Resources for new projects: what to do?

[Eric]

About the Academic License, keep in mind it's "for non-commercial classroom use only"

http://www.embarcadero.com/products/...questions#13-2

What are the limitations of the Academic editions?

The Academic edition can be used only for learning in an academic or classroom environment. Educational institutions cannot use the academic version to produce software for use within their institution to commercial licenses.

The non-commercial part is obvious and limiting enough, but the learning & classroom restrictions are a lot more damning: it means you can't use it to release a free game or free applications.

So it's for your own learning use, arguably that of you fellow students & teachers, but you can't compile and release anything made with it on PGD or the broader internet.

Legally speaking, even using it for an entry to the PGD Challenge isn't allowed as the judges aren't your teachers, and the entry is subsequently made available to the general public.

The only really usable cheap edition for hobbyists is the Starter one, but the icense only makes it practical for free software. The Starter edition $1000 limit on revenues is what is limiting it, as it applies to revenues, rather than sales (so everything that is a revenue from an accounting point of view counts towards it, and that encompasses far more than sales).

[LP]

David was telling me that they were going to be pushing this. $30 is a great deal. Where was this announced? I would have made a news post, would that I had been informed by Embarcadero.

I'm not sure, but this seems to be its web page.

The Starter edition $1000 limit on revenues is what is limiting it, as it applies to revenues, rather than sales (so everything that is a revenue from an accounting point of view counts towards it, and that encompasses far more than sales).

What does this mean? Isn't it Revenue = Income - Expenses?

[Eric]

What does this mean? Isn't it Revenue = Income - Expenses?

"revenue" is all the forms of raw income (aka "top line"), while "income minus expenses" is profits or net income (aka bottom line). So you can have revenue not just without having profits, but also when losing money.

What goes into the "revenue" are sales, interests etc. Pretty much every company has revenues of some sort, even those that haven't yet sold anything, if only because they'll have placed the capital they use to pay wages on a bank account with interests, or accounting practices dictate that tax cuts appear as virtual revenue vs virtual expenses, etc.

So this makes Delphi Starter a much more limited proposition than f.i. Microsoft BizSpark, which is basically free for 3 years or until you reach $1 million in revenue. 3 years is plenty of time for a startup, and you're unlikely to reach $1 million without having some serious sales or a seriously huge amount of cash in the bank, while the $1000 can be passed easily even without any actual sales.

[LP]

Thanks for the clarification on revenue's issue!

So it's for your own learning use, arguably that of you fellow students & teachers, but you can't compile and release anything made with it on PGD or the broader internet.

Legally speaking, even using it for an entry to the PGD Challenge isn't allowed as the judges aren't your teachers, and the entry is subsequently made available to the general public.

I've been thinking on this. If you are using Delphi Academic Edition, perhaps you can justify your participation on PGD Annual or any other contest as part of your learning/academic process. In fact, many institutions may provide grants and support for their students participating on different contests and you are technically representing the institution in addition to yourself, so Academic Edition can still apply.

Even if you publish something on Internet that you've made with Academic edition during your academic/student life, I don't think it will conflict with Academic license.

[WILL]

Well considering that Embarcadero was giving an upgrade discount to anyone that "programmed" with even Notepad I think that they would not jump on your back about using something you bought as a student for a for-fun competition. Seeing great stuff made with Pascal would appeal to them and be enough to convince the educational point, I'm sure

Thanks for the link Lifepower.

[pitfiend]

But, is there a way to identify your binaries? I mean, a binary made with a student edition is signed differently than an enterprise made one? If not, then all that thing about license has no meaning. Just a list of restrictions of what you are allowed to do. Seems to me, it's just an abusive way for Embarcadero to make it's income.

[LP]

I'm not sure if the binaries can be identified or not, and in either case it won't make much difference besides violating the privacy of the end user, since identifiable binaries can be a security risk. I'm not a lawyer but I don't think they will break your leg for publishing something that was made with Academic Edition during your school years.

I mean, it would be different if you continue to publish commercial stuff after graduating, but in this case you can always opt for a Starter if budget is low, or simply get the expensive Professional edition.

Purchasing Professional edition wasn't much of a deal earlier when only Windows 32-bit was supported, but now with 64-bit, Mac OS and iOS, it's a pretty good deal.

Another way of getting around Academic limitations would be developing product with Academic edition and when it's finished, purchase commercial license to start selling, thus getting some time advantage.

[pitfiend]

As I see it, nothing stops you to use an educational version instead of a pro, just your sense of honesty. In the end, it's only an ethical issue. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting nor enforcing something illegal, just pointing at an exploit.

[SilverWarior]

Delphi compiler does write an information about wich version of software was used (trial, acadamic, other). The data is writen in the same block that dfm contents are.
But as far as I know when you use various executable packing programs this information gets packed with the rest and thus can't be read unles packing proces is reversed.

[WILL]

There used to be some sort of stripping tool that removed some "useless" data from Delphi compiled EXEs so that you could create a 4 KB program for something similar to the demoscene competitions. (ie. Assembly)

In fact there used to be a tutorial on PGD that showed you how to create such a 4 KB executable.