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From: valentin@btr.BTR.COM (Valentin Pepelea  valentin@btr.com)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re:  Information on Amiga Technical Reference Seri
Message-ID: <3036@public.BTR.COM>
Date: 12 Jun 91 09:05:17 GMT
Organization: BTR Communications, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 32

In article <22342@cbmvax.commodore.com> andy@cbmvax.commodore.com (Andy
Finkel) writes:
>
>>The intent of publishing source code isn't so people can make better
>>versions, although it might be a neat school project :)  Ever have
>>a question like, "Does RectFill() use QBlit()?"  Well, the answer can
>>be found in the code (or you can bug folks on the net with the question... :)
>
>Would this argument work with the authors of Populus or Lemmings or
>SimCity ?  I'm curious about each of their techniques and simulation
>models.  Having the source code would help improve my gameplay.  
>Plus, there's probably a few tweaks I could add that would improve those 
>games a bit.

Having the source code of these games is not a necessity to understand how to
play, but having the source code to the OS can cut down sharply on the learning
curve of how to use some functions.

Quite a few companies provide the OS sources to their custommers; Commodore
would not be an exception. Any real-time OS for embedded systems is supplied
in source code form, including Vrtx, pSOS, OS/9, and others. Ever wondered
how come these companies are not afraid of having their work plagiarized?
The answer is quite simple, copyrights.

Valentin


-- 
"An operating system without virtual memory      Name:      Valentin Pepelea
 is an operating system without virtue."         Phone:     (408) 985-1700
                                                 Usenet:    mips!btr!valentin
                     - Ancient Inca Proverb      Internet:  valentin@btr.com