Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: grunwald@flute.cs.uiuc.edu (Dirk Grunwald)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Mathematica pricing gouging on Sun
Keywords: Software
Message-ID: <4203@kalliope.rice.edu>
Date: 27 Jun 89 03:53:45 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
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Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 57, message 3 of 11

steve, you miss the point.

The core of mathematica is no more difficult to implement on the Apple
than on a Sun. Admittedly, the Apple doesn't have an MMU & it may not
perform as well, but realisticly, that's what the compiler is for.

More man-months went into the Apple interface than the Sun interface.  The
X-11 interface still sucks, even in the latest revision [sorry,greg].  The
Gnuemacs interface is getting along, but none the less, we're left with
the question of why it costs more on the sun.

The basic reason is ``because they think they can get it.'' The same
reason it costs even more on a Titan or other high-end stations.

This doesn't mean that I don't think Mathematica is a good tool, but
personally, I was excited when Wolfram originaly stated that the prince
would be such that ``everyone who wanted it could afford it,'' and have
more disappointed *by the price alone [and a little by performance]* since
then.

Kind of like the ``All you can eat for $1'' places where they give you dry
bread & tell you that's all you can eat for $1.

[ I too have been an alpha & beta site for Mathematica, and have used it
quite a bit, having written some packages to display 3-d data & convert
2-d plots to PiCTeX. ]

--
Dirk Grunwald -- Univ. of Illinois 		  (grunwald@flute.cs.uiuc.edu)