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From: slc@hoptoad.uucp (Steve Costa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: well-behaved programs
Message-ID: <2897@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Mon, 7-Sep-87 10:44:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.2897
Posted: Mon Sep  7 10:44:46 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Sep-87 02:49:41 EDT
Reply-To: slc@hoptoad.UUCP (Steve Costa)
Distribution: na
Organization: Presidio Software
Lines: 29

An Informal Proposal...

Messages in this group at various times have suggested criteria that
"well-behaved" Amiga programs should meet. Having dealt with some
poorly behaved programs, especially those that hog the machine, I find
myself wishing that there were some way to encourage software publishers
to meet some standards of program behavior.

The thought came to mind that a group such as BADGE (Bay Area Developers
GroupE), or FAUG (First Amiga Users Group) could establish a review
committee to rate software and review programs ONLY on the merits of
meeting "behavioral" criteria. Rated software would be allowed to carry
a notice such as "This software carries a rating of AAA on the BADGE/FAUG
technical standards scale" (or whatever), with some kind of fancy symbol
to make it appear impressive. Surely this would be some kind of incentive
in a competitive market.

It would be important for the rating process that:

  1. Review be easily available, so that nobody could complain that
     there was any favoritism, or difficulty in getting their software
     considered.

  2. The technical standards be such that programmers of reasonable
     technical ability could understand and implement them. After
     all, how difficult is it to create software that doesn't require
     you to re-boot each time you run it?

   3. etc???