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eplace, etc., etc. etc etc. AND in split screen mode as well. BG> supports most of those features, without overlays. (Sorry ;) I have used DesTerm and it does not. It does not support a split screen, you can't cut and paste a whole block of text, you can't mark a block of text and just save that, you can't load a bASIc file, nor save one afterward to bASIc format, it does not offer you a ruler... it does not offer global search and replace, nor a 'bookmark' function, nor a line by line dump to printer or modem (I mean select a line to send to the modem or printer....I'm not referring to a transfer to modem, which RTCM also does). I am not knocking it. Matt does a LOT of great things with his buffer. There is one vicious bug in there too... can't remember what it is right now, but it bites hard... something in the editing functions. As far as overlays, Matt made that feature available in his second version. BellTerm did it from the beginning and so has RTcM. That is a tacit admission on my part that no one can cram everything into memory at one time that someone might want to use... and that a lot of what IS in memory at any given time is not useful at every point in a session... file transfers, for instance, are useless to you at this moment, right? No use until you go to the file transfer section of GEnie. It is the overlay capability that allows RTcm to create and dissolve archives, do batch uploads to GEnie and all other transfers otherwise, edit buffers, etc. And it is overlays that has allowed me to cram features into RTCM that would not be possible with any other method. wrt BTP, and DesTerm too for that matter, can you read a 112 block file in 10:43 seconds, let alone 5:64, as it scrolls past your eyes? I am just kidding... I never scroll through my buffers. I search them for subject or author and then just select those messages I want to read. BG> Can RTCM do 14.4? I'll have to defer that to someone who uses that speed modem on their 128. It would require a swiftLink tho. I use RTCM for everything except when I'm on my PC... and I don't like that as much because the terms I have for the PC don't have the features I feel I need.... like the split screen, quoter, and big buffer. I don't have that many so that is not a blanket condemnation. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 29 Sat Aug 05, 1995 CBM-MARK at 17:47 EDT Ed, just buffered a upload session. Well, it was an aborted (by me) session but the prompts I get from GEnie will be the same. I suspected it may have been a change in prompts from GEnie that caused the problem but I'm not sure now. The prompt where it goes bad is: "Was the upload OK? Do you want to put the file in the library (Y/N)?" ^ ^ chr$(63) chr$(31) I was thinking that the chr$(31) (my default prompt from GEnie) is now comming from GEnie as a chr$(63) like it does in GEmail command mode. Nope, still a chr$(31). Is this what Datamover traps for at this prompt shown? Up to this prompt from GEnie everything goes great. This one, Datamover won't answer 'y' that the upload was good, causing GEnie to time me out and drop me offline for being idle too long. ~~Mark~~ ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 30 Sat Aug 05, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 19:33 EDT Mark: The one question I didn't ask you earlier but should have was this... did this happen on the first file or the last? If the last, that means everything worked ok for the first 9. If not, then I better get in that file and get it reenabled, which I suspect at this point if you are getting this on the first file. Let me know. Thanks! ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 31 Sat Aug 05, 1995 E.BOURDON1 [C128-Eddie] at 21:06 EDT I have used the 3.01 version of Datamover, and sent 5 files, all of which were sent fine. This was done about 3 weeks ago. I haven't run across any problems since the newe3.01 anwas released with the bug fixes. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 32 Sat Aug 05, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 21:29 EDT Sounds good Eddie.... does that also mean the other problems you were having are fixed too? This is the first I'veo it might be that that is the datamover problem he is having.... it would make sense since that is what any changes would have been in that overlay. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 33 Sun Aug 06, 1995 C128.JBEE at 04:33 EDT Mark, Try again later, some changes were probably being made to where we sit on GEnie to support the projects I have been working on :X If you do not respond GEnie will always accept the file. That was changed a while ago so an upload that took an hour would not be wasted if you happen to be doing something else at the time the upload ended. The other VDC thing you mentioned is a spurious VDC bug usually found in older C-128s. Fred Bowen said it was a capacitor problem of some sort. