Re: Proving Correctness (was Java Portability)

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

As I said elsewhere, anybody who wants to write code free of charge and give
it away just because it presents a challenge, etc. is perfectly free to do
so. More power to them. I just don't see the hoards massing at the gates
just swelling with anticipation over the opportunity to work for free so
that someone else will cash in on it.

A lot of the code that ends up out there in "Open Source" (whatever
definition we have for that today...) is something a company may have
developed and made available because it isn't their "core business" and they
benefit from a wider audience, or it is maybe academic work (profs and/or
students) who were building things to gain knowledge and understanding and
didn't see some huge commercial potential in keeping it for themselves. In
both cases, someone did it because they had something to gain by doing so.
You just aren't going to lure tens of thousands of professional programmers
into making rock-solid, commercial grade development libraries unless they
have something they anticipate gaining from it. (Not always cash - but it'll
do as a substitute if you can't get the glory! :-)

Even things like Linux aren't turned into a commercial grade "product"
without someone doing it for the money. Taking something out of the realm of
"hobbyist" software and making it a real product that can compete heads-up
with something like Windows is only going to happen if someone makes a
living by doing that. (Netscape and GNAT would be two more examples of
something becoming a commercial-grade product because people are making a
living off of it.)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Florian Weimer" <fw@deneb.enyo.de> wrote in message
news:873d73twql.fsf@deneb.enyo.de...
> Why do you think so?  Perhaps the problem tackled by the library is
> interesting and challenging.  Some people climb mountains in their
> free time, some write free software libraries.  I don't think these
> two things are so much different.
>
> OTOH, coding all the day and coming home just to code more stuff is a
> bit sick. ;-)