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Re: Why I don't use Dylan
> From: tejavu@my-deja.com
> Subject: Re: Why I don't use Dylan
>
> "Timothy Guimond" <tguimond@ma.ultranet.com> wrote:
>
>> I must admit that it is a complete package. The price is reasonable.
>
> But it's hard for most programmers to take it seriously. Functional
> Objects does not inspire confidence that the programmer would be making
> a wise investment of time and money. The company is run by former
> Harlequin employees who give the vague impression they might be doing
> it as a part time hobby.
Having communicated with Functional Objects personnel in both public and
private email, and having read through the business plans and white papers
on their web site, I can assure you that I have not got this impression.
They seem to be a hard working group of very capable people dedicated to
moving Functional Developer forward.
Ex-Harlequin personnel not with Functional Objects do answer questions on
this list as far as I can tell. I'd take that as a vote of confidence rather
than anything else.
> There have been so many such products in the
> past which have gradually faded into obscurity, when their proprietors
> found their time occupied by other pursuits and put the product on the
> back burner, till they gradually reached the point where they could no
> longer even do any more maintenance on it.
I can't see evidence of that happening here. Fun-O have already finalized
and released the 2.0 version of Functional Developer and have announced
plans for a UNIX version.
> One thing Functional Objects could do to improve their credibility a
> lot would be to put their source code in escrow with SourceForge to
> become free open source if Functional Objects ever drops the ball. A
> clear guarantee, that the product will definitely have a future no
> matter what, is exactly what people need to be able to take it
> seriously enough to invest the time and money needed to get started
> with it.
SourceForge has an air of "amateur project" about it that I'm not sure would
help. The public sources are freely available with the Functional Developer
downloads, so if a neutron bomb does get dropped near their offices, you'll
still have them. Some are even on the Gwydion site and CVS server.
> What is the development situation at Functional Objects? I get the
> vague impression some contract programmers working for other companies
> might be doing the Functional Developer work between contracts and/or
> in their spare time. Or does Functional Objects have venture capital
> to pay the salaries of full time programmers?
This is company confidential stuff for a start-up, so I can't imagine them
letting us know.
I was worried when Harlequin got split up, but Functional Objects have come
through with flying colours. My only small concern is that their website
could do with making more boring-corporate, but it has grown on me :-)
- Rob.
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