Re: I am a new lisp user

From: Kenny Tilton (ktilton_at_nyc.rr.com)
Date: 01/13/05 

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 19:25:34 GMT

Jock Cooper wrote:
> Kenny Tilton <ktilton@nyc.rr.com> writes:
>
>
>>83 wrote:
>>
>>>I was looking for a free lisp interpreter for Windows platform.
>>>The only ones I could find were only trial versions.....
>>>So can you help me out............................
>>>
>>
>>Use the AllegroCL Trial version. By the time you know enough to exceed
>>its limits you will realize it is worth the price.
>
>
> Worth the price for commercial use (I have a copy) but pretty much out
> of reach for the home/hobbyist who wants to write shareware or
> freeware utilities or games for fun.

Have you spoke to Franz about how big a royalty they would want on
freeware? They might be reasonable. :)

>
> Remember that recent thread-from-hell about CL, C++, and games, and if
> Lisp is so good, why aren't there any games written in it? It's
> partly because Joe Programmer can't afford get a copy to play with at home
> *that allows him to write and sell or give away anything*. (Although there
> is Corman Lisp, I have had limited success with it. I had some little
> programs I wrote for ACL/CMU that I tried to port to Corman; there was
> much chokage and spewing of strange error messages on my macrology.)
>
> If you could get ACL or LW for an amount that is reasonable to a
> casual hobbyist,...

I believe they are all still in the mode "for serious developers only"
since (until recently) there just wasn't enough Lisp mindshare to
produce interesting revenues from casual hobbyists. Perhaps this will
change as Lisp continues to take over the world.

You know, back in Jan '99 I dipped my toes in ALlegroCL by snagging a
$500 personal edition. Uncrippled, I mean. That went away at some point,
probably for a reason.

>.. with rights to sell your apps,...

Lispworks has that. But you said "casual hobbyist". I spend $800 for
items in my hobbies (speedskating, photography, snowboarding, computers)
but I guess the language market has been ruined by free languages.

I think vendors should stay in the stratosphere. These trial versions
rock, and should be enough to let people discover a good Lisp IDE is
worth $800. (I would dis Slime, but then the Yobbos would come crashing
in here and kill me.)

> I say stuff written in
> Lisp would start popping up all over the place. People keep hearing
> about how great Lisp is, then perhaps they even investigate and get
> intrigued, then they look at what's available that would compare to a,
> say, visual studio and there's nothing they can use.

Then we are even. When I look at Visual Studio I do not see anything I
can use. :)

kt 

-- 
Cells? Cello? Celtik?: http://www.common-lisp.net/project/cells/
Why Lisp? http://alu.cliki.net/RtL%20Highlight%20Film

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