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On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 10:21, AndrewWatt2000@aol.com wrote:
>
> Frank,
>
> I wasn't at this famous / notorious talk from (I assume) Jean Paoli.
> Either what he said hasn't happened or what you thought you heard
> wasn't what he thought he said. :) I don't know which it is.
Ayup.
>
> I can't imagine any senior corporate figure committing to make a new
> product like InfoPath available free in the way you seem to have heard
> him say. Why would it be free? It looks to be a good, interesting and
> innovative product. So why free?
Andrew, we seem to have a lot of trouble communicating. I certainly
thought it was clear that I was talking about arbitrary schema
import/export. Which I expected to be not free, but rather one of the
items included in the price of the upgrade or new purchase of Microsoft
Office. It really feels disingenuous for you to drag in the word "free".
It is only available with the purchase of the extra-spiffy and
hyper-spiffy versions of the product. The extra cost of that version
would pay for a copy of XMetal or Rick's Topologi Editor instead, and
you wouldn't have to create and maintain the XSLTs.
Also, the practice of beta testing products that are never delivered or
delivered in changed or crippled form goes back to the earliest days of
the computer industry, and shows no sign of vanishing soon. I could make
a good case that it's as accurate as any marketing press release to call
any product from any company that you can't buy today "vaporware".
Frank
>
> > Given that very recent track record, I think Rick is more than
> > justified
> > in calling any Microsoft announcement vaporware until you can
> > actually
> > find it on the shelf at your local dealer.
>
>
> Of course, as the corporate marketing people say, things can change
> but InfoPath works (in the beta version) and has oodles of potential.
> So vapourware? I don't think so. I, for one, will be very disappointed
> if it doesn't make it to market. And I will be surprised if it doesn't
> have a considerable impact.
>
> The fact that something you imagined might be available free will have
> to be paid for doesn't, by any logic I can follow, make it
> "vapourware".
>
> Andrew Watt
--
Frank <frank@therichards.org>
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