Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!visual1.jhuapl.edu!rubin
From: rubin@visual1.jhuapl.edu (Don Rubin)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Shareware is junk
Message-ID: <1991Apr30.174659.9082@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 91 17:46:59 GMT
Sender: news@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: rubin@visual1.jhuapl.edu (Don Rubin)
Organization: Johns Hopkins University
Lines: 28

FLAME ON

I just downloaded a handfull of shareware programs
from CICA. They fell into two catagories; those that
had little or no functionallity -and- those whose
registration was so obnoxious that I couldn't even
run them to see if they were worth the fee.

I have no problem with the first type. When someone
has a good idea it takes time and feedback to come up
with a good implementation. However, I am pretty
disgusted with so called commercial quality programs
that annoy you to death BEFORE you even get to use them.

My suggestion to budding shareware programmers is give
us a MOSTLY fully functional program with no stupid
order forms, warning boxes, etc. To insure registration
just reduce the functionallity on a few functions
(eg. allow it to print only a few pages, limit the 
size of the image, etc.). If I like what the program 
does, I'll pay the registration fee to get the full
functionallity, manual, support, updates, etc.

Try to act like a professional programmer before you
act like a bean counter and you will end up with a better
product and more people will want to pay for it.

FLAME OFF