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From: psm@manta.NOSC.MIL (Scot Mcintosh)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Borland C++ 2.0
Message-ID: <1785@manta.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 21 Feb 91 16:47:09 GMT
References: <1991Feb18.165403.3938@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Feb20.130922.11605@DRD.Com> <1991Feb21.013904.6909@javelin.es.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego
Lines: 46

In article <1991Feb21.013904.6909@javelin.es.com> gclapp@javelin.UUCP (Glenn Clapp) writes:
>I'm not so sure that its a bad idea to offer upgrades to people who own
>other compilers.  I've been a long time MSC user, and upgraded MANY times
>at $125.00 a pop.  I figure its about $1000.00!  The original purchase
>price was somewhere around $250.00.  Thats 300% more for the upgrades!
>If they can get someone else's customer to switch, think of the upgrade
>revenue that generates.  I'll be switching either to Zortec or BC++ Pro
>(havn't decided which yet).  Why??  After all those years?  Cuz MSC
>decided to go almost totally on line documentation.  WHAT A WASTE!  Way
>to go Microsoft!  Have you ever heard of refering to the docs WHILE
>programming?  Oh that's right, you can do all that in PWB.  WHO THE HELL
>WANTS TO USE PROGRAMMER"S WORK BENCH when you've spent years gathering
>and writing all your COOL utilities that do 10X more than PWB ever will
>and TONS faster?  Not ME!  Oh, to be fair, they do provide SOME docs
>in hardcopy format, but not really useful, more of an overview that you
>stuff on a shelf and forget about... useless.  They have no excuse either,
>since Microsoft docs are in a ring binder, they could at least give you
>the FEW pages required to for things that have changed.  It wouldn't be
>that much!   Oh, and get this... They have the gall to include an order
>form for the library ref manual for another $22.50!  What?  more $$$?
>Piss Off Microsoft!

I agree with the general sentiment (though not the language) above. I
was a long time MSC user (and still hold a good size chunk of
Microsoft stock) and switched to Borland C++ recently. I really like
the windowing environment and was up and running with it almost
immediately. In contrast, I never became proficient with MSC PWB,
finding it counter-intuitive and generally a pain to use. I also
resent the Microsoft policy of issuing change pages for upgrades
instead of full manual sets. I don't like to put change pages into
my manuals until I'm sure I won't need to go back to prior versions.
The only thing I miss about MSC is its compiler switch that generates
function prototypes from the code, and I've picked up a stand-alone
utility that does that for me.

Perhaps the "penny is dropping", as the British say, for
Microsoft: I just got an "upgrade" notice, ala Borland, for
going to Excel from my current spreadsheet for $129. I
called them up, and they took my word for the fact that I'm
a Quattro Pro user. A harbinger of a policy shift maybe?

----
Scot McIntosh
Internet: psm@helios.nosc.mil
UUCP:     {ihnp4,akgua,decvax,decwest,ucbvax}!sdscvax!nosc!psm
"It's not a bug, it's a limitation" - Microsoft Tech Assistant