re: Standards debate

Terry, Tony,

You both make good points and support them well.

Tony IS correct that standards development IS expensive. And Terry
agrees with that. We all do. Now things diverge:

Tony says these expensive costs will be shown in the cost of the
standard, and that standards organisations are "non-profit" and just
covering their costs... And he's right.

Terry says that ecma is an example of how to bring the standards to
market for free... And he's right.

Both correct conclusions are based on certain beliefs...

Tony believes the standards org's are fair and honest.

Terry believes that mfr's benefit from inter-operability and
increased sales "pay the way"

Again they are both right! SOME OF THE TIME!

For Tony: As I posted before UL is definitely a "for-profit" entity,
and they are not alone! As a BUSINESS, their goal is to increase
income and reduce expenses.

For Terry: There are LOTS of situations where Mfr's DON'T believe
that inter-operability is a GOOD thing! And the ecma example list of
companies is a veritable "who's who" of industry. Not ALL standards
relate to such a group of "well-heeled" clients.

In OUR little corner of the world, we have safety standards,
electrical standards, control standards, and language standards.

The first 2, most would agree, benefit from "like thinking". However,
the second two, in a capitalist economy, can easily decide to "go
their own way". In the belief that this will lead to increased income.

We also have an "old school" set of mfr's. Who are more used
to "competition" than "co-operation". It's changing; slowly, as
these "dinosaurs" of industrial mfg. are run around, and outpaced by
the "mammals" of the new generation.

Maybe the disagreement here boils down to:

Tony says (correctly pragmatic, IMO) This is the way it "is"...

Terry says (correctly idealistic, IMO) This is the way it "could"
be...

Food for thought. Since I "think" I ate enough of the "other kind"
yesterday :-)

Ballendo

P.S. We have all seen in the battles and outcomes of the "computer
wars" (netscape vs. MS; MS vs. SUN; Apple vs. MS). It is ridiculous
to believe that mfr's don't fight for, and benefit from, a "standard"
aligned to THEIR beliefs!