Re: [MacPerl] Distributables?

[Richard Gordon <gordon@mindspring.com>]

On 1/28/99 at 22:46, cn1407@coastalnet.com (David Rouse) wrote:

> Let me just say that that as a Perl user (I'm not going to pretend to be a
> programmer) I am completely prepared to tell my boss to spend $x on a
> plain-text, full-featured perl script that I can download from someone's
web
> site just to try out. And I would be much more willing to use a clearly
written
> script rather than something that was obfuscated (sp?).
> 
> So it can be done, just create a compelling solution to a real problem.

In the context of my question (which may not have been clear), what I was
concerned about was taking the time and effort to perfect something that
would just disappear into the wilderness of the internet assuming that it was
really as useful as I think it would be, but could be copied from one user to
another ad infinitum if the source code was open. There is a base of honest
users of essentially unfettered shareware who actually pay their fees, but I
think that one time I read that Peter Lewis (ICS, Anarchie, NetPrezenz, etc.)
estimated it to hover between 2 and 3% of all of the users of a given
product.

As Chris pointed out, the essence of perl is that someone pays you to
program, rather than pays for the program, and that's fine in its place but
it does not appear to me that perl is a viable choice to use if you wanted to
whip up something like an internet utility that could be downloaded off of
your site for a free 30 day trial (a precursor to success) and then licensed
out of Kagi or whatever.

Since perl is open source, it can't be locked up to protect a 30 day timer
algorithm or otherwise controlled once it's distributed to User One. I will
grant you that every licensing/registration scheme is readily hacked either
thru brute force or the simple expedient of finding a serial number somewhere
on the web (the lone exception being Digital Harbor's approach to WAV, may it
RIP). A determined and talented group of reverse engineers (let's say in
Redmond :->) could probably get into most anything anyway, but at least the
author gains a measure of protection from unlicensed use by AOL members and
other clueless slugs.

As I mentioned originally, I can do the same thing that I contemplate doing
by using AppleScript and a couple of OSAXen, it's just not as nice as it
might be in MacPerl and loses 95% of the potential xplatform market. My
conclusion is that you don't use a hammer as a screwdriver and if perl's
essential flavor is inappropriate for this particular use, then you use
something else (it's amazing how much of my life is devoted to avoiding C!).

Richard Gordon
Gordon Consulting & Design
Voice: 770-565-8267  Fax: 770-971-6887



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