RE: Re: Re: XML, RPG, Web Services, Joe = Holy War was -> RE: Re: Modify the IE Browser

> 
> The RPG community is what we make it.  You, Aaron, Joel, 
> Scott Klement, you're all throwing stuff out there.  I'll 
> admit, I haven't done much.  And it's nowhere *near* the 
> number of people contributing in other languages. Why?
> 

Perl, Python, Java, etc., are freely available, and able to run on a
home PC. RPG is an expensive product which only runs on an expensive
hardware/OS platform. This means that:

1) The required tools are available to far fewer developers. Yes, I know
about Netshare, but is it reasonable to expect someone to pay an extra
fee in order to provide free labour on an open source project?

2) Given the high cost of purchase and ongoing maintenance fees, there
is an expectation that the vendor (IBM) should be doing more to satisfy
the demands of the user base. If there is a need for an IFS Toolkit,
then that's a pretty clear indication that a standard, vendor supported,
library should be released.

Of course, the above assumes that a person also has the time and passion
for persuing such projects. I think it's safe to say that the midrange
development community is a bit older than our colleagues in the Perl
community, which usually leads to greater demands upon one's time. The
typical RPG programmer may be trying to juggle a full-time job, a
family, household projects, and (hopefully) continuing education. Is it
reasonable to expect them to also place a significant priority on some
open-source software project? 

Regards,

John Taylor