Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
Re: Price Justification , Was: Computing Speed
Bruce Bowler (bowler@eisner.decus.org) writes: > If a fully functional IDL for a PC was 10% of what it costs now > [...] both my boss and my wife would be happy... As someone who has an IDL license at home, I can tell you for sure that this doesn't necessarily make the wife any happier. :-) Cheers, David ----------------------------------------------------------- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com Phone: 970-221-0438 Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
davidf@dfanning.com (David Fanning) tapped on the keyboard to say: > Helge Rebhan (Helge.Rebhan@REMOVE-THIS.gmx.net) writes: > >> You will also save a significant amount of money for your IDL licences ! >> Out of some 'historic' reasons IDL on Unix workstations is 3 to 5 times >> more expensive than PC or MAC versions ! I never heared any justification >> for this ?? > > But, on the other hand, if RSI flooded the student market > with cheap $200 software that was fully functional and got > all those potential users BEFORE they purchased PV-Wave or > MatLab, THEN lowering prices would certainly make a lot of > sense. At least to me. :-) I'll throw my $0.02 hat into the ring. I work in a fairly competitive, 100% soft-money research environment. If we *have to have* a certain piece of software for a project we write the cost of that software into a grant proposal. If the software isn't required, it doesn't get bought. We recently started a new project where we needed IDL on a couple of Sun workstations, no problem. It's our first experience with IDL. I'd like to "play" a little with IDL to learn it (nothing like "hands on training"), but the Sun's just don't fit in my briefcase, whereas a laptop does. The upshot is that either I take longer to learn IDL (because I'm not willing to spend the extra time at work) or my Wife sees less of me (because I am willing to spend the extra time at work). If a fully functional IDL license for a PC was 10% of what it costs now (I find it really hard to believe that *anyone* can justify $1500 for a single user PC license), both my boss and my wife would be happy... Oh well, thanks for letting me rant. Bruce