Source Code License

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I'm very pleased to see you are now providing access to the source code, but I'm very disappointed over the cost. I cannot afford $10,000+ USD. Why such a steep charge. I could see doubling the price to include source, but not 10 times.

I have a lot invested in ECO and I definitely want you to succeed, but I think you would get more revenue by pricing it lower.

I have a huge need for the source because:

1. Little or no reference documentation. If I had the source, I could figure out what I need to do by looking at the source.

2. Bugs are not addressed quickly enough for my liking. If I had source, I would debug into it and potentially fix it and give the fix to CapableObjects. Many times the bug in ECO is just an unhandled exception that was caused by me doing something wrong. Having the source would save me countless hours trying to figure out what I did wrong.

3. I would like to be able to enhance some things or at least investigate the feasibility of doing so.

To be clear I do not want to step into the ECO code. My time is valuable to me and I would rather CapableObjects did it for me (that is why I don't like the open source model that well). I realize the things listed above are not going to be remedied in the near term and thus access to the source code would alleviate the effect.

I don't like bashing ECO as I really like/love the product, but I think you are shooting yourself in the foot by not having the source code within reach of the average ECO developer.

Regards,
Brian

Author	Message
brian	Posted 2010-11-11 22:51:29
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2012-05-01 21:02:15 Posts: 144, Visits: 421 940	I'm very pleased to see you are now providing access to the source code, but I'm very disappointed over the cost. I cannot afford $10,000+ USD. Why such a steep charge. I could see doubling the price to include source, but not 10 times. I have a lot invested in ECO and I definitely want you to succeed, but I think you would get more revenue by pricing it lower. I have a huge need for the source because: 1. Little or no reference documentation. If I had the source, I could figure out what I need to do by looking at the source. 2. Bugs are not addressed quickly enough for my liking. If I had source, I would debug into it and potentially fix it and give the fix to CapableObjects. Many times the bug in ECO is just an unhandled exception that was caused by me doing something wrong. Having the source would save me countless hours trying to figure out what I did wrong. 3. I would like to be able to enhance some things or at least investigate the feasibility of doing so. To be clear I do not want to step into the ECO code. My time is valuable to me and I would rather CapableObjects did it for me (that is why I don't like the open source model that well). I realize the things listed above are not going to be remedied in the near term and thus access to the source code would alleviate the effect. I don't like bashing ECO as I really like/love the product, but I think you are shooting yourself in the foot by not having the source code within reach of the average ECO developer. Regards, Brian
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efim	Posted 2010-11-12 13:04:06
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2012-04-21 00:03:27 Posts: 252, Visits: 854 1 650	I agree. Better support or a significantly lower price for source code. I would prefer the first option. /Efim /Efim
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mtiede	Posted 2010-11-12 13:13:06
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2011-06-28 16:42:26 Posts: 487, Visits: 1 277 3 170	FWIW, I'd probably prefer the latter. Having the source code is nice in case something needs changing in addition to being able to figure out EXACTLY how things are working. (Though admittedly, one can figure stuff out with Reflector nowadays) Additionally, should CA go belly up, you can continue on for the future to make changes required for changes to OS, technology, etc. I ALWAYS prefer to have source for 3rd party software. But for our teeny, tiny company, the price is WAY to stiff. /mtiede Environment: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Delphi 6 Rad Studio 2010 Enterprise with Prism 2011
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David Fowler	Posted 2010-11-12 17:10:22
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2011-12-22 18:31:00 Posts: 34, Visits: 620 210	Some sort of source code escrow agreement in case of Capable Objects folding would be reassuring. As for customer support, I've found it to be pretty good and the bug fixes I've asked for were made quickly. The lack of documentation is a bit annoying though.
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Peter Morris	Posted 2010-11-13 10:58:39
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2011-07-14 18:05:00 Posts: 290, Visits: 2 617 1 868	David Fowler (2010-11-12) Some sort of source code escrow agreement in case of Capable Objects folding would be reassuring. As for customer support, I've found it to be pretty good and the bug fixes I've asked for were made quickly. The lack of documentation is a bit annoying though. I suppose there could be a "source now" option and a "source under X conditions Escrow" at a lower price? ==== Pete
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RickWeyrauch	Posted 2011-09-02 19:12:29
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2012-04-18 18:57:58 Posts: 249, Visits: 7 773 1 665	Bringing up an old topic is always fun. I am also not sure the source code is worth the listed price, but not because the it's not $10k worth of code. I would want the ECO code so I could be a net contributor to the ECO code base - I want to make customizations that are not of interest or concern to C.O. I want to do this for the community at large, as much as myself. Yes, I want it so I can treat it like an open-source project, even though it is not. So, if C.O. would consider folding changes I make back into the trunk, it might be worth it, but then again, my development time is not free, and so it is only worth it if they "pay me back" per-change - real open-source is different, access is free, and so contributions are free too. If I get the copy just to look at, and break into during debugging, it is definitely not worth the listed price. I am still considering it though because I would at least be able to give more explicit reports. For the listed price, do I get a code base that is compilable into a running set of dll's? I would guess all except for the licensing portion - so how is that handled? Can I make a set of non-licensed dll's that I have no rights to distribute, or can I not make a usable set of dll's at all? Rick Weyrauch
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PeterMorris	Posted 2011-09-03 00:16:36
Supreme Being Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2012-04-30 17:57:12 Posts: 211, Visits: 981 1 452	I've had access to the source, and in day to day development it was far more informative to use reflector. Searching is quick, and you can quickly analyse the code to see where certain properties are read/written, where a method is called from, and which classes implement interfaces. As for having the source to enable bug fixing. That would involve having to provide source in such a way as to make it easy to build, whereas at the moment this is all scripted on servers using build files etc. I'm not arguing, I am just giving my personal experiences of having access to the source.
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