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From: bc@apple.UUCP (bill coderre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Coral/Franz Extended Common Lisp PRESS RELEASE
Message-ID: <3733@apple.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Aug-87 21:11:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: apple.3733
Posted: Wed Aug 26 21:11:22 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Aug-87 06:16:33 EDT
References: <334@su-russell.ARPA> <1563@apple.UUCP> <3700@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> <337@ge-mc3i.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, USA
Lines: 36
Summary: A few quick points, flame-free
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.mac:6062 comp.lang.lisp:416

Well, please consider the following points:

1) Reducing the retail price by 75% will reduce their profit margin
by some amount a lot more than 75%, more like 90%, since the fixed
cost of the package stays constant. (These numbers do not necessarily
represent reality and are provided for argument only.)

Therefore, they would have to sell more like 10 times as many
copies to make up for the price redux. See an introductory Economics
book for further details....

2) That no piece of software intrinsically "costs" any fixed amount.
A better measure is to examine the VALUE of the system to you. If you
are a "Sunday bitdiddler", Allegro might not seem valuable enough to
merit its cost. Coral will be creating "Coral Lisp" in the near
future, which will be less powerful and cost less.

For people who use Lisp a lot, the hundreds and hundreds of extra
features that Allegro supplies are invaluable for the expedient
creation of powerful programs.

(There are over 7000 entries in the symbol and function tables on
booting, not counting internal functions users shouldn't use.)

3) Coral offers educational and volume discounts. Call for details.

4) The price of $399.95 should be considered INTRODUCTORY.

5) The author is a beta-tester and satisfied user of the product, who
believes in it strongly enough to buy it.

6) The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of
Apple, Coral, or MIT.

10) Any further discussion of the value of Lisps should be routed via
email..............................................................bc