Meeting Pearls 1

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Text File | 1994-05-04 | 33KB | 778 lines

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- FishROM Database ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Draft #6: 940225) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Synopsis of Changes in this Draft: 1. If .Product-Info is not found, Product-Info is also considered a valid product information file. See (6) below. 2. A NEW FIELD (.fullname) is now available. It is optional but should be used by applications that derive their common name from and abbreviation of their full (complete) name. As an example, AIBB would have a .fullname of "Amiga Intuition Based Benchmarks" See the field descriptions, below. 3. A NEW FIELD (.stored-in) is now available. It describes where and how the application is stored. The generation of this field requires some care because it may reference EITHER a directory OR an (archive) file. See the field descriptions, below. 4. A NEW FIELD (.submittal) is now available. It describes who submitted the program or how it came to be placed into the collection. See the field descriptions, below. 5. A NEW FIELD (.described-by) is now available. It specifies who created the Produc-Info file (all those fields) for the program. 6. New .type keywords have been added according to a list that Fred posted. This list is open-ended but extensions should be made with care. Unrestrained expansion could neutralize the use of this field. 7. The description for the .version field has been altered to indicate that the MAJOR.MINOR format is a suggestion, not a rule. What any program does with the information is anyhow largely unspecified. The specs laid down by this draft aim to create law and order (... must be maintained at all times, Ja?) but are NOT meant to impose needless and senseless restrictions. NOTE: nothing hinders you from storing 20 lines of descriptive text in the .version field or leave the .description field entirely blank. While KingFisher itself will give a hoot, the user will be needlessly confused. Stick as closely as POSSIBLE to these guidelines to make the overall functionality more and more reliable. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: This document contains some specific information on the KingFisher Database, as well as features and design choices of the KingFisher 2.0 Server. The KingFisher 2.0 Server is a program to which client applications attach and from which clients may retrieve information. This allows multiple clients nearly unrestrained access to multiple databases. Clients may have ARexx, CLI, and/or GUI interfaces, and may have a very specific or quite general purpose. 1. A KingFisher 2.0 database is described by a text file whose name ends in .kfdb (KingFisher DataBase.) This file describes everything that the KingFisher Server needs to know about the database, especially the names of one or more database sections and what range of record numbers each contains, the names of primary and secondary index files, as well as some other, less vital, information. 2. A database consists of zero or more records spread over one or more files and indexed by a single (primary) index file. 3. Each record is an extended ASCII (text) file which may contain standard characters of the ISO Latin 1 character set (0x20..0xff) as is the standard Amiga symbol set, as well as the ASCII formatting character 0x1a (newline.) All other symbols in the range 0x00..0x1f are illegal for a record and may or may not produce erratic behavior. Expressly forbidden are the NUL (0x00) and the ^N (0x0e) as they have special meaning. Furthermore, a dot (.) is not permitted as the first character on a line unless it preceeds the name of a FIELD (see below.) A dot leading text on a line (rather unusual) may be avoided without loss by placing a \ (backslash) symbol immediately before it. KingFisher's formatting functions will recognize and adjust for such occurrences, as well as other special formatting sequences that begin with a backslash. And last, but not least, a record begins with the character string ".name" (sans quotes) so that the start of the NEXT record can be easily determined by the appearance of this special key string. No other field is special to KingFisher. Field name identifiers are not case sensitive. 4. KingFisher places between some records a special marker (^N (0x0e)) line to indicate breaks between disks. This allows reindexing algorithms to properly recover information about disk references. While the new .reference field makes this less necessary, it does help in carrying over older KingFisher Release 1 databases. Suggestion: You could "misuse" this disk number scheme with a database of your own design by assigning it the concept of pages. Thus you could store text and filenames in a database and use the disk markers as new-page markers, all under the control of the KingFisher server, of course. 5. New records (fish) are added to the database at the end. KingFisher maintains a database with variable size records and removal of records always truncates the database at that point. Unlike the original KingFisher Release 1, however, the records so truncated will be removed from the database. The interface to the server, however, would allow a client application to make prior backup arrangements of the records that it wants to delete, in order to undo the truncate operation again. 