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Sep 27, 2002, 5:27am

Just wanted to announce that I have released a *beta* version of a new Bot
development kit for Tekadence Magik:

http://www.axlogic.com/aw

For those of you who have never heard of Magik (probably most), it is a new
visual development tool similar to VisualBasic - but for creating Java
applications. I am one of the creators of Magik, but also I'm a long time
fan of AW and creating Bots for AW. I couldn't resist the temptation of
building a Tekadence module, and I think there is a lot that can be
exploited.. such as the ease of which you can talk to WebServices,
Databases, and JavaBeans - and also the robust scripting layer allowing you
to program using standard Javascript.

The functionality of the module is pretty limited right now, but easily
expanded since the framework is all in place - namely the JNI layer that I
had to develop first. I think that this is a pretty cool tool, and would be
interested in anyones opinion on what I have in place so far, so please feel
free to check it out and let me know what you think!

If you are interested in Magik itself, you can check that out too - and you
will need to download it use the new module I made:

http://www.tekadence.com

-j

Sep 27, 2002, 7:13pm

ack! A bit out of my price range unfortunately. :-\

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Sep 27, 2002, 10:26pm

Yeah, too expensive :(

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Sep 28, 2002, 1:40am

yes, terribly expensive, what is it? I'm too lazy to read.

maki awmaki.com
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Sep 28, 2002, 4:38pm

It's actually free to try with the evaluation version of Magik... but yes,
the price tag is probably out of the league of most "hobbyists". I will be
posting some of the bots that I make using Magik on the website, that can be
launched with WebStart (requires Java). I just posted the first one in fact:
"BabelBot". It uses the BorlandBabel web service to translate messages from
the bot into various "languages". If you want to check that out you can, I
think it's within your price range ;-)

http://www.axlogic.com/aw


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Sep 29, 2002, 1:19pm

is it just me or is the Tekadence website down?

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Sep 29, 2002, 6:01pm

We just switched our hosting service provider last week and there have been
a few glitches. For the most part the site has been up, and will be back up
soon (probably by the time you read this), but thank you for the heads-up.

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Oct 1, 2002, 11:59am

i may not be a buissness expert or anything. but abit stupid to make
software which only big companies can affoard dont you think? and the
majority of the people who buy things like visual basic are hobbyists.

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Oct 1, 2002, 3:51pm

I'm not a business expert either, but since you asked, it's not at all
stupid to make software that only big companies can afford. It obviously
depends on where the target market is for the product. In the case of Magik,
at $500 it is unfortunately priced out of the hobbyist market, but it is
well below the cost of both VB Professional and LabView, and is the same
price as Flash MX and in the ballpark of REALBasic. That being said, it
would be great to have a lower cost version of Magik available - minus some
features - that could be sold for $100-200 (or even less).

I think there may be a misperception here that I'm trying to sell Magik to
this usergroup, which is not the case. I just thought there may be some
general interest in a new type of development tool for creating bots. The AW
stuff is something that I did in my own time, outside of my work at
Tekadence, and is not something I'm trying to sell. In fact things like the
JNI wrappers and the Java framework that I made to do this, I will
undoubtedly release after I've cleaned it up a bit. For some reason though,
you guys seem more interested in the price of Magik, then you are about a
new technology that might offer something unique to the AW development
community. Oh well.

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Oct 1, 2002, 4:03pm

> undoubtedly release after I've cleaned it up a bit. For some reason though,
> you guys seem more interested in the price of Magik, then you are about a
> new technology that might offer something unique to the AW development
> community. Oh well.

o_O If we can't afford it we can't use it as a tool.

--Bowen--

Oct 1, 2002, 5:53pm

It sounds wonderful and looks like it'd be very useful but at that price,
I'll ever know. :-\ I'd be very interested if there was a version with less
features that was a few hundred bucks cheaper. :-)

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Oct 1, 2002, 11:13pm

Ok. That's cool. I asked you guys what you think, and you are telling me -
but I have to admit that I was hoping for more of a review of the actual
product than the pricing model. I'm also assuming that I'm not the only
professional developer on this usergroup who can afford to evaluate and
purchase software, but I could be wrong there too.

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Oct 2, 2002, 3:32pm

"frizzle" <jkaplan at axlogic.com> wrote in
news:3d9a483c$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> Ok. That's cool. I asked you guys what you think, and you are telling
> me - but I have to admit that I was hoping for more of a review of the
> actual product than the pricing model. I'm also assuming that I'm not
> the only professional developer on this usergroup who can afford to
> evaluate and purchase software, but I could be wrong there too.

Well, not all of us programmers in here are professional, and most people
don't earn a cent on their AW bots (professionals or not).

KAH

Oct 5, 2002, 5:22am

Well I can't even evaluate it when it's free everytime I try and sign up for
the trial I get an Internal Sever Error

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Oct 12, 2002, 5:58pm

Yes it is, and I study Business and in the IT market for software development it is stupid to make a product only large corporations can buy. VB was based on everyone being able to get a version for their needs, Learner, Proffesional, Enterprise, and look at how well thats done.

- Mark

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Oct 12, 2002, 9:42pm

It doesn't take a "large corporation" to buy a $500 peice of software, stop
blowing this out of all proportion. There's a free evaluation version that
gives you the opportunity to value it for your own needs. If those needs
don't justify a $500 outlay, then you don't buy it.

Microsoft already have huge income streams from business across a whole host
of products and so have the means to support their entire product portfolio
at lower costs, providing offerings at differing levels. Its only because of
their existing market presence that they can do this. A business model
implemented by the likes of Microsoft doesn't work for small, independant
companies. Unless they can see a market benefit in providing a "lite"
version to the ungrateful masses at an early stage, then its a dumb idea.
The key reason for doing so would be to encourage future sales of the core
product, but that won't happen until they have a substantial market presence
to build on and only corporate site licenses, or at least multi-user
licenses, will give them that.

No-one here has the right to slag off someone elses pricing policy for their
product. If $500 is too rich for your taste, leave it alone.

Grims


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