Re: VMS Pascal article

In article <vln5d0$318c0$2@dont-email.me>,
Arne Vajhøj  <arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:

On 1/8/2025 7:09 PM, Dave Froble wrote:

On 1/7/2025 7:00 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

Once upon a time there were a reasonable number of of VMS books
available - including about development.
>
I have a list:
   https://www.vajhoej.dk/arne/vms/books.html
>
But most of them are both not available for sale any longer
and not uptodate (either describe VMS VAX or VMS Alpha).
>
Probably not enough market today. How many would buy a book
about VMS Pascal development today? 25? 50? 100?

 
If a book has an electronic format, does it matter how many would
purchase it?

>
The variable cost per copy would be very small (maybe only
the fee for processing payment).
>
But there is also fixed cost for distributing electronically.
Decide on what to do to prevent illegal copying. Generate the
file to distribute. Get it up on some e-commerce web site.
Not zero but not that expensive either. It would require a little
bit of sale though.

I think the hope is that the authors and/or publishers would
offer them gratis; there would be no need for working about
illegal copying, the content would simply be available as a
download (in PDF format presumably).

The problem will likely be that even if it would financially
be positive, then the amount would be very small. If the copyright
owner is an individual, then a plus of a few hundred or thousand
dollars will be OK. But if the copyright owner is
Big Mega Publishing Inc, then they will not do anything
with an expected profit under hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Many technical books that previously cost rather tidy sums are
now available for free, as authors and publishers realized that
the audience had dwindled to negligible and there was no longer
a financial incentive to holding on to the IP.

It's kind of weirdly fascinating how thing that used to cost
staggering sums are now available just for free.

- Dan C.