[WEB4LIB] Re: Software Programs or PERL Scripts for Quizzing/Assessment?

[Raymond Wood]

On 27 Sep 2001, at 8:37, Dan Lester wrote:
> RW> "purchased" ?!?  And here I thought Perl was as *free* as it gets ;>
> 
> Note that the line immediately below your comment talks about
> purchasing a Perl script, not Perl itself.  There are plenty of
> companies and free-lancers who'll write code for a fee, either as
> custom jobs or as products.
> 
> >> any of the available "pre-packaged" PERL scripts

Yes, of course people will write code for fee.  The point is that PERL 
scripts are overwhelmingly available for *free*, and no payment 
whatsoever is required   :)  (Additionally Perl itself stems very much 
from a 'free culture').  See for example one of Perl's 'crown jewels':
  http://www.cpan.org/

It is important that folks understand that there is a large and growing 
repository of quality *free* code that is available without cost.  
Conversely it is important that people do not operate under the 
mistaken assumption that one must pay for commercial software to 
obtain quality software.  

If people choose to pay for products when free alternatives are 
available then that is their choice of course.  In the word's of the ABC 
detergent commercial, however, "Why pay more?"

Bemusedly,
Raymond
--
"Freedom is no longer available for free."
  (recent 'newspeak' from ZeroKnowledge Systems)