Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!udel!princeton!phoenix.princeton.edu!mfterman
From: mfterman@phoenix.princeton.edu (Dark Mutant)
Subject: Re: Yes, but how much will it cost?
Message-ID: <1995Mar20.221141.703@Princeton.EDU>
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Reply-To: mfterman@phoenix.princeton.edu (Dark Mutant)
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References: <1995Mar17.155555.29303@vfl.paramax.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 22:11:41 GMT
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In article <1995Mar17.155555.29303@vfl.paramax.com>, dave@gvls1.vfl.paramax.com (David Lee Matuszek) writes:
>I've been following Dylan, admittedly not very carefully, but for
>a long time now.  I've played with Thomas, and I've downloaded
>Marlais and hope to find time to play with it, too.  Dylan seems
>to be a pretty nice language.

Certainly it strikes me as being much cleaner than C++, a language
that reminds me of Structured BASIC, a language trying to mix two
different design schemes in one language. It'll take time to see if it
is to OOP what C is to structured language programming, but its
certainly one of the nicer candidates.

>My question is, is Apple going to push this language, or is it
>going to be another of the MPW things costing hundreds of dollars
>that only professional Mac programmers will be able to afford?
>(I'm a programmer, but I get to use a Mac only for recreational
>programming.)  If it's going to be priced like Apple's other
>compilers, I'll stick with CodeWarrior, thanks.

We need the CodeWarrior people to come up with Dylan support. :)

But seriously yes, Apple needs a low end version of Dylan. Not
necessarily with version support, fancy frameworks and the like, but
with complete Toolbox support and a full implementation of the
language. Could even be "supply your own text editor" for the creation
of source code.

>So what do you think?  Is Dylan going to be priced to make an
>impact, or priced to make a profit?

IMO, especially in Apple's situation, pricing at a break-even level
or even at a slight loss is to their benefit. Its more of an
investment rather than an opportunity to make a profit. Apple makes
their money selling systems, and systems are sold based on
applications, which come from developers, who need development tools.

Especially since with Opendoc, you don't need a huge software platform
with millions of lines of code to produce stuff. Doing grassroots
Dylan support for Opendoc could allow the market to be flooded with a
lot of Opendoc tools and containers.

But Apple will probably try to recoup their expenditures on Dylan
somehow, and its going to be up to some commercial developer to really
push Dylan for the masses. I hate being cynical.




-- 
 Martin Terman, Mutant for Hire, Synchronicity Daemon, Priest of Shub-Internet
 Disclaimer: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but flames are just ignored
  mfterman@gnu.ai.mit.edu  terman@pupgg.princeton.edu an174376@anon.penet.fi
"Sig quotes are like bumper stickers, only without the same sense of relevance"
