Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!bellcore!att!chinet!saj
From: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: ROM disassembly for TOS -- A suggestion.
Summary: Neat idea, but some of it is beyond me
Message-ID: <9542@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 11 Sep 89 14:00:24 GMT
References: <8909091247.AA16274@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <9531@chinet.chi.il.us> <1640@ns.network.com>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago, Ill.
Lines: 30

In article <1640@ns.network.com>, logajan@ns.network.com (John Logajan) writes:
> 
> You want to sell TOS 1.4 disassembled and commented code, but you want to
> avoid copyright hassels with Atari.  The answer is that you don't need to
> sell the TOS 1.4 listing because every perspective customer already has a
> computer readable copy available to him (and your niffy little program.)
> 
> ERGO, all you do is sell a customized disassebler which has tables of
> mnemonic labels and comments -- what all -- and your customer has to run
> it on his machine to generate his own listings.
> 
> People with developer documentation of TOS 1.4 will have a head start on this,
> but they must be sure they don't use the same "comment" language as Atari
> used (maybe even different labels.)
>
I like the idea.  I'm sure there's a cottage industry going with some of the
major developers: generating TOS 1.4 disassemblies for in-house use.  But
of course the interpretations by people doing disassembly are not necessarily
accurate.  If Atari would smile on the project, the errors could be removed.
I don't know what developer documentation John Logajan has, but nothing that
I've gotten or been promised would be much help with a disassembly.  And
anything that WOULD help in doing a disassembly would go a long way toward
removing the need for one.  Atari developer registration is one of the best
bargains in computing (compare development kits for Mac, or Windows).  Would
it help if developers receiving disassemblies had to sign (yet another)
release to the effect "I acknowledge that Atari has guaranteed that any
program dependent on features not specifically guaranteed WILL be broken by
future operating system changes"?
                                     Steve J.