COM/ActiveX

[Michael Halle]

Ron Inbar writes: 
> P.S.  From responses to my previous questions to this mailing list I get 
> a distinct impression that some of you VTK users out there are not too 
> keen on using Microsoft technology.  Please try to put aside any anti-MS 
> prejudice you might have.  Your input will affect decisions I will have 
> to live with for a long time, so please try to evaluate this idea as 
> objectively as you can.

The wonder of open source software systems is that it doesn't matter
what *my* bias or prejudice is; if enough people in the community want
something, they can add it themselves.  If I have a personal bias, it
is to see the open source foundations of VTK continue to develop so
that people who want to build whatever kind of system they want on top
of it, can.

However, all developers have some kind of bias towards the tools they
like to use, whatever the reason they choose them.  It shouldn't be a
big surprise that people using open-source software might tend to
favor open-source solutions, and that they might express negative
opinions about software systems based on proprietary foundations.

But these biases and opinions don't preclude the task from being done,
it just means that those of us who are biased and opinionated in this
way aren't likely to do the work.  I hope you'll get a positive
response to your query, but if you don't maybe you or your company can
put all the money saved not having to develop VTK functionality on
your own, and put it towards hiring one of the legions of ActiveX/COM
hackers out there to do the job.  

In contrast, if I wanted to get PowerPoint to read my own image format,
or be able to parse a Microsoft Word file, I can't do it myself, even
if lots of people in the world wanted to do the same thing.  Hence
prejudices.

Open source may mean freely accessible software, but it doesn't mean
complete software systems for every task or need at no cost or effort.

Good luck,

Michael Halle
mhalle at media.mit.edu




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