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From: tima@agora.uucp (Tim Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Want to write and distribute a Smalltalk program...
Message-ID: <1990Dec7.181509.6641@agora.uucp>
Date: 7 Dec 90 18:15:09 GMT
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Lines: 28

I was just muttering the other day that our 'main' program needs a text
editor so that you can edit configuration files, and edit gigantic CNC
programs if need be. I though 'hey, why don't I blow the dust off of my
copy of Smalltalk/V (that's VEE not FIVE!) and just slap together a coupla
cute messages in there TextEditor object!' This of course is what program-
ming is all about, eh? So now I'm stuck with a monstorous Smalltalk image
for a puny text editor. Oh well! How do I distribute it? I dunno, I geuss
I'll call up Digitalk and ask. I called them and talked to a sales guy
that told me I needed the 'run time image' program at $500 a year!! 
Yikes! I realize that there has to be a fee of some sort for a bindable
run time image, but $500??? He also stated that they were 're-thinking
their policy on the distribution of the run-time package'. I don't have
to pay Microsoft to distribute the program's that I write using their
(albiet lame) C compiler, DAMMIT! Granted there is considerably more
proprietary code floating around in a running smalltalk program than a running
C program's...

It's a good thing that Digitalk is 're-thinking' their distribution. Quite
honestly I flat out refuse to pay for the ability to allow other people to
use something I create. This is another reason why we don't use 'Phar Lapp'
either... Needless to say a text editor in smalltalk will not be distributed
with our program. Hence the question of this entire article, if for some
reason I write a program in Smalltalk, is there any way to distribute it
other than in source form that doesn't cost me a plug nickel? I mean lets
say I want to write the greatest (fill in the blank here) and give away copies
to everyone in the world. I geuss that I couldn't write it in Smalltalk, eh?

tima@agora.hf.intel.com