Lahey Support
08-15-2003, 01:24 AM
>>..the $249 LF95 Express is a better buy than ELF90,
>> unless you are a student or teacher,
>> which is who we had in mind when developing ELF90.
>>
>>(David T. Berry)
>>
>At the small price difference reported ($4), between ELF90 and LF95,
>would it not be in the interests of Lahey to drop the price on
>the ELF90 version, by say, 25% to ATTRACT new customers?
>Or encourage free-copies to upgrade to get a manual and
>more features?
>
>>From a marketing point of view, the effect of "apparent value"
>will have a strong affect on the sales (or absence thereof) when
>two prices are similar, but the description indicates one product
>offers less facilities or has more limitations.
>
>Terence Wright
============ ================ ================= ==================
There have been previous discussions on this list, and especially on comp.lang.fortran newsgroup, regarding the lack of availability of a free (or
really cheap) Fortran 90 for use in the colleges. Only Elf90 and F (by Imagine1) exist as good subset languages that are economical and well
designed for a beginning student. I've used both in the classroom, and I have a personnal preference for Elf90.
At $79 (academic), Elf90 is a good bargain -- but it is still more than most students are willing to spend. Consider, colleges can now use the free
GNU programming languages (C, C++, G77), and "Free Pascal" . The instructors can hand out copies of these programs to each and every
student, and install the compilers on as many hundreds of computers as desired at the college sites. No wonder that Computer Science
departments have gone to these languages (among many other reasons). It's becoming very hard to find a class in modern Fortran at most
schools.
Even though Elf90 includes the ED editor, and the WISK material, I have no desire to use either in a beginning course ( I prefer using the free
PFE32 editor).
All of which means nothing, since it is not Lahey's (or any other vendor's) responsibility to provide free software for anyone. However, I think
Lahey could go a long way towards the promotion of modern Fortran programming by:
[1] providing Elf90 for about $20 per single use (for students) -- WITHOUT the Wisk material, and without the ED editor, and;
[2] allowing an educational institution to have a Complete site license for about $500 (allowed to install on any and all computers at the
educational site).
My experience with students is they are willing to spend about $20 - $25 for a computer program. Also, most colleges could generally come up
with the $500 if it allowed them to easily install the program anywhere it was needed on campus. It seems like it might be a fair price, since only a
command-line compiler is being offered (no Wisk, no ED editor). If these prices would still bring a profit for Lahey, I'm sure they would see an
increase in the quantity of sales.
. . . and that's my $.02 worth on the subject :)
-- Bob Hancock, Community College Instructor (Engr. & Math).
[address removed]
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>> unless you are a student or teacher,
>> which is who we had in mind when developing ELF90.
>>
>>(David T. Berry)
>>
>At the small price difference reported ($4), between ELF90 and LF95,
>would it not be in the interests of Lahey to drop the price on
>the ELF90 version, by say, 25% to ATTRACT new customers?
>Or encourage free-copies to upgrade to get a manual and
>more features?
>
>>From a marketing point of view, the effect of "apparent value"
>will have a strong affect on the sales (or absence thereof) when
>two prices are similar, but the description indicates one product
>offers less facilities or has more limitations.
>
>Terence Wright
============ ================ ================= ==================
There have been previous discussions on this list, and especially on comp.lang.fortran newsgroup, regarding the lack of availability of a free (or
really cheap) Fortran 90 for use in the colleges. Only Elf90 and F (by Imagine1) exist as good subset languages that are economical and well
designed for a beginning student. I've used both in the classroom, and I have a personnal preference for Elf90.
At $79 (academic), Elf90 is a good bargain -- but it is still more than most students are willing to spend. Consider, colleges can now use the free
GNU programming languages (C, C++, G77), and "Free Pascal" . The instructors can hand out copies of these programs to each and every
student, and install the compilers on as many hundreds of computers as desired at the college sites. No wonder that Computer Science
departments have gone to these languages (among many other reasons). It's becoming very hard to find a class in modern Fortran at most
schools.
Even though Elf90 includes the ED editor, and the WISK material, I have no desire to use either in a beginning course ( I prefer using the free
PFE32 editor).
All of which means nothing, since it is not Lahey's (or any other vendor's) responsibility to provide free software for anyone. However, I think
Lahey could go a long way towards the promotion of modern Fortran programming by:
[1] providing Elf90 for about $20 per single use (for students) -- WITHOUT the Wisk material, and without the ED editor, and;
[2] allowing an educational institution to have a Complete site license for about $500 (allowed to install on any and all computers at the
educational site).
My experience with students is they are willing to spend about $20 - $25 for a computer program. Also, most colleges could generally come up
with the $500 if it allowed them to easily install the program anywhere it was needed on campus. It seems like it might be a fair price, since only a
command-line compiler is being offered (no Wisk, no ED editor). If these prices would still bring a profit for Lahey, I'm sure they would see an
increase in the quantity of sales.
. . . and that's my $.02 worth on the subject :)
-- Bob Hancock, Community College Instructor (Engr. & Math).
[address removed]
----------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send to [address removed] the following
as the first and only line of the message body:
unsubscribe fortran
----------------------------------------------------------