T after two

[Jonathan A Rees <JAR@MIT-MC.ARPA>]

    Date: Mon, 8 Jul 85 09:10:51 edt
    From: linus!ramsdell at Mitre-Bedford

    I heard some distressing news from someone at Bell Labs.
    He was using an Apollo and found that Cognitive Systems
    would only sell him T for $10K!  I do not understand how
    T is to become popular with such a large price tag.

CSI isn't exactly selling T, it's selling CSI LISP.  But for comparison,
the price for Chez Scheme, from Cadence Research Systems, is just under
$6000 (to companies).  I don't know prices for the various Common Lisps
out there, but I think they're not cheap.  Lisp systems are expensive to
maintain and develop, the market is small, and there isn't a lot of
competition, so prices tend to be high.  I'm told that CSI's license to
the Yale software (some of which is incorporated into the Apollo version
of CSI LISP) is non-exclusive, so companies can get T directly from
Yale, for a much lower price (does anyone out there know what that price
is?).  That wouldn't include support, of course.  It would be great if
we (or you, or anyone) could find (or start?) some other company to
support and sell T for less than $10000, and thus make it available to
people who need a supported system at a low price.

Jonathan