#Power Windows
As a general rule, commercial products are more reliable, if for no other
reason that the implied merchantablity requirement that allows you to
demand your money back if you buy something and it is not as advertised.
Also, in general, commercial products come with at least some usuable
documentation (Microsoft to the contrary). When will upgrades be made.
With commercial software, most (selling) products are upgraded on a fairly
regular basis. PD when the author gets a chance. Finally, most companies
of any size provide some after sale support. There was a thread over on
the user forum some time ago where someone asked about accounting software
to use in his business. I made the comment "would you want to trust your
business to PD software?". Of course there are bad companies too, and
some good ones go under.
I am not saying that PD software is bad. There are many useful utilities
out there. But if a company wants to stay in business, it _must_ produce
a product that is better and easier to use that PD software. Otherwise,
why buy it. Perhaps that is why no one has written commercial software
that compeats with LEX (flex from gnu) or YACC (bison). It is damned hard
to improve on the free versions available.
Incidently, if you know of a PD program similar to Power Windows, what is
it?
Bill Roberts — Autopilot from Ellettsville, Indiana