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comp.lang.ruby

Re: Ruby Editor

Dan Zwell

7/22/2007 2:01:00 AM

Felix Windt wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
>> From: Chad Perrin [mailto:perrin@apotheon.com]
>> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 5:46 PM
>> To: ruby-talk ML
>> Subject: Re: Ruby Editor
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 22, 2007 at 06:01:39AM +0900, John Joyce wrote:
>>> Open source is nice sometimes, but it isn't the most
>> important thing
>>> to everyone.
>>> There's no need to ignore software because it's closed source.
>> It appeared pretty clear to me that Robert's point was that,
>> like all proprietary, closed source software, TextMate may
>> one day disappear from the market simply on the whim of the
>> copyright holder (or because the copyright holder "goes out
>> of business", gets hit by a bus, whatever).
>> As such, putting all your eggs in the TextMate basket may be
>> kind of a losing proposition.
>>
>> There are other reasons to prefer open source over closed
>> source, as well. All in all, I don't think TextMate is good
>> enough that it overcomes the negatives of being a closed
>> source, proprietary application. There are cases where, in a
>> strictly technical sense, the benefits of a given piece of
>> software *do* overcome the detriments, but for my money this
>> is not one of them. This in no way means that whether or not
>> something is open source is the only, or even biggest,
>> concern, but rather that whether it's open source is simply
>> an *important* concern.
>>
>> Your mileage may vary.
>>
>> --
>> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ] John W.
>> Russell: "People point. Sometimes that's just easier. They
>> also use words. Sometimes that's just easier. For the same
>> reasons that pointing has not made words obsolete, there will
>> always be command lines."
>>
>
> Any given open source editor may disappear from the market if the developers
> decide to no longer work on the project. Of course, you have the theoretical
> possibility to pick up the project, but that assumes skill in the development
> language, a project tidy enough to be picked up by somebody else, that you
> have enough time to work on it etc. - or betting on the fact that somebody
> else will continue the work. Once your own business and money are involved,
> that's not a bet I'd want to take, but I'm not a gambling person.
Not quite the same. With proprietary software, there is the risk that
you can no longer acquire it (can't install old versions). If a company
decides to stop selling it, you can only get it if you know someone with
an install CD. Ever reformat your computer, then realize you don't have
your original install CDs? Oops.

It's the same to a degree with open source software, but the code is
much more likely to remain floating around on the web somewhere (because
OSS sports legal flotation!).

Dan
1 Answer

Chad Perrin

7/22/2007 5:37:00 AM

0

On Sun, Jul 22, 2007 at 11:01:17AM +0900, Dan Zwell wrote:
> Felix Windt wrote:
> >
> >Any given open source editor may disappear from the market if the
> >developers decide to no longer work on the project. Of course, you have
> >the theoretical possibility to pick up the project, but that assumes skill
> >in the development language, a project tidy enough to be picked up by
> >somebody else, that you have enough time to work on it etc. - or betting
> >on the fact that somebody else will continue the work. Once your own
> >business and money are involved, that's not a bet I'd want to take, but
> >I'm not a gambling person.
> Not quite the same. With proprietary software, there is the risk that
> you can no longer acquire it (can't install old versions). If a company
> decides to stop selling it, you can only get it if you know someone with
> an install CD. Ever reformat your computer, then realize you don't have
> your original install CDs? Oops.
>
> It's the same to a degree with open source software, but the code is
> much more likely to remain floating around on the web somewhere (because
> OSS sports legal flotation!).

. . to say nothing of the fact that a significant investment in a piece
of software goes up in smoke with no recourse if the vendor stops
supporting it, whereas with open source software you at least have the
opportunity to decide whether it's worth the cost to restart development
if the previous developers drop the project, among other things.

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);