Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!endor!siegel
From: siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: $$$ & THINK Pascal 3.0
Message-ID: <2277@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 90 16:56:44 GMT
References: <12004@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Reply-To: siegel@endor.UUCP (Rich Siegel)
Organization: Symantec Language Products Group
Lines: 68

In article <12004@eagle.wesleyan.edu> bparsia@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
>The "improvements" to THINK Pascal sound nice, but the upgrade price is a
>little steep.
>
>In fact, the new list price (I haven't seen the street price yet, maybe because
>it isn't on the street) seems rather, extremely high.
>
>When I bought Lightspeed Pascal v. 1.11 last fall, I paid maybe $65 for it. It
>was a nice package at a nice price. Fortunatly, I bought it late enough to
>qualify for a free upgrade to 2.0, otherwise, another $49. 

By way of justification:

	Lightspeed Pascal came out in 1986. That was four years ago. Since
then, four years worth of research and development have gone into making 
successively better versions of THINK Pascal, in response to our customers'
requests and with some new features dreamed up by our engineers, of which
I am one.

	THINK Pascal 2.0 included completely rewritten documentation, in
a new manual format. This required a year of concentrated effort by our
documentation group. THINK Pascal 2.0 also included many new features and
improvements on old features. 

	THINK Pascal 3.0 included support for MacApp, a class library of
its own, THREE brand-new manuals, and TWO new disks.

	These upgrades cost money to produce. There are the salaries of the
development team, the cost of materials, and the cost of production. 
The shelf packages also cost money to produce and distribute. The increase
in list price is a reflection of all these factors, and also a reflection
of our positioning of THINK Pascal as a development environment of professional
capability, but one which is still suited to novice work.

	Furthermore, the cost of the package (and upgrades) includes things
like the cost (to us) of our free telephone tech support.

	Consider, by way of contrast, the cost of a roughly comparable package:
MPW, from APDA; the "MPW Pascal Bundle" costs $400. Subtract $100 for the
Assember (which THINK Pascal doesn't supply), but add $100 for MacApp.
The total cost is still $400. This is considerably more than $249 for
THINK Pascal, and it's not discounted anywhere, whereas you can get 
THINK Pascal 3.0 on the street for somewhere in the vicinity of $100.
Also, it costs $195 to upgrade your MPW Pascal package. This is also
considerably more than the $69 we're asking.

	The point I'm trying to make is that while you may think that $69
is an expensive upgrade, it's not. Since you (by your own statement)
paid $65 for the original package, the total cost of a THINK Pascal 3.0
is $134, which is comparable to the street price. I'm not unsympathetic
to your position, because I was once a broke college student, and even
now I don't exactly have dollar bills stuffing my mattress. However, it's
in the bst insterest of the company, and its customers, to at least break
even on the products they sell.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Rich Siegel
 Staff Software Developer
 Symantec Corporation, Language Products Group
 Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu
 UUCP: ..harvard!endor!siegel

"When someone who makes four hundred and fifty dollars an hour wants to
tell you something for free, it's a good idea to listen."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~