butch@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (H. G. Walker) (10/16/90)
In article <1990Oct16.040005.7741@cs.uoregon.edu>, akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: |> the wincomm people posted a message which made me believe that wincomm |> will work only for a fixed amount of time, and then stop working after |> some date. I don't want to spend time on an application (putting |> together screen captures so that they can debug the output takes a |> while), get used to it, and then find that it is not going to work. Sorry for the delay again. I would have liked to respond to you but was waiting for Synappsys to decide how to handle this problem. We do appreciate your contributions, though. I'm sorry if it was not made clear, but it was stated several times and is in the documentation that is a free demo, not a free package. Synappsys decided that rather than post a crippled demo which would last forever, they would post a full-fledged version of the software which would last only a limited time. If they did not make it die, nobody would purchase the package and, after all, making money is why their in business. If your demo dies and you want to continue using Wincomm, ordering info is in the documentation. Buying the package will only result in even better response to problems as purchasing is a behaviour that should be reinforced. There will still be free bug fixes, plus you get a manual which explains the macro language and opens up a whole new aspect of Wincomm. Plus, you will be talking to the authors themselves, rather than someone who has volunteered to help with the demo coordination and has other things he has to do. |> So for me it is back to good old telix, does everything... Works in |> dos mode, but... Sorry to hear that and I hope that you will reconsider once the problems you have submitted have been fixed (probably today or tomorrow for the backspace problem). Butch
thorh@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Thor Hallen) (10/17/90)
In article <1990Oct16.141129.26359@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, butch@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (H. G. Walker) writes: > In article <1990Oct16.040005.7741@cs.uoregon.edu>, akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: > |> the wincomm people posted a message which made me believe that wincomm > |> will work only for a fixed amount of time, and then stop working after > |> some date. I don't want to spend time on an application (putting > |> together screen captures so that they can debug the output takes a > |> while), get used to it, and then find that it is not going to work. > > ...... If they did not make it die, nobody would purchase the package > and, after all, making money is why their in business. Other software vendors are able to make money without using user funded net resources to debug and promote their *commercial* products. > Buying the package will only result in even better response to problems as > purchasing is a behaviour that should be reinforced. There will still be > free bug fixes, plus you get a manual which explains the macro language and > opens up a whole new aspect of Wincomm. Synappsys is either ignorant of accepted industry practices or incredibly greedy. From the number of bug reports, it would be generous to classify it as a Beta release. Most professional software vendors compensate Beta site evaluators with a free copy of the final release. Even with the "compensation", I usually earn less than a dollar an hour. > > |> So for me it is back to good old telix, does everything... Works in > |> dos mode, but... > I will also continue using Telix. I gladly registered my copy after being able to evaluate an uncrippled version for an indefinite period of time that was *bug free*. Telix is *shareware* rather than a *commercial* product. Thor Hallen