Post on 12-Jan-2016
Can a Software House make its tools using Perl?
The SANFACE Software experience
sanface@sanface.com
Why Perl?
• The initial Perl language selection was casual• With simple modifies our tools can become cgis
– http://www.sanface.com/createpdf.html – http://www.sanface.com/flash4/ferrari/
• Probably our tools are the only tools that can make PDFs on OS such as: OpenVMS, MPE, OS/390, EPOC, etc. in the same way on every OS
• Perl Dev Kit by ActiveState (http://www.activestate.com) and perl2exe by IndigoSTAR (http://www.indigostar.com)
Why perl?The future
• A generic GUI using perl/Tk
• Perl 6 news:– virtual machine – New ports?: we hope a possible support for
PDA, smartphone, etc.
Why shareware?
Four years ago the idea was innovative:
Not a library, not a PS to PDF converter.
A server tool that developers and project leaders can use like an external tool from every program on every OS.
We thought correct to earn for our work.
The market
• Our first customer was Alex project
• We thought the market of txt2pdf was to convert Electronic texts into PDFs
• Our real market: textual reports to PDFs:– The Halifax Herald Limited projects– The Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. project – Other projects
Is it possible to sell tools, distributing the source code?
• “You’re crazy!” (Italian friends :)
• License Agreement
• Some data:– We estimate more than 100,000 downloads– 600 customers– 95% located in US
A real open Perl comunity
• A software house can use Perl to develop (and sell) commercial tools
• A Perl software house can’t use Perl comunity to announce its products (Perl newsgroup, CPAN, etc.)
• We think that Perl comunity to grow up (like Linux comunity) needs a freeware core accepting commercial tools and parnerships
• We’d like other companies can follow our track with the help of Perl comunity
A real open Perl comunity
We hope this paper is just the first step!