On Apr 8, 2005, at 5:39 AM, Lothar Scholz wrote:

> Did you ever thought about the legal problems of your problems when
> using the visual works engine ?

Yes.  I used to work for them.

>  I did a short look at the cincom webpage and
> i guess it is as expensive as ever, which means > 5000 US$ per
> license. I hate it when the guys are not even publishing there prices
> without a contact form.

Yes.  I wish they'd cut that out, but they can be quite "old-school" 
software industry-wise.

The main purpose for the VisualWorks version is for commercial server 
images that have to run fast.  Certain organizations will prefer to 
have a product with official support and will pay a premium for this 
and speed.  If/When this happens, I'll license their Object Engine as a 
VAR, and pass on the licensing costs.  (Also, they are looking for new 
products to sell.)  Otherwise, the Ruby image can just be a fast 
platform for education and academic research in Ruby just as it is for 
Smalltalk.  Also, it is the platform that I know best, so it is a good 
place for me to start.  For purposes of just having the Refactoring, 
Debugging, Browsing environment, people who want free as in speech will 
probably opt for hosting on Squeak.

--Peter

--
There's neither heaven nor hell, save what we grant ourselves.
There's neither fairness nor justice, save what we grant each other.