A Philosophical Point

[Jim Carwardine]

I don't need to know this, John.  How is RunRev to stay in business if they
don't charge for their product?  You of all people should know how much
overhead is required to produce bug-free code.  RunRev could not sustain
itself unless it turned open source and that's not the business model they
are running on.  For my sake, please stay off the list... Jim

on 4/26/05 6:05 PM, Mathewson wrote:

> 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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