17 Dec
2005
17 Dec
'05
11:46 p.m.
I would
spend many hours helping people understand it, explaining why
It's odd, but I've released a number of classic computer-related programs
under the GNU license and have never had any stupid questions like this.
I do sometimes get interesting questions from people who know what they
are doing and who want to do something totally different with it.
On top of that, published source to my C compiler was ripped off in at least two
instances and used to create competing commercial products by companies
which were beyond my ability to persue.
You have already said you don't consider that Imagedisk is 'commercial'
so this, IMHO is totally irrelevant.
[...]
Well .. after that response, I guess the feeling is
mutual. Clearly you have
never tried to make a living in the software business. And your earlier crack
Correct.
about "having" to invent your own image
format because you don't have
access to my source (when the existing format is fully documented) only
reinforces this impression.
It is my bitter experinece that documented interfaces (be they file
formats, routine entry/exit conditions, or hardware specs) have
undocument quirks and odd behaviour, and the only way to be _sure_ is to
read the sources or schematics as appropriate.
For example, when I was writing my HP calculator file translation
utilities, I didn't just trust the information given in the manuals
(which was wrong in some cases), I spent many an evening reading the HP71
ROM source code in the IDS volumes. And the HP41 source listings for that
matter.
In the case of ImageDisk, it happens to be written
with the PC version of
my own C development system - It uses video and other libraries which
are unique to my tools, and will not compile without changes under GNU C,
Turbo-C, Microsoft-C or any windows/linux system ... In short the source
code isn't going to be very useful to many people and I am not ready to
begin the process of spreadng the program across platforms.
I guess you think I want ao make a few changes to your program and
recompile it. Not so. I have explained in another message why I'd like to
read the sources.
I've read many source listings that I don't have any way to translate
back to object code (do you have an HP Capricorn processor assembler on
any of your machines? No, neither do I, but it didn't stop me reading the
1000-or-so pages of the HP75C ROM source). For the same reason I read
scheamtics and repair manuals (not just for computers, or even for
electronic stuff) for machines I don't own and have little chance of
owning. You can learn a lot from so doing.
And if you think that's 'ripping off your code', well, maybe it is, but I
don't know a single programmer or designer who _doesn't_ read other
people's code/scheamtics.
If you look back on the early ImageDisk postings, you
will find that I stated
that I would release the source code when I felt it was mature enough, but
And that, I suspect is the real reason. I can actually understand that, I
once designed an I/O interface for the HP48, and I didn't release the
schemaitsc until I'd built everything at least twice (once on stripboard,
once on PCB) to help prove the design was sound. %deity that was an
expensive project.
Not being a programmer, I send out really awful code sometimes, but I can
understand why you'd not want to do this.
-tony