🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <UZYOsya00W0TBLNrIm@andrew.cmu.edu> jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone) writes:
>I can not say for your individual case, peter.  However, i can say
>that Microsoft Corp. has not helped out the economy much, especially
>when they charge the prices that they charge.

  Actually, a good argument could be made that Microsoft has helped
out the economy tremendously.  The IBM PC, though it's not the most
powerful computer in the world, has been quite a boon to businesses
(the economy).  Without MS-DOS, it wouldn't have been accepted nearly
so quickly, or been as easy to program....

>As you say yourself, depending on people's good will has a poor track
>record; thus we can not depend on people's good will (ie. giving away
>source code) in order to see the state of the art improve.  

  Just a quick comment here...IM(V)HO, giving away source code does
not contribute immensely to the "state of the art" (I assume you mean
"the art of programming"?).  Source code isn't nearly as useful as new
algorithms, say.
  Not that I'm sure what the best way to advance the "state of the
art" is...though I think it's probably software engineering.  Oh well,
enough on this tangent. :-)

		Anton
   
+---------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | rang@cs.wisc.edu | UW--Madison |
+---------------------------+------------------+-------------+