plunkett@rlgvax.UUCP (Scott Plunkett) (01/18/84)
- JRT Systems, makers of the $29.95 JRT Pascal compiler, have filed Ch. 11 Bankruptcy. For some time I have been reading various letters-to-editors complaining that JRT was slow to respond to orders, if at all. Other complaints, most notably from J. Pournelle of Byte, mentioned that JRT Pascal was not Standard, and that it was a shoddy piece of work, viz., easily crashable. Yet "a bargain at $29.95". The pricing seems to have been its undoing. JRT was flooded with orders it could not handle, the revenue received is now shown to have been insufficient to support the software firm, yet almost everywhere I read reviews commending Mr. Tyson for the courage of pricing it at $29.95; that it was a "steal" for the Pascal programmer. It strikes me as a foolish act of irresponsibility to price a compiler so low, and somewhat negligent on the part of reviewers to be seduced by the mere $29.95. (One exception was Dr. Dobbs that rightly said it was *not* a bargain regardless of price.) If the reports of JRT developing a Modula-2 compiler are true, I hope that they will invest alot more effort into the product, price it accordingly, and price it to support their company in maintaining and improving it. And in filling orders promptly. JRT has committed a disservice to the software industry with their JRT Pascal. Scott Plunkett ..seismo!rlgvax!plunkett
POURNE%mit-mc@sri-unix.UUCP (01/19/84)
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE@mit-mc> 1. JRT 2.+ was NOT a bargain at any price. 2. His 3.0 was, assuming you could get it; did you actually read what I said? 3. Barry workman can make a profit (not large) with sales at $35.00 per disk postpaid if he doesn't have large royalties to pay. 4. Borland'd Turbo Pascal at $49.95 IS a bargain, and indeed is pretty nifty; and t hey seem to be surviving and thriving. 5. Bookstores make a good living selling books at considerably less than $39.95; at least some do. And they have high volume of sales, lots of inventory, lots of items to stock, unlike JRT.