6. Information in the form of KingFisher Database Records (see (3) above) is to accompany an application in the form of a .Product-Info file. Unless client applications decide to use a different filename (STRONGLY discouraged!) the .Product-Info file is herewith a standard. As of draft #5, the leading period on the name .Product-Info is optional and may be omitted. Programs parsing the directory tree should check for the presence of the .Product-Info file first, and if not found, try to load the Product-Info (no leading period) file. 7. When KingFisher Database Records are transported via electronic mail or otherwise embedded within unrelated text (i.e. with news headers and personal signatures following) the records MUST BE enclosed in special DATA TRANSPORT MARKERS that tell the parsing software what information is part of the records and what is not. Multiple such records may be enclosed by only a single pair of markers, or multiple records may be enclosed each by a pair of markers with unrelated text before, after, and between the markers. If a file is being parsed which begins with a line less than or equal to 30 characters in length, and does not have a special DATABASE HEADER, then KingFisher assumes this file to be a KingFisher Release 1 database. This assumption can be false, so it remains the user's responsibility to assure that no garbage is fed to the parser. Note that the DATA TRANSPORT MARKERS are not meant for use in the .Product-Info files, although they will be ignored if found. They would simply be wasted, there. The following examples are to be read as complete files between the lines that look like this: --------------- Example 1: A file containing text in addition to the database record. ---------------------------------------- Hello, Joe. Here is the description of that weird game I was telling you about. See if you can figure out how to win this. Good luck! .BEGIN-FISH-DESCRIPTION .name MonkeyCommand .author KingKong Industries .description Lure the lovestruck monster ape back to his island. Tools include Fay Wray's torn nightgown, a Fokker airplane (you get to pilot it), a compass and a map. .path FishROM001:games/MonkeyCommand/ .END-FISH-DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------- Example 2: A file containing nothing but two database records. ---------------------------------------- .name MonkeyCommand .author KingKong Industries .description Lure the lovestruck monster ape back to his island. Tools include Fay Wray's torn nightgown, a Fokker airplane (you get to pilot it), a compass and a map. .path FishROM001:games/MonkeyCommand/ .name MonkeyCommand II .author KingKong Industries .description Keep the captured ape from assaulting the defenses of the prison that was erected at the conclusion of MonkeyCommand I. The action consists of coordinating the actions of four native tribal leaders and their vassals in repairing the damage done by the rampant beast. .path FishROM002:games/MonkeyCommand2/ ---------------------------------------- Example 3: A file containing two database records interspersed with extraneous text. The records are protected by DATA TRANSPORT MARKERS ---------------------------------------- Hi Tom, Remember that monkey game you told my about? .BEGIN-FISH-DESCRIPTION .name MonkeyCommand .author KingKong Industries .description Lure the lovestruck monster ape back to his island. Tools include Fay Wray's torn nightgown, a Fokker airplane (you get to pilot it), a compass and a map. .path FishROM001:games/MonkeyCommand/ .END-FISH-DESCRIPTION Well, seems that one wasn't enough and they released another one. We'll have to figure out how to finally beat the first one, it seems, before they let us play the next. Maybe we can look through the binary to find that code phrase. Here's the text: .BEGIN-FISH-DESCRIPTION .name MonkeyCommand II .author KingKong Industries .description Keep the captured ape from breaking through the defenses of the prison that was erected at the conclusion of MonkeyCommand I. The game consists of coordinating the actions of four native tribal leaders and their vassals in repairing the damage done by the angry beast. .restriction You need the secret code from the first MonkeyCommand which you can only get if you won the game. .path FishROM002:games/MonkeyCommand2/ .END-FISH-DESCRIPTION (=:Joe:=) ---------------------------------------- 9. The following describes a list of STANDARD fields for the KingFisher 2.0 database. Please note that every field begins with a period to distinguish it from the field contents. KingFisher has some very specific ideas about what these STANDARD fields may contain. It is important, therefore, that you follow these guidelines. In most fields, text on multiple physical lines is considered to be the same as if it was all on one long line. Newlines are simply treated as a whitespace. If you wish to insert special formatting symbols, please refer to the section below, titled FORMATTING SYMBOLS, for more information. While it is possible to omit any field, even those not marked OPTIONAL, it is highly recommended to follow the established guidelines! If additional