VBscript vs Python (was Re: [5th Draft] Open Letter to CNRI: Request for clarification)

[Thomas Weholt]

Any hints, urls or material that could back this up would be highly
appreciated. 

Thanks.

On Wed, 2 Aug 2000 09:51:41 +0200, "Alex Martelli" <alex at magenta.com>
wrote:

>"phil" <dawks at tesco.net> wrote in message
>news:39875c94.18192879 at news.tesco.net...
>    [snip]
>> i'm out of here and will solve the problem with VBScript (and it can
>
>Take care!!!  Microsoft has announced, buried somewhere in the folds of
>the many .NET things, that VBscript will shortly *DISAPPEAR*.  I'm sure
>you can find all the how's and why's in the 'scripting' section of MSDN,
>but,
>basically, they want to add to Visual Basic (the for-$$$ product) what few
>features VBscript (the free thingy) has extra today, and kill VBscript as a
>separate entity.  JScript should also 'disappear' in a different sense --
>the
>new version, JScript.NET, will be a compiled language, part of Visual
>Studio .NET, and so, again, most likely a for-$$$ thingy.  Just look at the
>arm-and-a-leg that Microsoft charges for the ability to incorporate VBA in
>your for-resale applications, and *shudder*...!  (Even for in-house apps,
>it ain't exactly CHEAP...).
>
>Of course, 'disappear' can't mean that Bill Gates in person is going to
>go around all customers' sites and wipe away the hard-disk and backup
>bits incorporating VBscript and/or JScript; those bits are going to stay
>around for a long while, and I guess they'll more-or-less work in sites
>where they already do.  But what happens to your ability to redistribute
>Microsoft scripting languages for-free to your customers, as a part of
>your own product, I just dunno.  If it's important to you, I STRONGLY
>suggest you should have your lawyers look into this *ASAP*; maybe if
>you act right now you can still secure a permanent free-redistribution
>license, which might escape from your grasp in a few months.
>
>Even if you get this license, the scripting-language you redistribute
>will be forever frozen -- no bug-fixes, no upgrades, no cool-access to
>whatever The Next Big Thing turns out to be, etc, etc.  If that's what
>you want, then you could surely take Python 1.5.2, and redistribute
>*THAT*.  But, actually, it seems to me that, despite the transient
>anxiety, the Python licensing situation is *FAR* less threatening
>than the Microsoft-Scripting-languages one.
>
>> be solved that way, it was my other less interesting alternative).
>>
>> I don't run my business on Python and it seems clear that anybody
>> would be a fool to do so.
>
>And what about 'running your business' on a Microsoft scripting
>language, with the far-larger attendant heartaches...?
>
>
>Alex
>
>