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 34 Mon Aug 07, 1995 CBM-MARK at 01:49 EDT Ed, as JB hinted at, hold off for a bit before you poke around at Datamover. I'm pretty sure I used Datamover a little over a week ago without problem. What I mean is, I made an upload then but only pretty sure I used Datamover ;> For what it's worth, it was always on the first file I had problems. Ed & John, the occasional weird problems I have with my VDC display, have only started to happen since the blanking routine was added to RTCM. Which is what, V3.00 and up? But if it *is* a capacitor the it might be coincidence? btw, RUN/STOP-RESTORE almost always clears things up. ~~Mark~~ ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 35 Mon Aug 07, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 18:14 EDT Mark: Ok on DataMover, tho if it was always the first file, that migh point a finger even moreso at RTCM and DataMover. Let me know if you are able to verify things one way or the other. As for the blanking routine, I have had problems also w/the new blanking code, and I can even tell you when.... when the screen blanks while data is incoming, it does not recover properly and frequently does not respond to the run/stop restore. The hack I just uploaded will restore the program to the old blanker routine. That way, if things work, leave them alone... if not, go back to what does. As far as I know, it was only John that had a problem with the old routine. I did a little plinking w/AutoLog to make the changes we spoke about... namely a counter at cdelay+2... that code was pretty easy to implement The scripting options are a little more difficult... not because of coding requirements, which are all basically available or easily done. The problem is room.... I would have to start taking things out to get those features in, tho I think it would probably be well worth it. I think the best thing to remove would be the script editing features in light of BOOTSET and the other new overlay that is to be released when it is finished. What do you think Mark? All AutoLog would need is the menu selections, the caller routine to call the respective routines, and I guess that is pretty much all... but just the menu selections would eat up most of the 162 bytes I have left... ;( ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 36 Mon Aug 07, 1995 E.BOURDON1 [C128-Eddie] at 20:39 EDT Ed, All the problems that I encountered with v3 seem to be fixed in 3.01. I no longer break to monitor anymore, and that was my major problem when booting off my RamLink. Everything else seems fine, but I haven't tested any of the game overlays yet. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 37 Tue Aug 08, 1995 CBM-MARK at 00:28 EDT Ed, I agree with removing the script edit features from Autolog especially if the overlay is getting so big. I7m hoping to have ScriptMaker done soon. I completely forgot about cdelay+2 counter. I'll have to take care of that in ScriptMaker too! About Datamover (see your email;), when Datamover has finished uploading a file, what does Datamover look for when it needs to answer 'y' to the upload being OK? Is it just the GEnie prompt character or something else? ~~Mark~~ ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 38 Tue Aug 08, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 06:02 EDT Mark: DataMover only looks for parts of the normal GEnie prompts... nothing exotic. I'll go w/whatever you find next time you try it. Eddie: That is good news! o, and Mark... the AutoLog stuff is coming out then... what I want to add I think is more useful than what I'm taking out especially in light of ScriptMaker. I'll try to get all that done this weekend. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 39 Thu Aug 10, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 03:19 EDT EB>> Yes, I was talking about cursor movements, not the paging.... and I am not sure why DesTerm would be so much faster. Well, we are talking about two different things then. It seems to me that RTCM scrolls the screen up, while Desterm starts from the top and prints a full screen at once. EB>> A page forward is just a matter of loading that address and printing the next 20 lines. I could easily be wrong, but if I remember right, RTCM scrolls up from the bottom. Could be an optical illusion too. EB>> I see your load/scroll table.... I assume this is for the whole buffer? Yes. To scroll through the whole buffer from beginning to end. Not that this is what I do... I just had to have a long length of time to test with. EB>> point about comparable speeds, tho I WaS referring to the cursor up/down speeds. I have no comment on that. I'm not talking about cursor/up down. EB>> Keep in mind also that the RTcm buffer viewer supports searching too, which is being polled for in the same loop that polls for the scrolling keys. Well, um, er, why not have it as a separate thing? (ie search when "told" to, not constantly) I don't know if Desterm has a search or not. I don't use it in a term program, but then maybe I should be :> EB>> meaning a search by 'subject' or 'from' will get you through your buffer much faster with less wasted time. That's a good idea. But it also depends on what you are doing with the buffer. If you are searching for something, or if you just want to get to the end for some reason. I usually just want to move around quickly (for example, to set a mark). I don't know if 2.02 has search. I have not really taken time to learn it. EB>> In addition, version 3.01 allows you to load, save, and print with keypresses. It is still not an editor, but as I said, a full editor is provided as an overlay. "print with keypresses"? EB>> Yes, the RTCMaster editor can really edit... cut/paste/search/replace, That sounds cool. But I have very strict things I want in a buffer/editor. The one that comes closest to giving me what I want is BTP. Dialogue is unusable to me because of its buffer. (Actually, BTP is not usable to me either, but only because the times have past