The letters are still pouring in on ODM #83 and we have gotten quite a few responses on issue #84 already. We published a shareware program on issue #84 and I asked for a specific response on the idea of continuing to offer shareware programs on On Disk Monthly.
As usual, the results have been mixed. Some of you love the idea, some of you hate the idea. Many of you said you liked the idea, although you thought that Klondike was not quite the quality level that you had come to expect from On Disk Monthly (a kind of back-handed compliment, I guess). Actually the Klondike program is far above average in the general mix of shareware programs.
Those of you who hated the idea REALLY hated it. Many of you threatened to cancel your subscription if we continued with shareware. The most common complaint was that you felt that we were asking you to send extra money for a product you had already paid for, a reasonable concern, in my opinion.
Of course the mail is still coming in, so I haven't completely made up my mind whether to publish another shareware item. I'll let you know what we plan on doing as soon as we know.
This issue we have made another change. We have decided to put all of the main "features" in the icon list. The main window of this issue has nine separate items you can access. We decided to place the cartoon and our puzzle programs on the main screen because some of our subscribers rarely looked at the menus and therefore never saw them under the "Just for Fun" section. This new format gives you a better idea of what each issue contains at a glance.
This is one of our very best issues. DOS Manager is a great utility that I have been using myself to get this issue put together. It has so many functions that I can't relate them here, but it has full on-line help so you can easily check those features out. As with Circuitry, from last issue, we have created a combination Windows/DOS program in Fortune Cookies. The executable file will run from either Windows or DOS and will use the same data file either way.
Take a close look at Fortune Cookies. We are developing an "application framework" that will make it easier for us to develop monthly programs with a consistent look and feel, and Fortune Cookies was put together mostly to demonstrate the new features of the framework. Most of our programs will use the framework to create their windows, buttons, menus and other user interface concerns. Tell us what you think of Fortune Cookie's "look and feel," because you'll soon start seeing a lot more of it.
Remember, tell us what you like and don't like. We aim to please.