fields are needed because you wish to offer information that does not fit within the framework of the existing fields, you are perfectly welcome to create additional fields! They will always be treated like free format fields. ================================================================ .name PURPOSE: The proram's name FORMAT: 1 line only EXAMPLE: KingFisher EXAMPLE: HomeBase VI EXAMPLE: AIBB EXAMPLE: gcc ---------------------------------------------------------------- .fullname <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: The program's full (or complete) name FORMAT: 1 line only EXAMPLE: Amiga Intuition Based Benchmarks EXAMPLE: GNU C Compiler NOTES: If the .name is not an abbreviation then omit the .fullname. No sense in giving the name twice! ---------------------------------------------------------------- .type PURPOSE: A keyword that describes the nature of the program FORMAT: Preferrably a single word or two. EXAMPLE: Database EXAMPLE: Spreadsheet EXAMPLE: Animation Player EXAMPLE: Animation Tools EXAMPLE: Communications EXAMPLE: Display Commodity EXAMPLE: Mouse Commodity NOTES: Avoid abbreviations. Refer to the list below for suggestions. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .short <@> <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: A one-line description, preferrably not exceeding 40 characters in length. This description is to give a single-glance insight into the program's purpose. FORMAT: 1 line only. EXAMPLE: Software catalog/search/maintenance tool, multi-user. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .description PURPOSE: A full-text description of your program, containing anything that is NOT ALREADY available through the other fields (see above and below.) The reader should gain a good understanding what your program can and cannot do. If you mention other programs please do not forget to provide a .reference field for each such mention. FORMAT: Any number of lines, treated as one line. Formatting is permitted, but generally discouraged. NOTES: Do not indent your text if you choose to format your text into multiple paragraphs. Do not use \t as a tab. Leave paragraph formatting to KingFisher. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .version PURPOSE: The program's version number FORMAT: MAJOR.MINOR 1 line only EXAMPLE: 37.100 NOTES: Please note that the Commodore guidelines specify that the number after the period is NOT a FRACTION but rather a WHOLE NUMBER! Thus, the following is a valid progression: 37.1 37.17 37.39 37.100 37.170 The following are all vastly different versions: 37.1 37.10 37.100 37.1000 NOTES: The format given for this field is really more of a SUGGESTION rather than a RULE. There is no reason why you can't store "Today's Version" or "v940205" instead of 18.173. In an ideal world everyone would use Commodore guidelines, but there are enough exceptions. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .date PURPOSE: The program's official release date; not the date it made it into the database. FORMAT: year.month.day 1 line only EXAMPLE: 1993.09.27 NOTES: The date format is chosen to be easily sortable. Note the use of leading zeros in month and day. The full year is to be given in anticipation of the coming change to a new millenium. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .author PURPOSE: Any and all authors who have a part in the program FORMAT: Any number of lines, treated as one line (\n in the text will "break up" the line into multiple visual lines.) EXAMPLE: Joe R. User, Tea Rexx. EXAMPLE: J. Jones\n Random Hacker\n B. Clinton NOTES: Addresses should be placed in the .address field. There should be only one .address field for each .author field. If more than 1 .author field is specified, then the same number of .address and .email fields must also be given in a 1-to-1 relationship (i.e. the 3rd .author field must be associated with the 3rd .address, and the 3rd .email field.) EX: see the example "Joe R. User, Tea Rexx" above; Assume that Joe R. User has long vanished and no known address, but that Tea Rexx has supported the program for a while. If an .address and/or .email field is available for Tea Rexx, then you must specify EMPTY .address and/or .email fields for the author listed BEFORE the ones for Tea Rexx. Likewise, if the two authors names were reversed, you would NOT have to specify blank .address and/or .email fields for the second author. I hope that makes sense. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .restrictions PURPOSE: List restrictions placed upon this program. These should indicate in which way this program has been made dysfunctional (for demo purposes), problems (bugs) known to exist with this program, or any other thing that lets the user know that this program, as seen in this distribution, may not fully satisfy the user in some form. FORMAT: Free form; see .description for more info. EXAMPLE: Demo version has SAVE and PRINT options disabled. EXAMPLE: The ReadOperatorsMind command fails to work with CDTV units. Incompatible with the Discus Ejector utility. EXAMPLE: Crashes if iconified while loading a sample or image larger than 64K. EXAMPLE: Requires a PAL display. EXAMPLE: The program is in German but the documentation offers translations into English and Swahili