it by. ie: no multi file transfers, etc.) BG> supports most of those features, without overlays. (Sorry ;) EB>> I have used DesTerm and it does not. Well, obviously, I don't have 3.01 so I can't compare accurately. I was going by the features you stated. And I am sure I could list stuff that Desterm has that RTCM does not. I didn't want to start a war. As I said, I use BOTH programs. If I thought Desterm was better than RTCM for GEnie, I would be using it. If I thought BTP's editor was better to type this in with than TWS, I would be using it instead. re: overlays etc There's a very fine line about what should and should not be in an overlay. Also, the programmer runs the risk that the user will never realize the overlay is there to use. EB>> BTP, and DesTerm too for that matter, can you read a 112 block file in 10:43 seconds, let alone 5:64, as it scrolls past your eyes? As I said, it depends upon your intended use of your buffer. It also depends on your habits. You can believe it or not, but that is why I almost never use RTCM's viewer. It is just too hard and slow to set marks etc when I can do it much faster in TWS. That is not a slam. It's a term, not a word processor. BG> an RTCM do 14.4? Um... it CAN do 9600 right? It says 9600 right on the screen during boot up. I have a SwiftLink. I called at 9600. It seemed to be dropping stuff in between messages. (never during a message) Brenda yes, RTCM v 2.02 scrolls the bottom line of the screen up when CTRL B is pressed. Desterm paints from the top of the screen. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 40 Thu Aug 10, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 06:00 EDT RTCM does scroll from the bottom whereas DesTerm does scroll from the top... think about it tho.... DesTerm has to clear the screen to do that. I felt paging in a continuous manner was more logical... I never liked the way DesTerm did that, but that is a matter of taste. I may know tho why the speed difference.... while RTCM does not have to clear the screen, it *MAY* be calling the 'clear to end of line' rom routine. Dunno why it would do that, but it is possible. As to all your other points, they are valid because they are a matter of personal preference. Different people will have different reasons to use, or not use, a program. If not, you and I would be in another minority of people who prefer dialogue... for their personal preferences. For not knowing what is available, the same can be said for menus... everyone does not use everything available... and it becomes more and more apparent that most people do not read documentation... even bad documentation has some value. egb ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 41 Sat Aug 12, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 01:19 EDT EB>> DesTerm has to clear the screen to do that. I felt paging in a continuous manner was more logical... Well, that depends on what you are trying to do. Sometimes that might be appropriate, sometimes not. EB>> For not knowing what is available, the same can be said for menus... Well, I feel a person is more likely to notice a feature if it is in a menu than if it is accessed in another way. That doesn't mean that I am saying overlays should not be used. EB>> everyone does not use everything available... and it becomes more and more apparent that most people do not read documentation... even bad documentation has some value. I agree, and its sad. ------ And now, what I really need to know... 3rd time asking :) RTCM keeps dropping text at 9600. I had to go back and get this message because it was only 1/2 there. I have a Sportster 14.4 and SwiftLink. Don't force me back to Desterm :DDD Brenda ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 42 Sat Aug 12, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 07:17 EDT Brenda: BG> 3rd time asking :) RTCM keeps dropping text at 9600 I'm sorry... I thought I referred this to someone who does this. I only use 2400 on my 128. I have a 14.4 on my PC upstairs, and I think that is what causes some of my messages to get garbled... tho I haven't tested that theory yet. John Brown has used RTCM at 9600 for quite awhile now. John.... is there something that Brenda should be doing to assure she does not lose text? ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 43 Tue Aug 15, 1995 C128.JBEE at 22:05 EDT > Message 41 Sat Aug 12, 1995 > B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 01:19 EDT >And now, what I really need to know... 3rd time asking :) RTCM keeps >dropping text at 9600. I had to go back and get this message because it >was only 1/2 there. I have a Sportster 14.4 and SwiftLink. Don't force me >back to Desterm :DDD >Brenda From the very first page in the RTCM shareware manual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -RTCM 128 V2.02 - -(C) Copyright 1994 by Parsec, Inc. All rights reserved. - -SHAREWARE -Shareware is an attempt to bypass normal market channels thereby allowing -software authors to distribute products without the high cost of -conventional advertising and promotion. You benefit by having these -savings passed on to you. We benefit by not having to invest in costly -advertising and fancy packaging. -If the software does not do the job, then simply do not use it and pay -nothing; pass it on to someone else, maybe they will find it useful. -At least it did not cost you anything to experiment. -It is a chance to try before you buy! -On the other hand, if you find yourself still using the program after a -couple of weeks, then obviously it is of some worth to you and you must -send in the shareware fee. RTCM 128 is distributed as SHAREWARE, but is -NOT free software. If you use RTCM 128 regularly, then you must send -in the contribution. Please be sure to type or print your name, -address, postal zip code, and country when sending in your shareware fee. -THE SHAREWARE FEE CONTRIBUTION FOR RTCM 128 IS $29.95 (USA and Canada). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of your more *recent* messages: >Category 8, Topic 18 >Message 32 Mon May 01, 1995 >B.GANN1 [Brenda] (Forwarded) > Uh oh... when I tried to download from GEnie with RTCM to the RL, it > dropped to the monitor. Does that mean I need the timing jumper? This is to remind you the testing period is up! Either register RTCM or stop using it and go back to using your (registered) copy of Desterm. Respectfully yours, JBEE ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 44 Tue Aug 15, 1995 C128.JBEE at 22:06 EDT There seems to be a problem with RTCM 128 dropping text at 9600, especially with USRobotics modems such as the one I use. Since people in the RTC have told me they have no problems with their 9600 modems I have to assume it is make specific. Once I get my hands on a BOCA and whatever else CMD sells for 9.6 and beyond I will leave the proper settings here. Though I doubt without hardware control of some sort that RTCM will work properly beyond 9.6k bps anyways. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 45 Wed Aug 16, 1995 C128.JBEE at 01:31 EDT With my RamLink as #8 and my FD-4000 as #10, whenever I do something that will require disk access, the error light comes on. Is RTCM checking for the available device or logging it in? Example: Doing C=F1, the error light will come on and keep flashing before I get the Pattern:$ prompt. I have noticed this with overlays too. BTW: Lib#37 is for registered users. I should have the newest version uploaded and everyone invited by this morning 8am. I ARCed the files, if this presents a problem let me know. Registered users are getting the disks mailed (I delayed them again while redoing the masters). Side one now contains the bare minimum to boot RTCM while all the other fonts and overlays are on the second side. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 46 Wed Aug 16, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 18:26 EDT Owing to some correspondence and some things I've learned and decided, I have gone ahead and begun a rewrite of the AutoLog overlay. The changes to this point have been in the dialing routines. The philosophy has changed a bit to make things work more reliably... I will upload a beta copy soon... I like it tho. It has an onscreen counter that counts down the elapsed time, reliably detects and reports busy signals and 'no 'dialtone' situations.... at least with my modem. I should say it recognizes that these are not carrier and goes into its normal redial stuff... I do some other stuff too that should make things work more smoothly... I am also taking a closer look at the calls into the script language stuff which is going to take me some time to finish. I have put calls into the routines on the main menu but I now have to tweak everything to make it work. I feel this will make that RTCm feature easier to use... After I get finished with the above, I am going to start exploring RTS/CTS which will only be offered for the SwiftLink. If I can add it without too much trouble, I will, as the faster modems are making their way into the affordable range. I dn't know how much trouble the script language is going to be, but I have to fix things so that they work before I can feel comfortable moving to the next project. The stuff I'm adding will be the first true addition to AutoLog since the timed execution stuff. but I do think anyone who uses rTcm will like the dialing routines as they are now offered. egb ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 47 Thu Aug 17, 1995 CBM-MARK at 01:04 EDT John, what you are seeing with disk drive access doesn't happen for me :/ Pressing C=F1 (by your example ;) immediately brings up the Pattern $ prompt for me. No drive error light flasshing or even a noticeable blink. Oh, wait, I only have 1571's and an '81 and not using subdirectories so I wonder if that's why? ~~Mark~~ ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 48 Thu Aug 17, 1995 C128.JBEE at 03:42 EDT It appears RTCM128 accesses the disk drive, for whatever reason, before you send the command. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 50 Sat Aug 19, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 01:59 EDT EB>> I'm sorry... I thought I referred this to someone who does this. You might have, maybe I missed the answer because of the problem. EB>> John.... is there something that Brenda should be doing to assure she does not lose text? Well, I got the answer after I got attacked... JBEE... JB>> From the very first page in the RTCM shareware manual. I don't know where this comes from. When I downloaded RTCM v2.02, the docs were by Ed. Nothing is mentioned in the docs or in the file description about the status of RTCM. I feel the copy I have is PD. Parsec must have later got the rights? Also, I do not apprieciate the lecture. I do not feel I deserved it. I feel that you did it in the most hateful way possible. JB>> One of your more *recent* messages: At first, I thought you were going to relate my 9600 problem to this, but I guess