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http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/...2573630083A579
The Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand (Pharmac) has developed
an open source solution for publishing the Pharmaceutical Schedule online.

Using TeX, an open source typesetting system, Pharmac’s IT department built
a solution which enables the schedule to be published in book form,
directly from the same XML source that is used to process subsidy claims.

The project actually started using proprietary software, says John Geering,
Pharmac’s IT manager. After initially being told by local typesetters that
automatic typesetting was not possible, he managed to find a proprietary
3B2 typesetting solution from a UK-based company.

Even though the system turned out to be incredibly complicated, Pharmac
stuck with it, Geering says. Geering and his team went on a three week 3B2
training course, but they did not feel confident about maintaining the
system after the course, he says.

“[The system] looked pretty ugly under the hood,” he says.

However, when the project was nearing its end, the UK company was acquired
by another company, and Pharmac lost contact with the developers in the
process. It was like the company “pulled the plug on us”, says Geering.

While Pharmac was working on the 3B2 solution, Geering’s son, a programmer
still in school at the time, said that he could build a better solution
using TeX.

Geering decided to give his son’s idea a go. They came up with a
proof-of-concept, and it worked, says Geering.

Geering and two IT staff developed the whole open source system in-house,
reducing the cost of the project to a fraction of what the 3B2 solution
would have cost, he says.

The team used Python, libxml/libxslt and TeX, running on Debian GNU/Linux,
and the open document standards TeX, XML, MathML, XHTML, and Xlink, says
Geering.

The Tex schedule project went live in April. The schedule book is printed
three times a year — April, August and December, but because the project
has been successful, Pharmac is now considering publishing monthly, says
Geering.

__EOP__
In house programming building on top of the OSS solutions already available.
Note: when the closed source solution had a [fairly typical] change to its
business structure all of Pharmacs existing investment went south.

--
Hardware: n, Parts of a computer that you can kick.

In message <fdsike$glm$>, Shane wrote:

> However, when the project was nearing its end, the UK company was acquired
> by another company, and Pharmac lost contact with the developers in the
> process. It was like the company “pulled the plug on us”, says Geering.

Occupational hazard of closed-source.

What happened to all the work that was done? Most likely mouldering at the
bottom of a drawer somewhere. You'd think it would be of no monetary value
to the acquiring company, they could open-source it, wouldn't you? But no,
better to be a dog in the manger...

Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> In message <fdsike$glm$>, Shane wrote:
>
>> However, when the project was nearing its end, the UK company was acquired
>> by another company, and Pharmac lost contact with the developers in the
>> process. It was like the company “pulled the plug on us”, says Geering.
>
> Occupational hazard of closed-source.
>
> What happened to all the work that was done? Most likely mouldering at the
> bottom of a drawer somewhere. You'd think it would be of no monetary value
> to the acquiring company, they could open-source it, wouldn't you? But no,
> better to be a dog in the manger...

I have seen this too often bye bye support....there is worse though....

a) somebody does indeed acquire the code and then you find as the end
user you have to deal with some a-hole that wants a fortune in monthly
fees for diddly support when he feels like it and is doing nothing else
(like drinking beer or recovering from drinking beer).......

b) Your el cheapo app suddenly requires major upgrades at 10 and usually
100 times the original purchase price to fix their bugs...except they
are not usually fixed, or worse ones are released oh and you have to
either buy monthly support (see a) or buy the next major upgrade some
distance into the future at 100 to 1000 times the original cost.

You can get so screwed so fast.

To avoid first or a) customers actually insist that the code is
deposited with a 3rd party and in the event of the company going out of
business they get a copy of the code...these days though I am not so
sure its still an option....it still does not protect you from b). for
such an option to be asked for means that this must have been a huge
concern...

Of course going open source is much easier...

regards

Thing