OK, OK I have been dually chastized :-) > > The point that I was trying to make was: I feel that were REBOL > to follow > the pricing/Marketing example of Turbo Pascal, and price their product so > that it is redally available to the masses combined with a top notched > marketing plan I believe that they stand the best chance of being pull > volted to success. > No need to feel chastised... you make some good points. But I'm not sure the marketing of Borland's Turbo Pascal is the greatest one<g>. Their marketing was horrible, and they ran a number of good products into the cyberdust. For several years in the 1980s I essentially made my living writing books about Borland products. They had some GREAT ones, like Turbo Pascal, Turbo Basic, Turbo Prolog, Reflex, and Sprint, their most excellent word processing program based on EMACS. I wrote books on all those except T. Pascal. Fantastic programs for their time, especially Sprint (which I still actually use for a lot of tasks, even though it has not been upgraded since 1988). Great programs fall by the wayside rather quickly, however, if they are not marketed correctly. Sprint, again, is a prime example. It was (and in ways, still is) far superior to other word processing packages, just like Rebol is far superior to other scripting languages. Borland blew their marketing, however. My book had only been out three months or so before Borland was history. Microsoft's Word panicked them and they dropped Sprint instead of marketing it aggressively against a very vulnerable target. I'm not bitter; my Sprint book sold several thousand copies and make good money. Plus, I got a free word processing program that I've used in writing over 50 other books. Lately I've taking to using Word 2000 for its GUI convenience, but Sprint is still in my toolbox for special jobs. While I'm happy, a lot of Sprint users (there's still a mailing list) are not. Borland mismanaged Sprint (and other products), and simply did the end users a massive disservice. People now use Word, Word Perfect, etc., not knowing there are better ways to word process. So Carl and the other fine folks at Rebol have a very difficult row to hoe (as we say here in the North Carolina mountains). If Rebol is to be commercial (and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, the current fad of open sourcing aside), they must tread a fine line in pricing and provide lasting support and product evolution. It's all balanced on the knife edge of our collective support. I envy not their position, but I will buy Rebol whatever the price for its obvious advantages. I will probably even write a book about it. I will certainly continue to write programs IN it. ------------------------------ Ralph Roberts, CEO Alexander Books / Creativity, Inc. 65 Macedonia Road Alexander, NC 28701 1-800-472-0438 voice & fax tollfree U.S. & Canada 1-828-255-8719 voice & fax overseas See Ralph's latest bestsellers at: http://abooks.com/genealogy http://autograph-book.com And my company's online auctions: http://booksave.com Wholesale to the Public Book Auction http://blue-gray.com Civil War Auction http://tennesseestars.com All TENNESSEE THINGS Auction http://bookauction.net Buy Books Net Instead of Retail! http://a-aa.com/gem GEM & METALWORKERS AUCTION http://a-aa.com/nc DOWN HOME IN NORTH CAROLINA AUCTION