it was yet another slam against me... proving I had the program long enough to pay for it. Even if I deserved this treatment, why are you choosing to do this in public?? JB>> This is to remind you the testing period is up! Either register RTCM or stop using it and go back to using your (registered) copy of Desterm. Yet another slam... implying that my Desterm copy is not registered. It's none of your business, but it is registered. *Desterm* declares itself clearly as shareware. By the way, I read a book by Steve Hudgik called "Writing and Marketing Shareware". In it, the author states that one of the main reasons shareware authors do not get the registrations they should be is that they do not inform the users that the program is shareware. Another topic he mentions is that in his opinion, authors should give help to non-registered users. I don't know if Ed considers me to be a non-registered user or not, but thanks Ed for the help you have been giving me. Ed, is the version I have shareware? If it is, I guess I will have to stop using it. I object to sending $ to someone who treats me like JBEE does. As a matter of fact, that's why I haven't gotten v3 yet. Brenda ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 51 Sat Aug 19, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 09:23 EDT John: If RTCM is sending a disk command before it sends the command you typed it has to be a path command to get you where you want to be. RTCM starts all commands at the root directory if a path is specified, and moves down through your specified path (up to the 60 character string limit of RTCM). Version 3.01 contains a file called 'path.mysetup' which is created in Defaults... you can use this to set up paths that are automatically installed when you boot up and stay there until you change them. To find out if this is what is happening, press c=z and see if you have path settings, even '/0:', set up when you boot the program. ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 52 Sat Aug 19, 1995 E.GBELL [e.g.bell] at 11:41 EDT Brenda: Forgive the length of this message, and if it rambles, sorry... I have been interrupted 3 times composing it w/calls from work that required long dial in sessions... that said... Your shareware question is one I can't answer easily. When RTCM was first written, it was not shareware nor any kind of ware. I was just writing it and editing it in response to suggestions/complaints. When I wrote the Editor, John felt it might be a good time to sell it as a commercial product. Still, I did some more polishing of the program. A contract was signed for RTCM almost 2 years ago. I believe it was 2.03 that first saw the Editor overlay. That version never saw a general release because I had continued making changes and released 2.04 which saw a lot of changes. That version stuck around for a long time, being finally replaced by version 3.00, and 3.01 was an update to that to edit some problems Mark found in the prerelease version. Each version of RTCMaster has seen a good deal of testing by staff and myself before it ever is released for general download. It has brought me into a lot of situations I didn't enjoy when I was trying to learn things about things I wanted to support. You probably remember at least one of those occasions as you wandered (IMO) into a mine field... My point in the above is that tempers have flared on occasion for whatever reason over the last couple of years. I have always felt that the occasions I lost my temper I was justified. Or let me say this.. when I felt I was not justified, I apologized. All that is to say that I understand people losing their temper. been there.... done that... That said.... If you go back and read the posts we have exchanged, try to put yourself in my position. (I HAVE put myself in your position, which is why I go back after I read complaints/observations/requests and try to do the coding for them). I have, over the last x years (I don't even remember how long this has been, but to give you a clue, Paul McAleer was the one who kind of got the ball rolling and he has been gong a LONG time) poured thousands of hours into this program. That is not an exaggeration. No one on GEnie or FIDO has EVER seen me asking for money nor mentioning (or defining) shareware... If people use other programs, even those who have been my friend online for years, I never considered that a reason for complaint or resentment. Different strokes... and keep that in this perspective.... I've never seen a cent for any of my work. I don't do this for privileges either. I had an internal account here that I got from Bill Juliani if you remember him when he was steward of this area. I have a free flag now to provide support, but unlike the internal account, I have to pay every month to be on GEnie, so you can see that supporting users actually costs me money. This rt is the only one on GEnie that I frequent... it always was. I don't play the games (not even when I was an internal)... I just come here to read the posts and email and reply as best I can.. All the above in mind, I don't know about shareware status. You have an interesting point about when you downloaded the program. I can't comment on legitimacy of it. The administration of things has never been my strong suit. I made maybe $50 from BellTerm. As you might see, I'm late in the game and quite a few points behind. I hope this explains my impatience with people who get PAID marketing stuff for our computers and offer