$500 <= chump change, was Re: Port I/O

[Tom Moran <tmoran@bix.com>]

There do exist companies where $500 is beyond the petty cash aloowance
of a low level manager.  More to the point, here in Silicon Valley, a
lot of games, and other things, were initiated by programmers in their
'off hours' and using their own money.  To my high school son, for
instance, $500 is not 'a pretty trivial amount'.  If you expect the next
original game, Ada killer app, or whatever, to come from MS, Lockheed,
IBM, or such, then $500 or $1K/year is a low hurdle.  History, however,
suggests innovations often come from kids with a bright idea, and I
suspect such prices will steer their creativity elsewhere.
  But perhaps $500/yr is a straw man, a monopoly price paid only by a
very small segment of the market.  Perhaps "starving students" get their
copy for free from school, and bright young employees of "serious
project" companies just take a copy home with them.  I personally
dislike such hypocrisy, but "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" is
usually practical advice.