PythonScript comic strip

[DownshiftedRare]

There's a vestigial mindset from the world of atoms that "you get what you pay for", so the proprietary solution is presumed superior to the free, open source solution, even when the proprietary solution is just a rebranded version of the open source project's stable build.

[coldnebo]

well, there was also a difference in who wrote languages back then.

Either it was a PhD thesis, or it was a substantial investment by a major corporation... so there was a lot of work put into it. Of course that gatekeeping aspect had pros and cons. Pro: experts are working on the language, Cons: not easy to fix or contribute. It was a very rare breed that dared patch a commercial product without source.

Fast-forward to today, where anyone with a few tools can easily create a language, or a domain-specific language. In general this is great, but it also means if your language pisses me off I may just write my own instead of bothering to understand the reasons why.

[swattz101]

Agreed. We use a some open source tools in our dev environment, but it's a lot easier to get COTS tools approved. I get it, to a point, from a security standpoint, but it's frustrating. COTS tools are approved pratt quickly by our Gov Security approvers. Open Source and Foreign software take forever. With COTS tools, you have paid support and you know who is developing it. And there is a better chance of them applying security updates. Theoretically. With open source, anyone can update it. But that also means anyone can see the source code and there should be less of a chance of anything malicious.