on a menu-by-menu and gadget-by-gadget basis. NOTES: Do NOT use this field for things like "won't work with KS 1.3" or "won't run with less than 2 Megs of RAM." ---------------------------------------------------------------- .requirements PURPOSE: List requirements for your program. These should give the reader enough information to determine if the software will run on his/her system or not. Be sure to specify operating system versions, (hard)disk space requirements, etc. If your program requires any external libraries that are not part of the system software, it would be nice to list them here and comment on whether or not they are included in the archive. If your program is known to run on every existing (Amiga) platform, state this in this field! FORMAT: Free form; see .description for more info. EXAMPLE: 68020, 68030, or 68040 CPU; 3M free RAM; 18M disk space; at least 640x480 display capabilities! EXAMPLE: Requires WB2.1 (V38) EXAMPLE: Requires 1024x768 (or larger) display capability. EXAMPLE: Works only with 4096-channel, 230db BLAZETHUNDER Audio board. EXAMPLE: Requires MUI (MagicUserInterface) version 5. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .reference <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Full path to where this program's files are stored, as well as the version that is stored there. FORMAT: 2 lines per reference: the first line specifies the full path (with trailing slash) and the second line, the version. NOTES: Multiple such fields may be provided to reference previous versions of this program, as well as other programs that might be of interest. The versions should be listed in reverse chronological order and should NOT include the current entry. If this is an original entry and you make no references to other programs anywhere, them omit this field. Please note that it is VERY VERY VERY important that you specify the CORRECT PATH! Without a correct path, this entry will be nearly useless! EXAMPLE: FishROM-0002:Productivity/Databases/HomeBase VI/ 417.0 FishROM-0001:Productivity/Databases/HomeBase VI/ 415.12 ---------------------------------------------------------------- .distribution was: .status in rev 1 <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describes the distribution and ownership status of this software. Please see below for a list of common (and recommended!) terms to use. FORMAT: 1 line EXAMPLE: Shareware NOTES: Please see the table below for descriptions of the recommended terms. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .price <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describes the cost of this program to the user. FORMAT: Any number of lines, treated as one line. EXAMPLE: $50(US), DM75. NOTES: In order to make this field more useful, it is strongly recommended that the first currency listed is United States Dollars as shown in the EXAMPLE above. This allows a search to be limited to a common price base. If you charge no money for this program, omit this field! ---------------------------------------------------------------- .address <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describe a full postal address of the author, to be used if it becomes necessary or desirable to contact the author. Do not specify the author's name, as this is already in the .author field. FORMAT: Multiple lines; formatting symbols \n are not required, as physical line breaks are equivalent. NOTES: SEE THE .author FIELD FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- .email <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describe a full electronic mail address. Make sure that this address is complete and reachable even from less well-connected sites. The author of KingFisher, for example, can be reached as walrus@wam.umd.edu It would be an error to specify only "walrus" or "walrus@wam" even though these will work within the particular organization where this address is valid. FORMAT: Multiple lines; formatting symbols \n are not required, as physical line breaks are equivalent. NOTES: You may specify multiple electronic mail addresses in order of decreasing reliability and permanence, each on its own line. SEE THE .author FIELD FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- .exectype <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describe the type of executable(s) that make up your program. Examples: 68xxx, AMOS, Script, ARexx, Compiled basic, Amigabasic, etc. FORMAT: Free form; see .description for more information. EXAMPLE: AMOS EXAMPLE: 68000, 68020, and 68040. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .installsize <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Indicate the minimum and maximum sizes of the executable as it is installed. The minimum size should give an indication of how much diskspace is required for a minimal installation (perhaps lacking help files and miscellaneous tools) while the maximum size should indicate the absolutely highest amount of diskspace required by the program. FORMAT: 1 or more lines; Only the first line has a fixed format, the rest are free-form. See examples. Always indicate the number scales with a capital K (for kilobyte) or M (for megabyte) EXAMPLE: 220K - 2M Most of the database files can be kept on floppy disks, so valuable harddisk space is not wasted. EXAMPLE: 18K EXAMPLE: 38K - 500K Lots of documentation and example scripts make up the bulk of the installation. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .source <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describe what source code is available with this program. If source code is not available then omit this field. The .construction field often helps further identify the type of source if you omit details here. How large is the source? FORMAT: Free form; see .description for more information. EXAMPLE: SAS/C,Manx,DICE source (750K) available for $15 EXAMPLE: Oberon source included. 85K EXAMPLE: Limited C source (15K) included. EXAMPLE: All source plus custom libraries, included: 12MB ---------------------------------------------------------------- .construction <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Describe the type of language(s) used to create this program and the methods used to build the final executable. If possible, include the compiler version(s) and possibly important options, such as optimization. FORMAT: Free form; see .description for more information. EXAMPLE: SAS/C++ 6.5 with full optimization. EXAMPLE: AdaEd. EXAMPLE: Fortran with self-made compiler. EXAMPLE: AMOS ---------------------------------------------------------------- .tested <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Give an indication of which configurations have served as test environments. FORMAT: Free form; see .description for more information. EXAMPLE: A500(512K Chip, 0K Fast, 1 Floppy), A2000(1M Chip, 2M Fast, 40M HD, 1 Floppy); not tested on 68020+ CPUs. EXAMPLE: A1000, A500, A600, A2000, A2000/30, A3000, A1200, A4000/30, A4000/40 with various amounts of Chip and Fast RAM, with and without MMU or FPU. Found to be free of Enforcer hits and able to work with virtual memory products; compatible with Retina, EGS/Spectrum, and Picasso software. Also tested under V33 through V40 system software. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .run <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Specifies how to start the program. FORMAT: visible=type,command Where 'type' is either WB or CLI to indicate the required startup environment. EXAMPLE: HomeBase VI=WB,HomeBase VI HomeBase VI=CLI,ExecuteMe.HB6 HomeBase VI Fixer=CLI,ExecuteMe.HB6Fixer EXAMPLE: FishTub=WB,ExecuteMe NOTES: KingFisher requires that this entry strictly follows the above format. The user is shown all text up to the first equal sign (the 'visible' portion.) The 'type' portion must be terminated with a comma (,) and following it will be the command to be executed. Selecting it will either invoke the program from the Workbench (invoking it as if double clicked on its icon (if the .info file exists), or execute the indicated shell command line as if it has been typed at an open console window. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .docs <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: List all documentation files, possibly for viewing from within KingFisher for more detailed info. FORMAT: 1 line per file EXAMPLE: HomeBase.guide HomeBase.dvi HomeBase.doc NOTES: KingFisher examines the EXTENSION and invokes the appropriate viewing tool: MultiView/AmigaGuide for .guide files, ShowDVI for .dvi files, more for anything else. These files can also be sent to the printer via KingFisher (i.e. print .ps or .doc files.) KingFisher will honor the PAGER environment variable (defaults to 'more') to display standard text. NOTES: Omit any path to these files, unless it is a relative path from within the program's CD-ROM or disk directory. Do not specify these files if they are located within archive files; remember: the files must exist as they are given here! ---------------------------------------------------------------- .described-by <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Specifies who created the description (Product-Info file) for the program. FORMAT: Free form; should include an electronic mail address, too, if available. EXAMPLE: Fred Fish (fnf@fishpond.cygnus.com) EXAMPLE: Udo Schuermann <walrus@wam.umd.edu> ---------------------------------------------------------------- .submittal <<<OPTIONAL>>> PURPOSE: Identifies who submitted the program to Fred or else how this program came to be on the reference disk. FORMAT: Free form; usually one line. EXAMPLE: Submitted on disk directly by the author. EXAMPLE: Downloaded from wuarchive.wustl.edu in pub/aminet/util/misc ---------------------------------------------------------------- .stored-in PURPOSE: Specifies where and especially HOW the application is stored. This field should specify EITHER the name of a directory (ending with a : or a /) OR the name of a file (one that does NOT end with : or /) FORMAT: 1 or more lines. EXAMPLE: FF1000:Disks701-1000/Disks941-960/Disk950/Enforcer/ FF1000:BBS/Disks501-1000/Disks941-960/Disk950/Enforcer.lha NOTES: It is up to the particular application to decide how to handle this information. If the extension on the file is .lha, .lzh, .Z, .zoo, .pak, .zip, etc. then you could, for example, call upon the archiver of choice to unpack the application into a temporary directory and let the user run the program or list the files, or whatever. *** NOTE *** This is not a user generated field. If you