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From: nelson_p@apollo.HP.COM (Peter Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Windows-the interface that may never happen...
Message-ID: <4ad6ea11.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 6 Jun 90 13:55:00 GMT
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Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
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From: doerschu@rex.cs.tulane.edu (David Doerschuk)

>>          Until MicroSoft offers libraries for the masses, nothing will
>>change.  Currently, if I want to develop software, I have to spend
>>hundreds.  I bought Quick C  1.01 for $52 new, the upgrade for $45, why
>>not libraries for windows at $80?
>>-bryon lape-
>
>I couldn't agree more.  MS wants an absurd amount of money for the
>libraries.  I would have thought that the relative lack of support
>from 3rd party software vendors for a now mature (no flames, please!...
>Windows has been out for years:  mature, yes.  good, maybe!)
>system product would have clued them in, but they persist in their
>pricing strategies.  Certainly, this is not the only reason why many
>products are not ported to Windows, but it certainly puts a damper on
>things.  Bryon Lape has, IMHO, hit the nail on the head:  why not an
>$80 development system?


  Is this the reason why products written for Windows seem to 
  be so expensive?  

  It may just be my imagination, but I've been looking for software
  that runs, or soon will run, under Windows and almost invariably
  I find only the high-end expensive stuff.   There are several
  > $500 DTP packages written for Windows, for instance,  but none
  of the popular < $200 products like Publish-It!, First Publisher,
  or Express Publisher do.   Ditto with paint and comms packages.
 
  Is Windows the reason why these things are so expensive?   I saw
  a product announcment in Info World, current issue, for an OCR program
  (I forget who the manufacturer is).   The non-Windows version lists
  for $295.  The Windows version  (**same version number**) was well
  over $500!    Is this what we have to look forward to in the wonderful
  world of MS Windows software?  
 
  I have no idea what the Windows API looks like but it seems if it
  were properly designed it should make it EASIER (hence cheaper)
  to write applications.  Bill Gates didn't get rich by being stupid,
  but it's hard to see the smarts in a strategy which seems almost
  deliberately designed to limit the potential market for your product
  by making it hard or expensive for people to port to it.    So what's
  the story here?

                                                        ---Peter