>>>>> "CY" == C Y <smustudent1@yahoo.com> writes:
CY> I agree it is sad, but the situation is unfortunately not without
CY> precident. It's one of the serious drawbacks of commercial software
CY> that the wheel seems to get reinvented for non-technical reasons every
CY> so often.
"Free" software has exactly the same problem, and, I submit, probably
more so because there's no need to have a business case and money to
do it. It just requires someone with the desire and time to do it.
For one example, there's been at least 2 networked sound systems, all
created from scratch, when there was already a fully functional,
debugged version in NAS.
CY> It is. If a university or someone were to buy the code from Symbolics
CY> and open it up, that would probably be the best case, but I don't see
CY> that happening in a big hurry.
Can't imagine a university buying it. What could they gain?
However, didn't some group buy the source code from someday recently?
An account was set up and volunteers donated money until a sufficient
sum was obtained to buy the code. I think about $50000 was raised.
Sorry, if this is overly vague, but I don't remember the details at
all.
I think Macsyma would probably need way more than $50000 before
someone would part with it. But with each passing year, I think the
value of Macsyma drops quite a bit.
Ray