[Haskell-cafe] Implementing Mathematica

[jerzy.karczmarczuk at info.unicaen.fr]

Andrew Coppin writes about my objection on the Mathematica price he
mentioned : 

> ...And there's no need for "debious truths" - anybody that 
> wants to can check the price right now: 
> 
> http://store.wolfram.com/view/app/mathematica/ 
> 
> Mmm, that *is* interesting... The price has indeed changed to £2,035. Ah 
> well, it might as well be £2,000,000 for all the difference it makes - I 
> will never own anywhere near that kind of money. :-(

Cool down. Take any Google-accessible site which sells Mathematica.
Say,
http://www.unisoftwareplus.com/products/mathematica/edu.html 

Single licence - 1345 with 1 year service. I admit that it still something
an individual won't pay, this is for a university fellow who got a fat
grant and doesn't know where to throw the money out. Check the students'
offer:  ClassA boxed : 128 dollars. Admit that this is more serious,
although *not* for an average French student (1/3 of what he usually pays
for his lodging). 


> PS. I wonder why it costs more on UNIX...?

Simply because it is *easier* to make a deeply integrated, graphics-rich
and securised software on Windows. Linux remains behind not because them
folks are lazy, the progress *IS* considerable, but because of commercial
support the Windows world moves forward a bit faster! 

Now, Haskell evolves in both worlds, but we have already seen that it was
easier to link it with the graphical support on Windows... Such is life. 

Jerzy Karczmarczuk