[BNE-PM] What do you use Perl for?

Derek Thomson derek at wedgetail.com
Thu Aug 22 21:14:34 CDT 2002


David Bussenschutt wrote:
> Ah, Packaging a perl app (and all  dependancies) into a single binary 
> perhaps?   Well, that's easy..use PerlApp..it's .just not completely free. 
>   I'm normally opposed to non-free products, but I gave this one a go out 
> of necessity, and it's really good, and well supported (and not a bad 
> price either).

I actually think selling software is fine. Someone does need to make 
*some* money for their good work, and eventually the ideas filter into 
open source / free / public domain software, and during that window the 
originators get to (rightly) profit from it. And there are some really 
good commercial software products, like Purify, which was great - in 
about 1995, before Rational bought it and just milked it without 
improving it much for years.

It's people who try to lock onto eternal profits (and eternal growth) 
via patents and copyrights that really irritates me, and it's never the 
original authors doing this, its just the company into whose lap the 
rights have fallen. No one has the right to make a profit forever off 
one idea, IMHO. Everyone builds on ideas in the public domain, and 
eventually yours should enter into public use, too (I'm looking at you, 
Rational Purify - but your day is done, thanks to valgrind!).

> 
> PerlApp is part of the activestate Perl Developers Kit, and has versions 
> for HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows
> http://www.activestate.com/Products/Perl_Dev_Kit/

Sound great, I'm going to have to try this.

--
D.




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