| Re: OT(ish): ANA seems to be back [message #27921] |
Wed, 14 November 2001 06:55  |
Ron Syml
Messages: 4
Registered: October 2001
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Junior Member |
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On Wed, 14 Nov 2001, David Fanning wrote:
> This is the downside of "free" software. At least
> when you pay for it you get *something*, even if you
> don't get the help files to be able to use it.
David, what are your plans if/when RSI self-destructs due to developer/sales
infighting and IDL ceases to exist? The big problem with proprietary,
binary
distributed software is that there always a potential that if the company
folds (or decides that your OS of choice isn't 'profitable') you will be
stuck
with thousands of lines of worthless code when you next upgrade your
operating
system. Of course, you don't have to upgrade your hardware/software-- I
*could* choose to keep my beige powermac G3 with macOS 8.6 installed for the
next decade just for the privilage of running IDL...
One of the downsides for IDL seems to be that even if you are willing to
pay,
RSI may not compile a binary for your choosen OS. At least I can compile R,
scilab, octave, yorick, and ANA on my different unix machines!
Ron
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| Re: OT(ish): ANA seems to be back [message #27922 is a reply to message #27921] |
Wed, 14 November 2001 06:32  |
hcp
Messages: 41
Registered: August 1995
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Member |
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In article <MPG.165c280c7c3ae17d98976d@news.frii.com>, David Fanning <david@dfanning.com> writes:
|> James Tappin (sjt@star.sr.bham.ac.uk) writes:
|>
|> > It looks as if the ANA site http://ana.lmsal.com/ is operation again. Still
|> > no updates since Sept 00 though.
|>
|> This is the downside of "free" software. At least
|> when you pay for it you get *something*, even if you
|> don't get the help files to be able to use it.
It is important to note that there are many differences between one
Free Software project and another, just as there are between one proprietory
software company and another.
Perhaps the biggest difference is between
(a) projects run by a moderate sized committee (normally with a substantial
user community from which that committee is drawn) and
(b) projects which are essentially a one-man effort (often with a user community
drawn from one government lab).
R, whatever its failings, is firmly in the first category, with an army of
grey statisticians to keep it alive even if any one of them becomes the
less pleasant sort of statistic. The same if clearly true of GCC,
the Linux kernel, perl etc.
ANA is (was) in category (b) [1], which means that it only took one
person to change employers and the whole thing ground to a halt. This is a
risk with small commercial suppliers and small Free Software suppliers alike.
Of course, with Free Software you have the source code and can
fix/re-compile it yourself, so it keeps working as you upgrade your OS.
But that is nothing like as satisfactory as being part of a larger user
community.
Hugh
[1] As is Yorick.
--
============================================================ ==============
Hugh C. Pumphrey | Telephone 0131-650-6026
Department of Meteorology | FAX 0131-650-5780
The University of Edinburgh | Replace 0131 with +44-131 if outside U.K.
EDINBURGH EH9 3JZ, Scotland | Email hcp@met.ed.ac.uk
OBDisclaimer: The views expressed herein are mine, not those of UofE.
============================================================ ==============
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| Re: OT(ish): ANA seems to be back [message #28016 is a reply to message #27923] |
Wed, 14 November 2001 08:45 |
Nigel Wade
Messages: 286
Registered: March 1998
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Senior Member |
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David Fanning wrote:
> James Tappin (sjt@star.sr.bham.ac.uk) writes:
>
>> It looks as if the ANA site http://ana.lmsal.com/ is operation again.
>> Still no updates since Sept 00 though.
>
> This is the downside of "free" software. At least
> when you pay for it you get *something*, even if you
> don't get the help files to be able to use it.
>
It's also the downside of commercial software when the vendors of that
software decide that your platform is no longer profitable.
But, in the case of "free" software, it hasn't actually cost you anything.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail : nmw@ion.le.ac.uk
Phone : +44 (0)116 2523568, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555
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