Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:26666 comp.misc:4408
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!dan-hankins
From: dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <12642@cup.portal.com>
Date: 16 Dec 88 06:34:25 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <27145@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 59

In article <2149@nunki.usc.edu> wdao@castor.usc.edu (Walter Dao) writes:

>How about the games ? I hate the games the leave that ugly window top border
>on ... and they usually use a drab (mean ugly yuck pallette of colors.) 

This can be solved by using custom screens.

>...fancy multitasking S L O W  piece of sloppy code (reason for ARP) called
>AMIGADOS.

Agreed, AmigaDos (as originally conceived) is sloppy and slow.  It was put
together in an awful hurry by MetaComCo.  However, AmyDos does not
multitask.  Exec multitasks.  Exec is a speed demon.  The games that take
over the machine for speed often continue to use it.

If you want speed while co-existing with AmyDos and WorkBench, etc.
peacefully, there are ways to do it.  You can get every cycle the 68000 and
the hardware support has to offer without wiping out the OS.  A
simple-minded example comes to mind.  Just set the priority of all the
other tasks in the system to -128.  When you need one of them (such as
trackdisk.device), temporarily raise its priority to the normal level while
using it.

The rules don't make one go slow.  The real reason people take over the
machine is that it makes their programming job a bit easier.  They have
less to worry about if they wipe out all competition.

>a software booting with a fast loading hires picture and playing some 
>funky piece of music will ALWAYS grab my attention. 

As stated above, you don't need to take over the machine to do this.

>Remember, not all amiga users are developpers (or usenet type of users). 
>they are the minority.

So?  Even the 'end users' I know prefer software that doesn't kill their
OS.

>by the way ,  wares that take over the machine CAN work with hard disk and 
>memory expansions . One does not rule out the other. 

Not unless you want to include in your game ten zillion device drivers to
support ten zillion different hard disks.  This is what Dragon's Lair
attempted to do.  Unfortunately, only COMSPEC answered their queries.  So
the COMSPEC drive is the only hard drive that Dragon's Lair will work with.

>reward for pirate busting ? 

I can't say I am crazy about bounty-hunting software pirates - some are
just people who want to review software before buying it.  And there is
another solution to piracy - see my article with the subject 'FREE
Software' or something of the sort.

>Technology gave us the means, so use it ! and even better ABUSE it ! 

I don't think I'll dignify this by arguing with it.


Dan Hankins