[StillBored]

For students and hobbyist, yes and was probably a dumb MBA lead decision because it stops the developer pipeline.

OTOH, As many tool vendors will tell you its foolish to dismiss a tool simply based on price. If your paying your developers $100 an hour even tiny improvements in productivity can easily pay for a $1000 or more tool. Just the compilation speed alone vs C/etc is probably worth the 5+ mins a day in savings.

[jacquesm]

It is, but it stops a large number of people from being conversant with your tool and that in turn almost guarantees market failure. I've got a super luxurious toolchain on my computer because of the free software movement and it may not be as flashy as what you can get commercially but it suffices for all of my needs.