create a Product-Info file for material you have released, leave this field out. ---------------------------------------------------------------- .path ***** RESERVED FOR INTERNAL USE ***** PURPOSE: Specifies absolute path to THIS program, much like a .references entry, but without version. This keeps things cleaner and allows electronically distributed updates (in text form) to transfer information otherwise found out and determined only through the add-fish mechanism of the tree-walk on the CD-ROM. (If you understand what is meant by this, I'll buy you a drink!) FORMAT: 1 line path to the application on the CD-ROM. This is the same path as where the .Product-Info file was found (i.e. the file you as the submitter are to generate using these guidelines.) NOTES: DO NOT SPECIFY THIS YOURSELF (i.e. in a Product-Info file.) KingFisher writes this entry during a Database Export operation and reads it during a Database Import operation. KingFisher ignores this field during a Database Build operation, so it is a total waste except when used during export/import operations! AddFish makes no use of this field. ================================================================ FORMATTING SYMBOLS KingFisher is font sensitive and able to adapt its display to proportional fonts as well as non-proportional ones. If you introduce formatting symbols you may severely limit KingFisher's ability to effectively display information for your program. We ask you, therefore, to exercise restraint and care. \\ A single \ (backslash) symbol. \n End of paragraph. Text following this symbol is forced to the beginning of the next visible line. Fixes all \= tab definitions into place. The next \= will cause all tabs to be cleared and a new one to be set. \= Sets a tab at the current horizontal position. The next \n will fix these tabs into place and prevent further additions. \t Tabs to the next tab, regardless if this tab is to the left or right of the cursor position! Do not use tabs for paragraph indentation! Do not indent paragraphs. \. A single . (dot) especially useful if/when such a dot is found (against normal practice) at the very beginning of a line of text and would then be misunderstood to repre- sent a field-name-specifier. Do not introduce other formatting sequences as future versions of KingFisher may create new ones for special purposes. ================================================================ EXAMPLES OF "TYPE" WORDS Action Game Animation Animation Player Animation Tool Archiver CLI Tool Communications Compiler Compression Database Disk Tool Display Commodity Drawing Image Conversion Image Processing Library Mouse Commodity Music Composition OS Utility Painting Picture Printing Sound Analysis Sound Editing Sound Playing Spreadsheet Strategy Game Text Text Editing Text Viewer Thinking Game Word Processing Workbench Tool ================================================================ LIST OF SOFTWARE STATUS KEYWORDS Commercial Commercial software is owned and distributed through licenses. It costs money to individual end-users and is not freely distributable. SUCH PIECES SHOULD NOT APPEAR ON DISKS THAT ARE MEANT FOR FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE SOFTWARE! Commercial Demo Represents a demonstration of a commercial package. As such, commercial demos are freely distributable and may have limitations as described in the .limitations field. Giftware Like shareware, usually. Shareware Such software is owned and copyrights are held by the author(s). The software may be distributed freely, but not sold for profit, of course. Shareware often specifies a limit of some time after which you are requested or required to register the software (i.e. pay for it.) This provides you with the means to evaluate the software thoroughly before paying for it. Freeware Such software is owned and copyrights are held by the author(s). The software may be distributed freely, but not sold for profit, which would mean the software is no longer FREEware. No payments are required for such software. Public Domain Software labeled PD (Public Domain) belongs to the public, i.e. ANYONE. Some people release their software into the public domain with the mistaken idea that they can continue to own and control the program. Not so. Software that is labeled Public Domain (or said by the author to be released into the public domain) truly belongs to anyone and everyone. It is quite legal for someone to take such a program and sell it for profit as is. Likewise, it it perfectly acceptable to modify public domain software to build a better product (or whatever) out of it and then sell it for profit. GNU Public License The terms and conditions of this license are long and not easily reproduced here. Suffice to say that software released under the GNU Public License must be distributed with source code. They are not public domain, however. GNU Library Public License The terms and conditions of this license are long and not easily reproduced here. Suffice to say that software released under the GNU Library Public License must be distributed with source code. They are not public domain, however. Copyright but Freely Redistributable The author holds all copyrights but allows the material to be freely distributed under specified conditions.