Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 18:42:23 +0800 (CST) From: Brian Tao <taob@gate.sinica.edu.tw> To: FREEBSD-HACKERS-L <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org> Subject: MetaCard for FreeBSD? Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.91.950331182629.227K-100000@aries.ibms.sinica.edu.tw> In-Reply-To: <199503301916.MAA10061@rudder.metacard.com>
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I saw a recent announcement from Metacard Corp. about ports of
their hypertext Metacard Motif authoring tool to additional platforms.
They now list 14 hardware/OS architectures, but FreeBSD isn't one of
them. :( Linux was on the list, which is what prompted me to write
this letter. ;-)
For those of you who haven't heard of MetaCard, it's a commercial
development tool very similar to Apple's Hypercard. I have the
save-disabled demo version running on an AIX box and it's quite a nice
package. They have a Web site at http://www.metacard.com.
I wrote to MetaCard about a FreeBSD port and got this reply:
On Thu, 30 Mar 1995, Scott Raney wrote:
> >
> > Are there any plans for a FreeBSD 2.0 version of MetaCard? I
> > notice you support Linux, but not any of the other free PC Unices. :(
>
> We have no plans for a BSD port at this point. The Linux port is
> barely pulling its weight at this point, and since the Linux installed
> base probably outnumbers the BSD installed base about 10 to 1
> (probably a 100 to 1 if you don't count BSD machines used as
> routers/servers/firewalls) it wouldn't be cost effective to do the
> port. Supporting 3 different PC Unixes (Linux, SCO ODT, and
> UnixWare/Solaris x86) is already stretching things kind of thin.
>
> We'd certainly consider doing a port if a porting fee could be
> arranged, or if we could get someone to commit to purchasing a dozen
> copies of MetaCard for that platform.
> Regards,
> Scott
>
> --
> ***********************************************************************
> * Scott Raney 303-447-3936 Remember: the better you look, *
> * raney@metacard.com the more you'll see -- Lidia *
> ***********************************************************************
MetaCard would be a nice addition to the list of commercial apps
that support FreeBSD. A *BSD Consortium with some financial pull
would come in really handy for offers like this. I don't know how
much they ask for a "porting fee", but a dozen licenses adds up to
$2340 (Linux and Desqview/X versions have a special price of $195 per
license). They also offer a 50% discount to academic users off their
$495/license price on other platforms.
Any comments? Should I just stick with Tcl/Tk? :)
--
Brian ("Though this be madness, yet there is method in't") Tao
taob@gate.sinica.edu.tw <-- work ........ play --> taob@io.org
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