SPUG: Osoft guys want to present "OSource Training" product

[Tim Maher]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2003 at 10:54:55AM -0800, Colin Meyer wrote:
> 
> If the presentation is about the problem, its difficulties and
> how they were overcome by the use of Perl, then it sounds
> great. If the presentation is about how good their software is,
> and why I need to use it, then I won't attend.

More details have been obtained; see below.
 
> It is unclear from the proposal what sort of talk it will be, though
> it does mention that the software will be offered as an open source
> product.
> 
> SPUG has a superb track record of excellent technical talks, with no
> sales pitches. Let's keep it that way!
> 
> -Colin.

I talked to the *developer* of the product yesterday (*not* the
marketing guy, who had initially contacted me), and found out a
few things. First, the product is written entirely in Java!
Second, the only connection with Perl is that they have indexed
all the Perl reference documents for use in a "demo" that shows
how you can jump from one document to another and search across
the whole set, etc. Third, it is an Open Source project, so you
can get the software for free, and use it as you wish. Fourth,
they will be selling some products, which I will apparently consist
of packages containing the indexing software and the Perl (or PHP or
Python) indices.

Given this new info, I'm inclined to think that we'd be better
off with a talk by Colin on whatever he's into these days than
hosting these guys.  How about it, "Shroomy"?

*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Tim Maher, CEO     (206) 781-UNIX      (866) DOC-PERL     (866) DOC-UNIX |
| tim(AT)Consultix-Inc.Com  http://TeachMePerl.Com  http://TeachMeUnix.Com |
*+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-*
|CLASSES: Minimal Perl: 12/1; Perl Programming: 12/2-4; Perl Modules: 12/5 |
|  Watch for my Manning book: "Minimal Perl for Shell Users & Programmers" |
*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*