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JCSM Shareware Collection 1996 September
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JCSM Shareware Collection (JCS Distribution) (September 1996).ISO
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vndinf10.zip
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USER.TXT
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1994-02-28
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┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ VENDINFO -- What's in It for the USER? │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘
The end-user of shareware products will see a number of benefits
from the VENDINFO system. Some of these benefits are indirect --
resulting from improvements in the industry as a whole -- and some
are directly visible to the users.
o The use of a single, consistent structure for information
about shareware and public-domain products will make it much
easier for users to find specific information about a given
product.
o The human-readable front text in the VENDINFO.DIZ file will
provide the user a quick summary of the nature of the product,
as well as contact information for technical support and for
ordering. This information can be viewed using ordinary
text viewers, including BBS in-zip viewers.
o The free VendView viewer (March 1994) will provide easy access
to much more information about each product in a convenient,
menu-driven manner. This information includes such things as
detailed descriptions; required platform; prices and
registration benefits; contact information for both technical
support and ordering, and much more.
o The VENDINFO record actually SAVES space in the distribution
package, because it's almost always smaller than the
VENDOR.DOC, SYSOP.DOC, READ_ME.DOC, and other files it
replaces. Thus, average user costs for downloads will be
slightly reduced.
o Users will have increased confidence that they're receiving
products in the form intended by the authors. Both the tools
in the hands of the distributors and the free viewer in the
hands of the user will be able to test for changes to the
package, and whether or not those changes are allowed by the
author. Packages with missing pieces will at the very least
be automatically detectable, and should even begin to disappear
from distribution channels. The end-user viewer will also be
able to report whether or not a particular package allows
distribution by a particular channel.
o Automation of major portions of BBS and, especially, vendor
package handling will reduce distributor costs significantly.
This can make the entire industry more efficient, enabling
users to obtain products more economically, and enabling
smaller, perhaps specialized, distributors to conduct business
profitably. The result will be greater user access to
products, at lower cost.
o It is anticipated that the VENDINFO Product Registry will
eventually allow users, for a small fee, to do on-line searches
for products satisfying quite detailed needs, including type,
platform, cost, and many of the other criteria contained in the
VENDINFO record.