241–250 of 401 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Visual Studio Professional (if you turn up at any Microsoft meeting where they launch a new version of VS): £0
Yay. Free coasters!
The bottom line is that many vendors learnt that to make tools available at a low price point for at least some audiences to capture mindshare.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's one hell of an understatement... I just want to relate the experience, not start a flame war. Java tools are pretty darn cool nowadays.
Still, Smalltalk is seriously cool. I think the pricing was only one factor of Java's success. Smalltalk, for the C programmer, is pretty alien. No source files, no compiler... That takes some to get used to. Java provides a nice path towards OOP that's more forgiving than C++, yet, it's aesthetically compatible with C.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It all adds up. As you say, there are a zillion of things you need. Not the least a Mac (>= 1000 bucks). If all you want is to learn programming, there are free alternatives to XCode. How much have you spent on iPhone apps so far? I have friends who spent several hundred €, one Happy Meal at a time.
It's required that you buy a new Mac? That's news. I thought you could pick one up used on Craigslist for a few hundred bucks. Oh wait, you can.
In any case, you need a Mac, and it's gonna cost you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still, Smalltalk is seriously cool. I think the pricing was only one factor of Java's success. Smalltalk, for the C programmer, is pretty alien. No source files, no compiler... That takes some to get used to. Java provides a nice path towards OOP that's more forgiving than C++, yet, it's aesthetically compatible with C.
Version control also seemed an issue - commercial Smalltalks had tools like Envy - but all the projects I observed in the telecoms world seemed to have a senior developer doing nothing but merging images for the duration of the project.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Xcode 3 was included with a $129 dollar OS and only would run on that one or later. Xcode 3.2 was included with a $29 OS and ditto.
Actually you could download Xcode (and the iOS SDKs) for free from Apple's website. It would only run on your $129/$29 OS, but technically you didn't have to use the shipped copy ever .
http://imgur.com/cWRp6 http://imgur.com/8LHXW
This isn't the end of the world, it is not like now you no longer have access to the development tools. I wonder like a lot of people if this has to do with tax laws.
Based on the general sentiment in this thread, I guess the HN community doesn't want people to be able to charge money for software. For some reason I am experiencing cognitive dissonance...
Well, HN seems to also attract a lot of people like me who just want to hack, entrepreneurial nonsense be damned. And I will gladly make my software free and "throw away" all the profit I could make, because I believe I am contributing to a better world.
May I ask how you fund your activities?
I'm surprised this made it to the number 1 spot on the front page. From the Hacker News Guidelines: You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it. Xcode 4 is available as a free download for Mac and iOS developers with a paid membership [1], just like the versions before it. Those who aren't paying members of ADC can get Xcode 4 via the Mac App Sto…
$5 is not offsetting costs.
Actually, Xcode has cost a minimum of $700 for a while now (cost of a Mac Mini). I'm ok with a 0.7% price increase (if I wasn't a registered developer, that is).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I definitely agree with you, having grown up on free tools, but $5 is a lot easier to ask a parent for than $99/year to get access to this kind of stuff.
The $99/year thing is not terrible . I remember saving money from my paper route to buy tools/lib licenses to some specialized things I really wanted. Selling your parents on a single $99 purchase is a lot easier than trying to sell a $5 purchase every week. 'Tis just the way it is. jarin below mentions he wouldn't hesitate buying his kid Xcode for $5... that only works if the parent is in the field also. How many, s…
Today, a teenager would say, "What's a paper route?"
Xcode 3 appears to still be a free download. Xcode 4 is free if you're a registered developer (which costs $99/year), or $5 from the app store. gcc is obviously still free, if you get it from anyone other than Apple.