From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, LOTS_OF_MONEY,MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,577c9f9c0cdd76d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Dewar Subject: Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly new in ada programing Date: 1999/11/03 Message-ID: <7vqgs2$lcc$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 544099173 References: <7vphsr$tlk$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x22.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Wed Nov 03 23:35:30 1999 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.04 [en] (OS/2; I) Date: 1999-11-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , tmoran@bix.com wrote: > As for selling(promoting) > proprietary(copyrighted) software, I certainly take a back > seat to the President of ACT. Just so no one else gets confused, Ada Core Technologies does not deal in proprietary software at all. Our software is copyrighted (mostly the copyrights are held by the Free Software Foundation) for the sole purpose of making sure no one attempts to make a proprietary (non-free) version of GNAT. > And one should always take into account the > motives of anyone pushing their own product or way of doing > things. Certainly I have an interest, both personal and professional, in wanting people to understand the free software model, and to understand how valuable it can be in meeting their needs! No doubt about that (and certainly no hidden motives there). Indeed, one of the interesting dynamics here is that everyone using GNAT, including especially those using the public version have an interest in seeing ACT prosper so that the development of GNAT can continue and we can continue to see new versions with lots of new interesting functionality. For this to happen, ACT doesn't have to get rich (we are not thinking of Redhat style IPO's here :-) we just need to be able to pay reasonable salaries to the ACT folks, so they can devote full time to this valuable task. So far, this economic model seems to be working very successfully. It's really an interesting symbiosis. The users of the public version get a cost-free effective Ada solution, and in return help by reporting problems and making useful suggestions (many new features come from suggestions made by users). Those who need a fully suppoorted product provide the resources to make continuing development possible, and gain the benefit from the contributions of users of the public version. A few years ago, this model seemed very peculiar to people, and I was often asked skeptically how it could possibly work. Now everyone is scrambling over themselves open sourcing software (novell, sgi, apple, etc, all getting into the game!). I definitely would encourage vendors of proprietary software to consider this very workable model (who knows, perhaps CLAW would make more money if it were open sourced, and for sure it would be more widely used :-) :-) Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.