lukewarm support in ANY way. No one here can say anything, going back as far as they like, about how I've supported the program. Everyone can give themselves a bit of credit for making suggestions that worked their way into RTCM. I do know this.... I have a Pentium 90 now with a lot of bells and whistles... I have lots to learn and will be learning C starting next week. My c128 is costing me money now. I have almost virtually stopped writing stuff for LoadStar meaning there is no $$$ coming in from that. I am looking to do more on the Internet and GEnie's front end is not what I consider ideal. I want to continue to support RTCM, but more importantly I want to continue programming my 128. I don't want money to intrude on that, but I can see it is inevitable. I don't know how to address that right now. I'm going to give it some thought. As for DesTerm/Dialogue/RTCM... RTcm was never meant to compete against the others. It was written with a different philosophy. I'm just some old bald guy sitting at a keyboard thinking... 'boy, I wish I could do that w/o loading up a new program...' Matt and Gary approached their program with a much different philosophy. It is kind of a waste of everyones time to try to compare my orange with their apples, if you know what I mean. Lengthy comparisons about what RTCM cannot do are pointless (and sometimes premature) but I like discussion. I can see how it could get frustrating tho. I've always been unusual about what upsets me... I brush off what upsets some and get upset at what most people brush off. ::: shrug ::: I'd rather see someone get offended than get gone if you know what I mean, though, and shoot back. I honestly don't know what to do about the money aspect of things. I honestly don't. And the funny thing is, with the new baby and my wife having been off work since April, I of all people SHOULD be upset about things and I'm not. I just redid the dialer code and I think I may try my hand at the RTS cTS stuff because of the proliferation of faster modems... unfortunately I can't test them, but anyway, at least for now I'm going to continue to offer the best support I can. I'm not Matt Desmond or Gary Farmaner, but I'm still 'visibly' available and supporting the C128, if that counts for anything. egb ------------ Category 8, Topic 18 Message 53 Sat Aug 19, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 15:21 EDT EB>> Forgive the length of this message, and if it rambles, sorry... That's ok. Thanks for the explanation. I had a pretty horrible day yesturday, starting it off with JBEE's comments and going downhill from there :/ This is REALLY gonna be long. Hope it all fits. EB>> When I wrote the Editor, John felt it might be a good time to sell it as a commercial product. The version I have must be before this version, as I do not have that (c) Parsec manual. EB>> A contract was signed for RTCM almost 2 years ago. I dl'ed RTCM 2.02 in 7/93, over 2 years ago. EB>> Each version of RTCMaster has seen a good deal of testing by staff and myself before it ever is released for general download. It has brought me into a lot of situations I didn't enjoy when I was trying to learn things about things I wanted to support. Yes, I can tell you work very hard. EB>> My point in the above is that tempers have flared on occasion for whatever reason over the last couple of years. I feel you handle things pretty well. EB>> If you go back and read the posts we have exchanged, try to put yourself in my position. This part kinda rambled a bit. Did you mean, "I've put a lot of work into it, and it is costing me $$, that I can't afford to spend"? Well, I am not trying to be technical and "get out of" payment by going by a downdload date or something. My point is that I feel JBEE laid into me, in public, without justification. I did not know that RTCM v2.02 was shareware, when there is nothing to indicate it as such. EB>> (I HAVE put myself in your position, which is why I go back after I read complaints/observations/requests and try to do the coding for them). Yes, I can tell. I'm impressed with your way of doing things. EB>> If people use other programs, even those who have been my friend online for years, I never considered that a reason for complaint or resentment. Neither do I. EB>> No one on GEnie or FIDO has EVER seen me asking for money nor mentioning (or defining) shareware... ...I've never seen a cent for any of my work... ...The administration of things has never been my strong suit. I made maybe $50 from BellTerm. Maybe that is why you don't get the proper # of registrations ;) Read Steve Hudgik's book! :) He explains how to do it properly, not too little (like most programmers) and not too much. There is also an area on GEnie for people that belong to the same organization he does. I can't think of the name right now. The book is called "Writing and Marketing Shareware". It's for IBM of course. (One of the charts mentions C= though!) It covers everything from how to handle phone support, to cripple or not to cripple, how to get registrations, how to handle users that are not registered, about the organization for authors, what do with users from previous versions when rights are sold, etc. Programmers can't complain about not getting $ for shareware if they never even tell the user that the program is shareware. For example, how many people realize that Stereo Sidplayer is NOT PD?? Mark considers it to be shareware. But who is going to realize that from the docs... September 1, 1988 - 10: