To collaborate or to compete? [closed]

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I work on developer tools for a particular product. There is a competing set of tools for the same product produced by a different company. The user-base is split roughly 50-50 between us.

Recently, the other company has introduced scripting to make their own tools extensible by end-users. This is a feature that we have had planned for our tools for a while, but it is only now that we are able to start implementing it.

My question is: should we try as much as possible to collaborate with the developers of competing product so that end-user scripts can be shared between users on the different products? We would obviously require different implementations, but share the same syntax. This would obviously be better for the community as a whole since there would be more interoperability.

The downside of collaborating like this is that the competing product's scripting language is slightly tailored towards their own implementation. We would have to jump through a few hoops to create an implementation for their scripts on our platform. Or, we would have to somehow convince our competitor to modify their scripts so that they are platform agnostic.

So, to rephrase my question: should we try to collaborate, thus making our community happier, or should we produce a competing scripting language that is more appropriate for our platform?

I realize that this is a very general question with no single right or wrong answer. What I am looking for is a g开发者_开发百科ood explanation of the pros and cons of each approach.

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I would write something that is specifically tailored towards my own system (don't compromise your technical quality) and then release and fully support a compatibility layer that allows my competitors scripts to run on my system (make it easy for users to migrate).

I'd stay away from doing things that will try to lock people in and cripple them if they move. These tactics worked once upon a time but in this day and age don't really cut it any more. I'd even go so far as to actually (unofficially on fora etc.) help people who are having trouble porting scripts running on my system to my competitors.

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Another way to ask the question (and to answer) is to wonder WHAT KIND of script language is DESIRABLE FOR USERS.

If your competitor went a lock-in route with a proprietary scripted language, then please your users (and get a competitive edge) by using a STANDARD scripted language.

Doing so will immensely increase the value of your tool as many persons ALREADY know the scripted language.

Nobody wants to learn a new language.

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Would building a unified scripting language harm your customer-base or give the competitor the competitive edge?

Obviously if you want to lock in customers, go solo which will prevent your customers from easily switching over to the competitor's product (sounds a little like Microsoft tactics) or if you know your product is superior, a collaboration will allow you to get customers from the competitor in which case customers will have the choice to choose which business model suits their needs, make a choice based on the quality of the product as a whole as well as which features they really need instead of being locked into an invisible contract due to the choice they made initially.

Going the collaboration route will also put your company in a position where developers will respect your company (for not being a greedy monopoly monster) instead of boycotting it due to their "moral" beliefs in open standards.

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I would say that if possible make it compatible, not so much to cooperate but to compete. Making an incompatible solution would lock you customers in to some degree (you don't have any yet with a lot of scripts - so not much gain), but making a compatible solution keeps the door open for customers of your competition to migrate (they might have some scripts by the time you ship yours). Just my 2cents