Dear Peter,
Martin Liddle wrote:
In message 20100815132901.GB12590@mail.g-n-u.de, Peter Gerwinski peter@gerwinski.de writes
If GNU Pascal is important for you, please consider to invest into its future by funding our work on GPC.
Can you give some estimate of the costs involved?
As I wrote, we are speaking of several months of full-time work on GPC by an experienced programmer.
Our normal rates for high-level programming are between 100 and 120 EUR/h plus value-added tax. In this special case I offer to code for 40 EUR/h.
So the estimate is "several 10000 EUR".
That's a lot of money for a single person or company. For instance, Waldek, Frank or myself cannot simply afford it by working for free on GPC instead of doing our paid work. But if everyone who values GPC contributes, it becomes affordable.
This particular project is about rewriting the compiler in Pascal, thus removing the last obstacle which prevents you from programming it by yourself. So what you get for your money is much more than just a compiler.
willett wrote:
if I need or want to develop substantial code, I would use Extended Pascal, and I would want it to run on multiple platforms. Thus the project you describe would have value to me in that it would keep my existing code viable and would keep my options open.
Yes, that's our intention.
On the above basis, I would be willing to contribute $500 to the project you describe in 2. I would be willing to pay in advance, given sufficient contributions from myself and others to complete the project, and given your assurance of a good faith effort to carry it to completion.
That's very fair.
I would also hope that there is some plan for 1. prior to embarking on 2., even if it is a separate effort.
The plan for step 2 depends on who joins the GPC development team during step 1. If it is up to Frank and myself to decide, the new backend will be C++. But until then, the GPC frontend will have been rewritten in Pascal, and a new team might be ready to take over GPC development and make a different offer.
I would encourage others on this list to answer Peter's question, which requires a specific commitment if this (substantial) project is to go forward. Note that it is not unusual to pay $1000 for a high-quality unix compiler, with subsequent upgrade fees. I'm replying on the public list rather than privately to Peter, since I did not see any others yet answering his question.
Thanks. If enough people join, this will enable us to consolidate the future of GPC.
Hiltibidal, Rob wrote:
Unfortunately you touch upon a subject dear to business. That is support.
That's not unfortunate at all.
With proprietary software like, e.g., Borland Delphi, you pay for permission to use the compiler and get some limited support for free. With free software like GNU Pascal, you get that permission for free and pay for actual work: support, customization, or whatever.
Are you, Peter, willing to make DB2, Oracle, MySQL and Postgres support as easy as jdbc is?
Sure, if someone pays for it. That's how free software business works.
If, for instance, ten companies need a universal database interface for GPC similar to JDBC, and each of them invests EUR 1000, we can work on it with a budget of EUR 10000. Sounds feasible.
This was just an example. If you need an actual offer, we can negotiate about that. A "JDBC" library might be easier to write with the new GPC we are offering to create, but of course we can write one for the existing GPC - in such a way that it will remain usable with the new one.
Peter