Re: Parser and pricing policy and other software issues

[cbmvax!uunet!infmx!godzilla!cortesi (David Cortesi)]

> Bob LeChevalier sez:
> 
> John Cowan has reported substantial progress on his Lojban parser, which
> may be in Beta test by the end of the month.  Written in C, it is likely
> to be available for PC, UNIX, and MacIntosh, perhaps by summer...
> 
> I am seeking input on an important question now, though:  how much do we
> charge for the parser. [...] the parser is a fantastic tool when you
> are learning the language...

I think if you charge more than copy and shipping costs -- say $15 a disk,
you are cutting your own throat.  You WANT people to learn the language.
The language's only hope for continued existence is to develop a community
of speakers. ANYTHING that acts in any way however small to reduce the
motivation of a potential learner has to be avoided.  Anything whatever
that makes a person say, "well, maybe next year... I'll wait and see...
maybe after the baby... after christmas... after vacation..."

To me, software under $20 sounds like a bargain; I'll buy it on speculation.
Software over $20 is a purchase I have to justify to myself, to my spouse.

You say: this is our chance to make some money. I say: this is NOT that
chance.  There will be NO such chance until you have at least a few
hundred real speakers -- about a decade at present rates of growth!
(To me, the most pitiful public evidence of JCB's self-deception is his
perpetual dreaming that there is a viable market for Loglan products.)

In my opinion you should aim to not LOSE money on distribution (and maybe
a buck a copy to the author just to make him feel appreciated); do that
and you have done very well indeed.  And will have met your real objectives,
to increase the spread of the language.
 
> I also understand that the plethora of U**X machines sometimes requires
> source recompilation, so we need to set a price for source independent
> of the run-time version.  From what I've seen in various price lists,
> source tends to rate a premium price, and U**X versions of software tend
> to be twice the price of MS-DOS versions.

You only say that because you aren't on the network!  You should know
that there is more FREE, public-domain SOURCE CODE being exchanged over
the Unix network than in all the PC channels combined.  I kid you not.
Good software, written in C by gurus, appears free in my email every day.
Several programs A DAY in comp.sources.unix, more in alt.sources, etc.

>  There is also the question of
> eventual distribution in the manner of the Free Software Foundation,
> though our finances may not allow this at this point.

You telling me that Stallman and company charge authors? No way; they
are the people who distribute the best, highest-quality C source code
for free.  They are the best argument for charging NOTHING for the
Unix source code of the parser.

Understand, I think you can charge (low) for working, stick-in-disk-and-run
software for PCs or Macs.  But the Unix source code audience is very
different.  They have to put in significant effort to compile on their
machines, and they would typically be running it on "stolen" CPU cycles,
on employer machines.  And in my opinion the chance that anybody would
have the knowledge to make a competitive parser and sell it in 
competition with you is just astronomically small.  For starters, there
is no market to compete for!  And second, by keeping your PC/Mac prices
low, you take any possibly motivation away.

As to your questions: I don't think anybody will pay a premium for
80286 code, since the 8086 version will run, and I can't imagine there
being a significant performance difference in parsing single sentences.
I will pay $19 for practically any disk of software for a Mac.
 
> 5. For MS-DOS users, we are working on translating the original
> adventure game 'Collosal Cave' into Lojban, such that it will have
> Lojban commands and text (and Lojban-correct magic words), as well as
> slightly more powerful syntax processing to support grammatical Lojban
> commands.  It is intended to be a bit more fun way to learn the
> language, though there is a lot of text to translate.  The version we
> are working on is in Turbo-Pascal, but there are C versions of the
> program for the U**X environment that can be similarly modified once we
> have the Lojban command structure defined.

This should be a very enjoyable, helpful learning tool.  $19 a disk
and it's a barn-burner.  But jeez I wish you guys would start using C...
Turbo's variant Pascal is just totally unportable to anywhere...

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