Re: Windows Common LISP

On 10 Nov 2008 13:54:41 GMT, Tamas K Papp <tkpapp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:33:39 -0800, jvdvyah wrote:

So, obviously, various people have reasons (or think they do) to choose
non-commercial over commercial, even if the commercial ones are
available for free (albeit crippled). This may be a matter of religion,
practical considerations or the toss of a coin: I don't really care.
Fact is, lots of people ask for free/Free implementations so I don't
feel I should ignore it. At the same time, I feel I may be doing a
disservice if I don't point newbies to the wonderful commercial versions
so they at least know what a professional environment brings.

Look at the title of the thread - the potential users of this already use
a commercial OS, one with a nasty company behind it. I don't see why
they should avoid commercial Lisps as a matter of principle, especially
since vendors offer free trials. And no, they are not really "crippled",
the restrictions should not be binding to a newbie for years.

People who insist on free/libre CL implementations/environments while
they are using Windows are making little sense.

Whatever your definition of "free", I think the OS argument is a bit
different than the application argument.

First, many computer vendors simply pre-install Windows on everything
and, even with web search engines, I think most people are not aware
that computers can be bought naked or, sometimes, with other OSes
pre-installed. Even if they are, they may be wary of doing business
with companies they've never heard of. For bad or for worse, Windows
comes pre-installed on 80+% of all computers sold.

Second, the majority of programmers today are neither CS grads nor are
they interested in developing software commercially. Instead they are
students, IT/IS/business people, scientists, engineers, etc.
interested only in their own applications. For most of these people
the programming language may be an important consideration but the OS
is irrelevant.


George
.

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