CU Amiga Super CD-ROM 17/CU Amiga Magazine's Super CD-ROM 17 (1997)(EMAP Images)(GB)[!][issue 1997-12].iso/CUCD/Programming/AMOSList/AMOSLIST.0897/[e-mail]_Wed Aug 6 20:39:42 1997.msg

Text File | 1997-09-09 | 8KB | 151 lines

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From: "Maarten D. de Jong" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: shareware!?
To: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 97 21:54:12 METDST
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]>; from "Mush" at Aug 06, 97 7:45 am
Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85]
Status: O
X-Status:

> > Why sharware in this time?! Dont sell your programs make it freeware!
> > wHy u ask?! Because the Amiga having a bad time right now so give
> > and show the new user that the Amiga is still the best computer since
> > tha almighty C64!=20
> > Share your knowledge!???
>
> If we give all of the stuff for the Amiga away for free, the Amiga would =
> fact be digging its own grave. If we give all software away for free, the=
> noone anywhere would even remotely think of supporting a high-budget Amig=
> production, or even buying the Amiga itself for that matter, because it
> will know there is absolutely no money to be made anywhere from any of it=
> software sold. Why budget a game for 30 quid a throw when you can get any
> amount of different games for the price of a phone call...

(I've cut out some lines with just one word on them in order to keep the
chunks of comments visible.)

I agree. It is nowadays impossible to make everything freeware unless you
have a widely installed hardware base (like Linux, which is close to this
ideal.) Apart from that, writing good software takes time, lots of time. Many
of us on this list know this from (bitter??) experience. Some people believe
enough in a concept to stop working for months to shape their ideas into
programs (Yvon Rozijn, author of AWeb for instance). Even on a platform
as the Amiga. Those guys and girls deserve the efforts they put into the
program -- if you think it's good enough. If not, quit whining, or look for
something better, or buy a PC, where you can rip things off even more easily.
I sincerely believe that a large portion of the SoHo packages are either
copied illegally or have been taken home from work as an extension of the
license agreement. And if you _do_ want to play fair on a PC, you'd better
have a very big wallet. I've seen terminal emulators which make Term look
close to being something from an terribly advanced civilization, and people
would ask 100 US$ for such crap.

> > Information wants 2 b free!! have everybody forgot that?!
> > hope not if thats the case! if it is I will skip the AMiga and go back
> > once agian 2 the  C64!
>
> A lot of the software I wanted for my C64 to get it online was shareware.

Besides, Stallman's argument is a fallacy. Programs are not information at
all. Programs are tools to manipulate information. And I think it's comple-
tely logical to pay for such tools -- once again, if you think they're good
enough.

> > Somebody compared Doom with An amos program..That not right because
> > you can never do so fast texturemaping routins in AMOS!( not even in
> > pure assemler).
>
> Everyone on this list knows that. Its not the speed of the routines that
> anyone is interested in half the time, its the quality. If you can make a
> nice raycaster which isnt as fast as Doom, yet still runsa as well, then
> you have beaten the original goal you set out to do. Nothing cant be done
> in AMOS or Assembler.

I sincerely hope that I will once see the time in IT and CS when people stop
seeing `pure assembly' as something god-like. Nowadays, optimising compilers
do a really good job of producing good, fast code. The extra 5% in speed loss
I'll gladly trade for the much smaller effort gone into writing and maintaining
a program.

And yes, it's the idea that counts... But you can't ignore the fact that some-
times a little speed would not be _too_ much to ask for :-).

> > I think everbody join this mailing list 2 get helped or 2 get new
> > insperation 2 do something good and fun! Not 2 talk about how u should
> > make your program so cracked safe as possible!

Which is a very fun subject as well. In the end pointless, of course, but
some of the techniques are really quite clever and teach you a lot about
programming in general.

> > And if you do that,,,and your program will do something nasty on their
> > users system (A trojan horse) its like a virus the program does
> > something else than its sopose 2 do! Warning the user can get u busted!
>
> The list does help people with their AMOS troubles. The best solutin to
> stop your program being cracked is to simply remove the code from the dem=
> version, and only get a full version with the full routines compiled. If
> you had been reading properly, you will have read the listgame was going =
> be PD.

It would be suicide to write something like this. Apart from that it is
illegal as hell: I'm not a lawyer, but I think you would find it not too
hard to get someone to sew the programmer for inflicting damage on purpose.

> > Dont b like PeCe people (bill gates) be Amiga people ...help each other=
> !
>
> Hmm, now if I sold WB3 for 200 dollars a throw (for our freeware LOADWB
> command) then, I would be like Bill Gates.

PC-people are in the majority of cases so utterly ignorant of what is going
on inside their computer that the average Amiga owner seems brilliant in
comparison. Apart from that, Amiga-owners are in my opinion amongst the
most helpful class of computer owners that I know of.

> > And if u want 2 earn some money dont take 2 much for your program...I
> > can say that if its over 10=A3 nobody gonna buy that!! I promise u max
> > one week after u realsed your prog it will b on a so called ELITE BBS
> > cracked and ready 2 run!
>
> No matter how well you protect a program, someone will always crack it in
> the end. Thats why you only have specialist files, ones with more than on=
> password which must be entered on running, and also encryption etc.

And besides, if a program is not worth anymore than $10, it's in most cases
too much trouble to register anyway. I have to pay the same amount of money
to get those 10 bucks to the other party. There will indeed always be
dark elements who will see it their `justifiable right' to make sure that
`information stays free'.
Fortunately, in most cases those guys
running Elite BBS'es are far too proud of their miserable efforts to let
other people use those cracked programs. I think it would make a worthwile
punishment to force _them_ to write, market and sustain a program for
awhile.

Back to AMOS. Has anybody tried to run AMOS on a 31 kHz+ monitor using
phase 5's Scandoubler or the Picasso IV gfx card? Any glitches/anomalities?

Maarten



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