license issues (was mystery exception)

[J. Landman Gay]

On 3/11/03 8:00 PM, Alex Rice wrote:

> Clearly the feature-limited Starter Kit IDE is 
> a good thing. I just don't fully understand why the need to cripple 
> standalone apps. Just to provide active insurance for what the license 
> permits- so nobody will go out and create a Transcript interpreter with 
> a cool IDE?

Yes. Among other things.

The script limitation is a permanent part of the engine. The magic 
licensing key that unlocks the developer's copy is not stored with the 
engine. Standalones revert to the default, restricted behavior after 
they are built.

Now think about this for a minute. If your standalone were unlocked, 
yes, someone might create a competing IDE. But even if they just used 
your standalone to create their own software, that is one less copy that 
Runtime would sell. You and I, as developers, are staking our future on 
this technology. We should *want* Runtime to guard their product, sell 
lots of copies, and have a huge customer base so they will survive to be 
there for us. Why would anyone pay for a developer copy when any old 
standalone with a message box was fully functional?

The script limitation is the one, single, sole, solitary, and only 
protection that Runtime has.

There's also the issue of abstract versus reality. In the 16 or more 
years in which I have been writing x-talk scripts, I can honestly say I 
have never once needed an 11-line "value" function. I can't imagine the 
convoluted script that would require something like that. I can't even 
imagine a script where the syntax would work out. I suppose someone 
might want to plop a whole field's worth of script into a "do" command, 
but not only is that rarely necessary, there are ways to break the code 
up if it really is required. Only it hardly ever is. I've never needed a 
"do" statement that long.

In practice, I think you will find the script limitation to be a 
completely minor inconvenience, worthy of almost no consideration at 
all, except as a great big chunk of insurance against the future for all 
of us.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com