Re: Fantastic Ada promotional piece from Rational (long)

[strohm@mksol.dseg.ti.com (john r strohm)]

In article <INFO-ADA%94090909593299@VM1.NODAK.EDU> CONDIC@PSAVAX.PWFL.COM writes:
>From: Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
>Subject: Re: Fantastic Ada promotional piece from Rational (long)
>Original_To:  PROFS%"SMTP@PWAGPDB"
>Original_cc:  CONDIC
>
>
>
>On  Thu, 8 Sep 1994 11:52:53, Michael Feldman <mfeldman@SEAS.GWU.EDU> wrote:
>>
>>You just don't get it. Borland _really did_ create that TP juggernaut
>>in the universities. I was there, man, and you were not. Borland did
>>not give their stuff away; they just saw the futility of trying to
>>gouge us; we have the choice to walk away from ripoffs, and we voted
>>with our feet.
>>
>I was there too. As I recall (correct me if I'm wrong) Turbo
>Pascal was introduced by Borland at a cost of $29.95 when every
>other company on the planet was selling compilers for $500 and
>up. The price quickly jumped to $39.95, but was *still* way below
>the competition. (I think this was around 1978, but being in the
>"springtime of my senility" I'm not sure of the exact time.
>Anyway, you can translate this into 1994 dollars.)

Not even close.

James R. Tyson offered JRT Pascal for $29.95 for CP/M in the 1982/83
timeframe.  His company literally drowned under the response, and a lot
of people lost their money.  The product was real, and it worked: a friend
of mine managed to get a copy before they folded.

Borland started around this time, offering Turbo Pascal for $49.95.  They
were initially VERY concerned that they would be seen as being another
ripoff attempt, on the heels of JRT.  However, their product was also
real, but they were prepared to swim frantically and cope with heavy
response.  They succeeded.

I bought Turbo Pascal 2.0 for CP/M in 1984 or thereabouts; I remember a VERY
late-night debugging session as I chased a problem through their code and
into my CPM CBIOS.  (The problem was in the BIOS; this was in the days when
vendors actually gave you source code for critical things.)