A Philosophical Point

[Mathewson]

I recently completed a Master's thesis at the University of
Abertay, Dundee.
It was mainly concerned with designing a new Graphic User
Interface for computers (and may be read, in its entirety,
on my website at http://members.maclaunch.com/richmond),
and had at its heart a prototype developed using a version
of Runtime Revolution. The reason I chose to use Runtime
Revolution was based largely on the fact that I have 12
years of experience using what has come to be called
'xTalk' but when I started was called 'HyperTalk'.

While I believe that Runtime Revolution produce an
extremely good programming interface that uses a dialect of
'xTalk' I have a major philosophical disagreement with
them, of which many people who work with Runtime Revolution
are aware, but may not realise the reasons for.

On Friday 22 April I went to Sofia to the Webtech
conference and listened to Richard Stallman for close on
two hours. Dr Stallman's message was clear (and is well
known in programming circles), and for the first time I
heard somebody else say things that echoed, to a large
extent, my own ideas.

About 4 years ago I downloaded Runtime Revolution 1 and
started to play with it; over a period of time I developed
a wide variety of 'widgets' that I either uploaded to their
user site or made available through my own website. 

During this time I developed a complete interactive CD-ROM
for an educational company based in St Andrews (Scotland);
my employer bought me the Runtime Revolution 1.1.1 manuals.
In working on this CD-ROM I developed various bits-and-bobs
that I spun off as 'widgets' made freely available via the
internet.

This culminated in my designing a complex extended toolbar
for Runtime Revolution 2. At no time did I ask for any
money for these contributions, and never tried to exercise
any copyright control. This was based on the fact that
Runtime Revolution was available as a free download that
could be used in a relatively unrestricted way without
having to pay for it. When Runtime Revolution released
version 2.0.3 the company suddenly removed that freedom and
beyond a 30 day 'trial license' expected payment. I felt
betrayed and said so, forcefully; for which I was slammed,
forcefully.  I subsequently stopped making widgets I
developed available via my website.

I expect there are a large number of people who felt sad
about the end of a free version of Runtime Revolution ?
although nobody else went so far as to state that.

What Runtime Revolution has done has ensured that their
product will only be used by commercial developers (i.e.
those who can pay), and stifled a whole section of the
programming community who would otherwise have contributed
to the growth of the product.

For my masters thesis I used Runtime Revolution 2.0.1 ? the
last free version. None of the free versions are available
for download any more.

John Richmond Mathewson. 27 April 2005
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