From: Jeff Wood <jeff.darklight@...>
Date: 2005-08-16T21:47:08+09:00
Subject: Re: ... old topic, new discussion

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TLOlczyk wrote:

>On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 01:46:34 +0900, Jeff Wood
><jeff.darklight@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Do we believe that there is a need for an ActiveState Ruby
>>distribution.  They've done wonderful things with their support of
>>Win32 programming for Perl & Python... the .net stuff, etc.
>>    
>>
>
>In terms of Perl, it was allready taking on the world when
>ActiveState glommed on to it. ActiveState gained more from that
>association than Perl did. The same for TK.
>
>For Python ActiveState did do something, it made the Windows
>version usable in one step where you didn't have to muck around a lot
>with installation. However if you look at the later history their
>participation did more harm than good, and if a few things had gone
>the wrong way Python would be dieing now.
>
>I don't think people want to put Ruby in their hands. It's too risky.
>
>
>
>
>The reply-to email address is olczyk2002@yahoo.com.
>This is an address I ignore.
>To reply via email, remove 2002 and change yahoo to
>interaccess,
>
>**
>Thaddeus L. Olczyk, PhD
>
>There is a difference between
>*thinking* you know something,
>and *knowing* you know something.
>
>
>  
>
Ah, I wondered when one of the "ActiveState almost ruined the world!" 
people would respond.  I've been an ActiveState user for 7 years now...  
All they've ever done was simply make tools so that those of us that 
are/were building software to run under windows had a decent toolbox to 
do it with.  The PDK saved my bacon more times than I like to count.

People just look for a reason to dislike them because they've focused on 
the windows platform and Microsoft put some money into them.  I wish 
people would get over this my-platform-is-better-than-your-platform 
bull-squash and realize that mass market acceptance requires good tools 
for Windows. Unless some major re-alignment of the stars happens, they 
are always going to be a major factor in computers.  They helped make 
PCs what they are.

Matz isn't letting go of the language to anyone, so, why not accept the 
help of a company that's helped build some really good tools for other 
languages? I mean, what do you really see as an "evil" dis-service you 
see ActiveState performing?

And no, I don't work for Microsoft. I work for a company who's "product" 
software all runs on Linux. I'm just realistic about things.

j.


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