CompuServe Messages

Edmund, Can I chip in on this one? You suggest that Autodesk is pricing HyperChem too high, and that this reflects elitism. I really don't think this is so. There seems to be a feeling that if a program runs on a PC it should be priced much cheaper than if it runs on a workstation, because it must somehow be a toy. In the case of HyperChem I really don't think this is so. The ability to do molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics on a PC in a big way is, I think, new with us. The ability to use selections to do calculations on part of a system, or to incorporate restraints into optimizations and dynamics, makes it more sophisticated than other PC products, and the scripting (and hence DDE) capabilities I think are also a step up on other PC products. Current PC's (486-50's, say, or even 486-33's) provide computational speed that is up to that of workstations a few years ago, and with the proper memory management large systems can be tackled. I think HyperChem is priced much cheaper than other products with the kinds of facilities we offer; hardly an unbiased observer, of course, but I do think this is so. The fact that these other programs run on workstations does not make it natural that they be more expensive. Ah well, that's all my opinion, of course. I guess I do think that real value can come from desktop modeling with HyperChem and that makes it worth the money. Whatever, I hope you make the best decision and can, if it is HyperChem, persuade those cost-conscious ones of it. Best wishes, Tom Slee, Hypercube