Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Nice people with problems and money
Author: Andrew Duncan Posted: 8/29/2000; 11:22:12 AM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 8/28/2000 Msg #: 20498 (In response to 20482) Prev/Next: 20497 / 20499
I didn't say worthless, I said "close to zero." No doubt there is some value there in the sense you describe.But if you are a running a for-profit company, support for the code is a valuable consideration. The library metaphor is a useful one, and I would think most companies would by the book if the code it described was valuable to it.
Take The TeXbook and TeX: The Program for example; the program is free, but the books have sold a bazillion copies (I own em both) because they are worth having if you use the software in a for-profit setting.
It's probably worth pointing out that publishing the books at least partially relieves Prof. Knuth of supporting the software directly, by answering email questions about it for example.
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