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From: david@starsoft.UUCP (Dave Lowrey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Old AmigaLibDisk material
Message-ID: <183c9d35.ARN2523@starsoft.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 90 13:33:09 GMT
References: <9654@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <35991@cup.portal.com> <14089@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com>
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In article <14089@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com>, Fred Fish writes:

>
> Good comment Thad.  Examination of some of the early disks, and then
> some of the latest, will show that the "flavor" of the library has
> changed substantially over the years.  A depressingly common portion
> of the description of each item on some of the newer disks is "binary only".
> People seem more reluctant these days to release source.
>
> I have been tempted to start a new policy of only including material for
> which source is either distributed with the material, or available from the
> author, and that such source has to be provided (even if not distributed)
> with any submissions.  This would probably noticably cut down on the number
> of future disks, but I think the overall quality would be higher.
> Comments pro and con are invited...
>
The "Programmer" in me agrees with you Fred, however the "realist" in me
has to disagree.

I think we would loose many good programs. Many programmers won't
distribute code to their programs because they want to keep
control of them (SKSh). Some are "freely distributable" versions or
demos of comercial programs (DICE, crossDos demo).

Perhaps you could give priority to "source included" (or avaliable
when the "shareware" fee is paid) submissions, over the binary only
submissions. However, when there is something that is "really good"
that is binary only, you would include it.

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These words be mine. The company doesn't care, because I am the company! :-)

      Dave Lowrey        |  david@starsoft or {uhnix1,lobster}!starsoft!david
Starbound Software Group |
      Houston, TX        | "Dare to be stupid!" -- Weird Al Yankovic