Re: advantages of forth over other languages

John Passaniti wrote:
> Stephen Pelc wrote:
>> Because they cost money to develop, debug and document.
>>
>> Many of the libraries you want actually exist. The're just not free of
>> cost.
> 
> No software-- not even open source software-- is free of cost.  The 
> question is how are those costs recovered.  Increasingly, other 
> companies are finding they can release their software as open source, 
> and make money not from the software itself, but the sup****t and 
> consulting services they provide.
> 
> Educate me and explain why this wouldn't work for MPE.  And if Elizabeth

> is reading this, I'd appreciate the same answer for Forth, Inc.  That 
> is, what would be the downside of releasing your software for free, 
> bootstrapping the community, and ultimately leading to what would be 
> increased sales of sup****t and consulting services?  Note that I'm not 
> saying to run the clock backward and pretend you are just now starting 
> your respective companies.  The year is 2007, and you've both got a 
> solid history behind you and resources you likely didn't have when you 
> started.

That business model works for software that *needs* sup****t.  Most of 
our customers are self-sufficient; occasionally we get questions from 
brand new customers, but rarely.  We have email groups, which get 
occasional questions, but they are usually answered by other customers 
who have encountered similar needs or situations.

We do derive significant revenue from custom software development, but 
as we study where these op****tunities arise (which we have done), they 
relate more to companies with specific development needs which we can 
meet, and we don't see how releasing the software for free would 
increase that workflow (which is already running near our capacity).

Our software product sales cover our development costs; without them, 
we'd have trouble justifying taking time away from work that brings in 
hourly revenue to do product development.

Cheers,
Elizabeth

-- 
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Elizabeth D. Rather   (US & Canada)   800-55-FORTH
FORTH Inc.                         +1 310-491-3356
5155 W. Rosecrans Ave. #1018  Fax: +1 310-978-9454
Hawthorne, CA 90250
http://www.forth.com

"Forth-based products and Services for real-time
applications since 1973."
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