Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bellcore!epic!karn
From: karn@epic.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: Re: KA9Q NOS
Message-ID: <1991Mar9.014359.7967@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 9 Mar 91 01:43:59 GMT
References: <612.dobbins@euphrates.ccit.arizona.edu>
Sender: usenet@bellcore.bellcore.com (Poster of News)
Reply-To: karn@thumper.bellcore.com
Organization: Packet Communications Research Group (Bellcore)
Lines: 32

In article <612.dobbins@euphrates.ccit.arizona.edu>, dobbins@EUPHRATES.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU (Gary Dobbins) writes:
|> Can someone explain what the various versions of KA9Q are.

Back when I started this project, I made a conscious decision to make
the source code freely available. The idea was to maximize the benefit
to the amateur packet radio community (the primary target for the KA9Q
package) and to spur contributions by others. I believe I have
succeeded in this. I was also aware of the potential for lots of
competing versions and user confusion, but that was a price I was
willing to pay.

The "base" version (the stuff I put out) is on thumper.bellcore.com
under /pub/ka9q/nos. There are several parallel, experimental versions
also on thumper under directories such as /pub/ka9q/g1emm and
/pub/ka9q/pa0gri. These versions are uploaded by others and I do NOT
support them in any way. I get lots of questions regarding features
unique to these versions and I am NOT able to answer them.
Occasionally I will "buy back" a feature from one of these other
versions and incorporate it into the "base" code, but even then I
direct inquiries to the authors.

Please note that every source file now contains an authorship statement,
so if you have a problem with a particular feature you have no excuse
for not asking the right person...

I agree that much work needs to be done on documentation, but as usual
in labor-of-love projects like this, the people doing the labor have
much more love for hacking code than they do for writing documentation.
You can find what documentation exists in /pub/ka9q/docs. There's also
the source code, which others have described as "very well commented".

Phil