Standalones on el Capitan?

RM richmondmathewson at gmail.com
Mon May 2 04:36:47 EDT 2016


Blast, I said I wouldn't write any more: but this one really "takes the 
biscuit".

I don't think this is solely Apple's or Livecode's problem, I think it 
is a general tendency where "programming" (and there is a contentious word)
has polarised into 2 camps:

1. The "Hard Chaps" (at the risk of being extremely sexist) who do 
"real" programming, have hairy chests and look down their patrician
noses at "babies at playtime. They make a living from programming and 
have relatively big bucks to pay for their tools.

2. The "Babies at playtime" who will produce nothing of any value but 
must be given "toys" to play with because occasionally a #1
will emerge from them. They are seen as having no bucks at all.

However, as someone who most definitely falls between those 2 categories 
(I contributed MODEST BUCKS to the Kickstarter, I paid a fair bit
to attend a RunRev conference about 5 years ago), I resent that 
polarisation. I am well aware I am not and probably never will be a 
"Hard Chap"
(and don't really have any ambitions in that direction), but resent the 
implication that because I am not a "Hard Chap" I am a "Baby at play."

Livecode has been seduced by this polarisation (just as it has been 
seduced by monochrome icons; but I digress), and risks losing a large slice
of revenue.

-----------Tedious personal wibble starts here-----------

I have a "standard rate" for kids to attend my EFL school.

I have quite a few kids who attend at half that rate.

I have 2 who come FREE of charge.

The ones who come free of charge are the sons of 2 gypsy women who clean 
the streets round our way; they work well,
and they make the full-pay kids jump occasionally.

The ones on half-rate are there because of the plain and unvarnished 
fact that their parent(s) just don't have
the money to stump up the full rate; and I'd far rather have a classroom 
full of half-pay kids that a classroom with
2 full-pay kids rattling around like beans in a tin; and then there's 
the Math(s):

Full pay = 100
Half pay = 50

2 x 100 = 200

6 x 50 = 300

So I win, the half-pay kids win, and everybody gets what they want.

-------End of tedious personal wibble-------------

I started work with Runtime Revolution (as it then was) using the 
10-line-limit version, and then paid for 2 versions of Dreamcard
(remember that one?) and then a commercial version via the Edinburgh 
conference. So that was an upward tendency in terms of
my spending . . .

My spending has now stopped, and will not start again as I simply do not 
have $999 for any software whatsoever.

Now my modest upward spending trend is not unique, nor should it be; it 
may reflect a quite common pattern
But I don't really see many people jumping from "Zero to Hero", FREE to 
$999, in one swift movement.

What Livecode (among very many others) has done is excluded an extremely 
profitable middle.

They have also, as has been pointed out many times, been "pissing about" 
with their costs, marketing model (rent/buy), licensing
and so on to such an extent that it might be unsurprising if quite a few 
people were not "pissed off" by it.

And before everybody jumps, I am aware that RunRev have not been 
"pissing about" from their point of view, they have been
"experimenting with marketing strategies"; but that doesn't stop it 
having a negative effect on a lot of people who might
otherwise be sending them bread and cheese.

There needs to be something that plugs the gap:

1. the "revStudio/revEnterprise" model worked quite well as long as it 
lasted.

Many, many times I have urged this sort of a model . . . .

Richmond.

On 2.05.2016 02:04, Monte Goulding wrote:
>> On 2 May 2016, at 8:46 AM, Sannyasin Brahmanathaswami <brahma at hindu.org> wrote:
>>
>> Forgive me, Monte.. But I think this is an extremely “blinkered” regressive point of view that seriously limits the possible future user base. The “middle ground” is not small at all. The digital revolution is *exploding* faster than anyone can possibly comprehend. In our very small world wide membership… I can’t count how many young boys and girls would jump on LiveCode if I put them onto it…
> With all due respect what you are complaining about is an Apple problem not a LiveCode problem. I actually think Apple’s position on GPL should be tested again now that they have free provisioning profiles.
>
> Cheers
>
> Monte
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