Re: Vincent, please read. (was Re: Why some ...+ FASTER PARSING than 2.4 !)
Chris I think your confusing yourself:
Official RDS Euphoria is not open-source. The *seperate* 100% Euphoria written
source code is public-domain. The fast optimized C back-end is proprietary. For
exchange of $79, RDS will *share* their C back-end but only after you consent to
a strict license agreement. That isn't open-source, it's privately shared
proprietary source code.
Think of it this way... 70% of the official Euphoria interpreter source code is
proprietary, while the other 30% is public-domain; the PD-source code is
completely public-domain. The offical Euphoria interpreters become public-domain
once their built into executables by RDS. The interpreters you might build from
the source code product you purchaced, do not become public-domain.
Since RDS doesn't charge for the complete download packages, they arn't making
money off the front-end or PD-source; thus they are not breaking rules governing
the boundaries of the free, public-domain & open-source software movements.
RDS did it this way because they wish to stay in full control over the official
language. Euphoria may now be free, but RDS still wants users to use their
programming language, not just the alternative flavors. The main purpose for the
PD-source was to give users the ability to make their own versions of the
language for free, but at a cost of speed in a attempt to prevent them from
competing directly with RDS. You cannot really consider this uncompetitive
behavor though, because RDS did *NOT* have to release the PD-source or make
Euphoria freeware at all. If they feel this current plan could backfire, it's
possible RDS will stop supporting the PD-source, and/or even remove it from
future releases.
To put this another way... RDS wants to open up to their customers, but arn't
ready to retire from their buisness yet and still would like their customers to
continue using their official language.
It's possible that when they do decide to retire, they'll release Euphoria and
all their products as public-domain. I will be leaving Euphoria if or when that
happens. I will *NOT* stay to see what becomes of Euphoria in the hands of a
open-source community! For all I know, this language could turn out like BACH,
OpenEu, and OOEu, with all the completity we want but none of the simplicity or
elegence we had. So I guess I'm hoping that RDS will remain in buisness long in
the future.
Regards,
Vincent
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