[Tutor] Born to be free

[Avi Gross]

Alan,

Yes, I meant that many things are effectively free these days. Some things are required to be distributed free by CopyLeft. But you can pay a nominal fee for say a CD of the software. You can pay for a bundle like you describe, perhaps including some consulting or warranties to keep you updated or who knows what?

I have been using a slew of programs lately in work for someone else who gave me access to software they paid for under some license. I mean statistical tools that are sold or licensed and have been around for ages. But I find I can cobble together my own programs and often find packages for free to do some parts. But as noted, I often have to process data that came from sources like SAS, MPLUS, STATA, SPSS and others. I often have to return the results of the calculations back in those formats. I have not felt the urge to buy the software but the day may come. My goal is to use a variety of tools that include R and Python unless the easiest path is ...

I am not in the market for buying or selling such things so I simply admit my lack of encyclopedic memory and experience.  I suggested that based on my knowledge, to date, I gather Python is mostly available for free and this might impact companies that wish to bend it to their needs rather than paying someone to give them an expensive tool. 

Many languages and other shared goods have ISO committees or Standards Bodies that document it or regulate changes. In the past, I often found companies like AT&T and HP attending all kinds of such bodies to influence the direction they take or be informed where they are headed. 

Some people have a photographic memory while some have a pornographic memory. Anyone with both is beyond dangerous 😉

-----Original Message-----
From: Tutor <tutor-bounces+avigross=verizon.net at python.org> On Behalf Of Alan Gauld via Tutor
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2018 7:54 PM
To: tutor at python.org
Subject: Re: [Tutor] origins bootstrapped.

On 22/11/2018 06:05, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

> I don't know of any non-free (free as in beer, or free as in speech) 
> implementations of Python. Can you elaborate?

There are several commercial distributions (as opposed to
implementations) of Python, that may be what Avi has in mind.
Some of these are commercial IDEs that include python as part of an integrated bundle - I think Blackadder is one such - and others are just uber distros like Enthought Entropy(?) which is a "supported" distro for scientific work - rather like Anaconda.

Others are in the Movie industry where it is either tied to a particular tool or again to a support arrangement.

The implementations are the standard open source code but the distribution is paid for, with the value add either in the toolset, the packaging or the support.

But maybe Avi means something different...

--
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos


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