Re: Blowback and budgets. - OT
This WebDNA talk-list message is from 2000
It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 26527
interpreted = N
texte = ..it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. - Willam Shakespeare, Macbeth Act V, Scene VI plan on buying a Unix license as soon as I can justify it. I have been usingWebCat under NT since before it was in public beta. I am of the opinion thatmost of the grousing on the list is misplaced; some people think that theyshould continue to have access to the developers, which was the only support forthe first few years of WebCat's life. Other people seem to think that everyquestion should be answered by PCS/SM, no matter how trivial. Other peoplethink that $2500 is a lot of money for a turn-key e-commerce package, eventhough other commecial e-commerce packages with much higher hardware demands are$10,000 to $25,000.Most of the errors reported on this list are strictly carbon based, i.e. userstupid, please replace! Other bugs dealing with cross-platform issues areactually caused by the underlying O/S or web server software. Some can beworked around, some are harder or even impossible to cure. I am currentlypaying over $2000 per year for my various Oracle support contracts; I expectinstant service at that price, and I can expect to get to second level techsupport fairly quickly, if I need it. With version upgrade discounts, I doubtthat I have even paid $2500 total for WebCat over the last 3 1/2 years.WebCat is what it is: a very fast RAM based text database, with a distinct biastowards e-commerce functionality. It is not intended to be all things for allpeople. It would be nice to have better string munging, and a regularexpression engine. But I can already do what I want with what WebCat can do; ifI need more I can break out into Perl. I doubt most of the more vocalcomplaints come from people who have ever spent alot of time manning a helpdesk.If you like WebCat's speed, and the language does most of what you need, stickwith it. It would take you 6 months to a year to duplicate it's functionalityin Perl or PHP, or some other general purpose language. WebMerchant itself isreason enough to buy WebCat. I think that SM should think about a paid supportsystem, for the people who prefer the jump to the head of the line; I won't needit myself, but it might reduce the amount of off-topic noise on this list. Eventhough I can probably be considered a WebCat Guru, I still learn new techniquesfrom the list. For example, instead of doing this:[ShowIf [URL][myfield][/URL]=[URL]ValueA[/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf][ShowIf [URL][myfield][/URL]=[URL]ValueB[/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf][ShowIf [URL][myfield][/URL]=[URL]ValueC[/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf]where all you want to know is whether [myfield] is one of the Value's, do thisinstead:[ShowIf [URL]ValueA ValueB ValueC[/URL]^[URL][myfield][/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf]I wish I could remember who originally suggested this; hope this helps someoneelse look at a problem from another angle.John Peacock____________________Reply Separator____________________Subject: Blowback and budgets. Author:
(WebCatalog Talk)Date: 1/24/00 11:09 PMIt seems that I've manage to find the one CGI that runs on Mac/NT/Unixthat I find easy to understand the code and sift through the logic, andyet I keep hearing a portion of the talk community disgruntled aboutsupport for it and SM's dedication to the customers who have purchasedthe WC/WM bundle or single parts thereof.First question: Are they any other really great CGI's that run side byside with WebStar, MGI?(an issue unless I get my Linux box up andrunning soon)Second question: Can anyone give one very good positive reason (andSmith Micro feel free to jump in here) as why I should pony up $2500 USgreens to purchase this product to wait and find out support gets phasedout or to strictly online faq's in 6-12 months?All the web catalog talkers have been quite responsive to my questionsand I thank all of you, but if you all had to take a vote today, and byshow of hands I'd like a tally, who today would purchase WebCatalogright off the cyberstore shelf knowing what they know now? WhetherUnix, NT, or Mac solution, would you buy it?--David A. Bryantdbryant@jump.net-------------------------------------------------------------Brought to you by CommuniGate Pro - The Buzz Word Compliant Messaging Server.To end your Mail problems go to .This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list .To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to
Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:
..it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. - Willam Shakespeare, Macbeth Act V, Scene VI plan on buying a Unix license as soon as I can justify it. I have been usingWebCat under NT since before it was in public beta. I am of the opinion thatmost of the grousing on the list is misplaced; some people think that theyshould continue to have access to the developers, which was the only support forthe first few years of WebCat's life. Other people seem to think that everyquestion should be answered by PCS/SM, no matter how trivial. Other peoplethink that $2500 is a lot of money for a turn-key e-commerce package, eventhough other commecial e-commerce packages with much higher hardware demands are$10,000 to $25,000.Most of the errors reported on this list are strictly carbon based, i.e. userstupid, please replace! Other bugs dealing with cross-platform issues areactually caused by the underlying O/S or web server software. Some can beworked around, some are harder or even impossible to cure. I am currentlypaying over $2000 per year for my various Oracle support contracts; I expectinstant service at that price, and I can expect to get to second level techsupport fairly quickly, if I need it. With version upgrade discounts, I doubtthat I have even paid $2500 total for WebCat over the last 3 1/2 years.WebCat is what it is: a very fast RAM based text database, with a distinct biastowards e-commerce functionality. It is not intended to be all things for allpeople. It would be nice to have better string munging, and a regularexpression engine. But I can already do what I want with what WebCat can do; ifI need more I can break out into Perl. I doubt most of the more vocalcomplaints come from people who have ever spent alot of time manning a helpdesk.If you like WebCat's speed, and the language does most of what you need, stickwith it. It would take you 6 months to a year to duplicate it's functionalityin Perl or PHP, or some other general purpose language. WebMerchant itself isreason enough to buy WebCat. I think that SM should think about a paid supportsystem, for the people who prefer the jump to the head of the line; I won't needit myself, but it might reduce the amount of off-topic noise on this list. Eventhough I can probably be considered a WebCat Guru, I still learn new techniquesfrom the list. For example, instead of doing this:[ShowIf [url][myfield][/URL]=[url]ValueA[/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf][ShowIf [url][myfield][/URL]=[url]ValueB[/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf][ShowIf [url][myfield][/URL]=[url]ValueC[/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf]where all you want to know is whether [myfield] is one of the Value's, do thisinstead:[ShowIf [url]ValueA ValueB ValueC[/URL]^[url][myfield][/URL]][!]somthing here[/!][/ShowIf]I wish I could remember who originally suggested this; hope this helps someoneelse look at a problem from another angle.John Peacock____________________Reply Separator____________________Subject: Blowback and budgets. Author: (WebCatalog Talk)Date: 1/24/00 11:09 PMIt seems that I've manage to find the one CGI that runs on Mac/NT/Unixthat I find easy to understand the code and sift through the logic, andyet I keep hearing a portion of the talk community disgruntled aboutsupport for it and SM's dedication to the customers who have purchasedthe WC/WM bundle or single parts thereof.First question: Are they any other really great CGI's that run side byside with WebStar, MGI?(an issue unless I get my Linux box up andrunning soon)Second question: Can anyone give one very good positive reason (andSmith Micro feel free to jump in here) as why I should pony up $2500 USgreens to purchase this product to wait and find out support gets phasedout or to strictly online faq's in 6-12 months?All the web catalog talkers have been quite responsive to my questionsand I thank all of you, but if you all had to take a vote today, and byshow of hands I'd like a tally, who today would purchase WebCatalogright off the cyberstore shelf knowing what they know now? WhetherUnix, NT, or Mac solution, would you buy it?--David A. Bryantdbryant@jump.net-------------------------------------------------------------Brought to you by CommuniGate Pro - The Buzz Word Compliant Messaging Server.To end your Mail problems go to .This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list .To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to
jpeacock@univpress.com
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