Bruce Toback <[log in to unmask]> wrote on HP3000-L:

>Wirt Atmar writes:
>
>>If HP has abandoned BASIC, it would be an extraordinary gift to the MPE
>>user community to make it and SPL legal freeware. It would probably have
>>to be on the terms that "you find your own manuals and don't call us",
>>but in today's environment where information can be so easily and so
>>cheaply distributed, that should not be much of a problem.
>
>I wholeheartedly agree! Basic/V is an incredibly useful "API scripting
>language", and if it's no longer of any value to HP, either placing it in
>the public domain or releasing it with a GPL-type license would be a
>no-cost way of providing a substantial benefit to the user community. I
>can't even think of any way that providing BASIC/V and SPL for free would
>cannibalize new product sales -- there simply is no equivalent for either.

Don't forget, though, that cannibalizing is Mr. Platt's preferred strategy
for HP as a company, as he has stressed so many times -- in all kinds of
public opportunities.

Food for thought (oops..., that WAS a slip of the tongue... oops again)



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|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs           Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
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