platform, they worked there ... But, if I bet my company's direction on an IBM framework, I have a pretty good chance of that framework continuing to be supported for a very long time - even if the primary developer is "hit by a bus" as you say. Look at OS/2 - they still support it in quite a few environments. >>>> Depending on 3rd party RB plugins is even riskier. >>> How so? >> More likely to go out of business or shift emphasis. > > "More likely" seems more like an arbitrary feeling. Perhaps someone > has the time to look at all of the plugins ever made and how many > have been abandoned by the author and no longer work in recent > versions of RB. That would be a good bit of research. >>> Are you a RB Pro user of Standard user? >> >> Pro. Two actually. > > Cool. As for that and your response in another email, if the plugin does the same thing for Pro or Standard editions, I would expect to pay the same. Maybe a differentiation in pricing for a commercial vs. educational vs. non-commercial (free) license would be a good idea (ala MBS, QT, etc.), but for the same type of development, I'd expect to pay the same price. >> BTW that would mean if i wanted to work at home i would have to buy a >> plug-in for work and one for myself. > > Potentially. I'm not a lawyer. :) Not potentially, but YES. I do have a lawyer to answer these questions and we haven't uncovered one commercially licensed tool in our development efforts that allowed a coder to use their company's license in there personal efforts (or vice versa). >>>> I simply don't use 3rd party plugins. >>> Are you opposed to 3rd party encrypted classes? >> Don't use those either. > > I think it's a matter of how much your time is worth. One can > recreate a plugins functionality for "X" or pay a fraction of "X" for > the plugin itself. Again, I debate that the issue is not specifically time or cost, but more longevity of the plugin. If we become dependent on a plugin and that plugin goes away (for whatever reason), we're stuck trying to replace the plugin's functionality - which can turn into a much more costly (time and money) effort. >>> If so, are you >>> opposed to a higher price if you are able to have access to their >>> source? >> If it was something i absolutely could not do without I would >> consider it. I agree with Karen that purchasing a source license can make the plugin more attractive, but this does introduce the issue of potentially having to maintain a 3rd party codebase. We bought the source license to a particular database technology back in the 90's and the company went out of business. Even though we have the source, I wouldn't want my development team spending time trying to "learn" that code. The impact on our customer-based efforts would either be tremendous or we would need to hire additional personal to dedicate to that task. Tim -- Tim Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
