Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> But the time has come that I have to make a decision, and sadly as an
> amateur programmer the price of Metacard is way beyond my budget. It is
> three times as expensive as Visual Basic, and while you can easily argue
> that MC is more than three times as good as VB, the reality is that this
> does *not* translate into three times as many sales.
C++ development environments are even cheaper; many are completely free.
With software development, the cost of the IDE should be the smallest factor
in the equation. If it's not, you're not writing much code. ;)
Visual Basic is a good time for what it does, but it only does Windows.
While Windows is currently the biggest player, it is the only family of
operating systems with a declining market share.
But even if the large majority that Windows represents was the only market
you were interested in, unless you're tying into Access databases or taking
advantage of other Microsoft-specific technologies, most work can be done
much more quickly in MC than in VB. Even if a programmer values his time at
minimum wage, the cost difference pays for itself in a few weeks at most.
And of course, with VB you say adios to Mac OS and Linux, or anything else
not owned by Microsoft.
> So I'd like to wish everyone great success, and hope that starting next
> month Metacard Corp, like Microsoft have, and Delphi and Borland before
> them, will see the wisdom in capturing the home/small business market
> and use that as a foothold in gaining the lions share of the software
> development market.
Most of us are small SOHOs. MetaCard is among the more expensive tools I've
purchased, but hands down it has provided the highest return on investment
over anything we've ever purchased. As with any business expense, it's
return on investment, not initial purchase price, which is the primary
determinant of profitability.
VB should be a good ride, but over time I suspect you'll miss MC's property
and message inheritance. Maybe we'll see you back in a few months? Hope
so.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Media Corporation
Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web
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