Excerpted from a message dated 01-08-99, Fred Springfield to Murray
Lesser:

ML> David Noon still thinks that "PL/I Personal" will return some day. 
ML> I'm not so sure, but I am willing to wait.  In the meantime, I am
ML> using a back-version (VA PL/I "Standard" v 2.0 for OS/2) that seems
ML> to still work OK.

FS>The PL/1 "Personal Edition" is indeed out.  David posted the URL for
  >it, which I have since lost.  But, I remember visiting the site and
  >it comes in "electronic download" version only (about 25 MB, if I
  >remember correctly), and appeared on a Lotus website server.  The
  >price was $115 US (also if I remember correctly), but I do not think
  >it was a Visial Age type of product, but rather a non-VA product.

Hi Fred--

    Thanks for the info.  I saw David's post.  My recollection is that
his correspondent had downloaded PL/I Personal for Windows NT.  I would
suggest that those wishing to buy any still-available version of PL/I
Personal make sure that it is the OS/2 version, unless they would be
happy with the WinNT one.  (Even if you have both platforms available,
according to the joint documentation, the OS/2 version has facilities
that are not available in the NT version, due to lack of capability of
the underlying operating system.)

     Based on my recollection of correspondence of about a year ago with
Carolyn at Team PL/I support, IBM product marketing decided to release v
1.2 of Personal PL/I for download sale only, with no support (there
would be no bug-fix CSDs offered).  She even sent me a CD-ROM with the
same OS/2 version on it that had been released to the vendor, with the
understanding that I would purchase a licensed copy from the vendor when
it became available (quoted price from vendor's Web site - when
available: $300 US).  IIRC, SYSLEVEL reported this as V1R2, although the
startup logo notice reported it as v 2.0.

    Unfortunately, the US vendor they released it to (releasesoft.com)
decided to offer only the version for Windows NT, so there was no way to
get the "new" Personal Edition of the OS/2 compiler.  So, about eight
months ago I bought an upgrade (around $500 US) to VA PL/I "Standard
Edition" v 2.0, to fulfill my obligation to Carolyn as well as to get
some of the even-newer (non-VA) features.  I filed the included NT
version somewhere in my closet and destroyed the "preview" CD-ROM I had
received from Carolyn.  After only one CSD for my brand new compiler,
IBM back-versioned it by bringing out the "new" VA PL/I "Enterprise
Edition" v 2.1 at a price I am not interested in pursuing.  So I am
happily(?) using my unsupported compiler for the foreseeable future.

    Thus, my personal interest in the Personal Edition is academic,
only, at this point.

    Regards,

        --Murray

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