Subject: Re: Announce: LispWorks 4.0 for the Windows(TM) Operating System From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 1997/03/19 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3067756959256171@naggum.no> * Cyber Surfer | There are a few other aspects of LispWorks for Windows that concern me | rather more, as LispWorks plus CLIM is still less than one third of | the cost of the full ACL/PC system. I think Harlequin's announcement is very exciting news, but they don't say anything about support or upgrades. both the standard and the professional version of Allegro for Windows include support, for varying lengths of time. it is well known that Franz' support is well worth paying for. the professional version also includes free upgrades as they are released. these cost around $100 each. the standard version does not include upgrades or a runtime generator, but you can develop in it just as much. additionally, the professional version comes with source code to a lot of the window system stuff. I believe you can sell loadable object code to others who have bought the system, you just can't sell runtime images. (for that, you need the professional version, and this is where Harlequin is doing something new. Franz could answer by de-coupling the runtime licencse from the support, the upgrades, and the source code they give professional customers.) | My hope is that LispWorks for Windows will create a little more | competition for ACL/PC, as it appears that the competition from C++, VB, | Delphi etc doesn't appear make a difference to Franz. Harlequin, on the | other hand, have a much more realistic price for their Lisp. sadly, I can't find any prices on Franz' web page, but back when I was asking for quotations in December, the standard version was $595 and the professional version was $2495. (somebody from Franz should confirm this, though.) in any case, the prices probably aren't far off from what they were then, and _I_ think ~$600 is just "realistic" a price as ~$500, but then again, I don't really know how prices work in the Windows market. #\Erik -- tempus meum perdo