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Amy Today Volume 04 Issue 03
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Amy Today
A text-file magazine for all Amiga lovers
Volume #4, Issue #3, October 30th
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Editor : John Rydell
Writers: Mike Hooper and Mark Greffen
Address all correspondence to: "Amy Today"
C/O John Rydell
GEnie address: J.Rydell1 640 Willowglen Rd.
(#54790) Santa Barbara, CA
93105
Plink address: J*Rydell
GEnie discussion in category #2, topic #29
Plink discussion in Section #2
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Contents:
1. A Message From the Editor John Rydell
2. Distributing "Amy Today" John Rydell
3. Amiga Happenings John Rydell
4. It's WHAT kind of Ware? Mike Hooper
5. Fred Fish 159-162 John Rydell
6. Leatherneck Mark Greffen
7. Trading Galore!! John Rydell
8. Newsletter Trading John Rydell
9. Advertising John Rydell
10. In the Future John Rydell
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A Message From The Editor:
Once again, I'm a couple days late with an issue of Amy Today. I
have had too much to do lately and this is why the issues are not
as consistently on time as they once were.
This issue contains the usual index which is published every
three issues. I hope that everyone is enjoying the option of
looking up particular articles.
My advertising rates are both cheap and negotiable. Please
contact me if you would like to advertise or if you think you
know someone who might. I am losing quite a bit of money on Amy
Today because of access time and postage. It would be nice to at
least break even for my efforts.
Like always, I am looking for reader-support in the way of
articles or short programs you would like to share with the Amiga
community. If you would like to contribute please contact me at
one of the locations printed in the magazine's cover/title
section. All good PD/shareware software will also be mentioned
or reviewed if it is sent to Amy Today.
John Rydell
(Editor)
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Distributing "Amy Today":
Amy Today is file-based magazine which has been copyrighted by
John Rydell. I am allowing everyone to freely distribute it as
long as they give credit to Amy Today for anything taken from the
magazine. I also request that the magazine, itself, remains "AS
IS" when being distributed. Please do not modify it in any way
if you are going to distribute it.
About Distributing: Please upload Amy Today EVERYWHERE! This
magazine simply will not flourish if it is not uploaded whenever
possible. Every issue is kept under 15,000 bytes ARCed so that
upload/download time should never be a problem. So, please, if
you have the chance spread the magazine around the country! Give
a copy to your friend! Keep Amy Today alive and going strong!
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Amiga Happenings:
(John Rydell)
Commodore-
1.3 is finally shipping. Numerous people in my area have
received their copy. I hope to get mine pretty soon.
Amiga Happenings is a column dedicated to giving you information
on what is happening in the Amiga community. Some of the
information could possibly be wrong due to the fact that I am
trying to get early information. I do not in any way guarantee
that the information will be accurate although I will try my
hardest to protect the innocent.
>>If you have some new information you would like to share please
submit it to Amy Today.
###############################################################
# Amy Today Trading Galore! Trade public domain or shareware #
# software with Amy Today. Look for more information later #
# in this issue. --The trade is going strong...participate #
# today! #
###############################################################
It's WHAT kind of Ware?
by Mike Hooper (GRAFIX.M on GEnie)
More and more folks are adding some kind of pitch for bucks on
the programs they have written. It's an attempt at collecting a
few dollars for all the time/effort/money invested in a program
they have written. But as more and more people get into doing
this, there seems to be a greater misunderstanding of just what
each of these tags mean. I've even seen some of the national
magazines get things confused. There NEEDS to be a good
definition of each term. I offer:
Public Domain: Something that you have written and release to
the public, free and clear. If you state you release it into the
Public Domain, you cannot also state that it cannot be sold. The
mere fact that it is in the Public Domain means that you no
longer claim any control over it. I've seen DOZENS of files that
state the author, "...has released it to the Public Domain. This
program cannot be sold or distributed for profit." This is a TRUE
contradiction in terms. Maybe like Jumbo Shrimp? Or Military
Intelligence? ::grin::
Copyrighted: This is a program that the author retains control
and rights to. He may release it into free public distribution,
and can attach any restrictions he likes on it. Like, "it may
not be sold", "for free distribution on private BBS' only", "you
may distribute only if the files in this archive are complete and
unmodified", etc. A program or file that contains the proper
copyright notice is fully protected by the Federal Copyright
Laws. (Note that the *proper* notice is the "circle C" symbol...
NOT the (C) characters...and/or the word COPYRIGHT, along with
the year and name of the copyright holder.)
FreeWare: This REALLY doesn't mean anything. FreeWare in the
strictest sense would really be Public Domain. Generally,
authors that claim copyright and offer free distribution, call it
FreeWare. For a computer user, FreeWare can be some of the best
software around. The author generally writes the program for the
love of programming, and he distributes it free, just to share
his work. A nobler program isn't available!
ShareWare: Originally this was a REAL GOOD THING! The author
made a true and complete program, including *all* features and
options. He copyrighted it and threw it out for free
distribution. As a part of his copyrights, he added that "...if
you like it and find use for it, pay me for it...," same as you
would for any other commercial product, only this one is at
one-tenth the price since he doesn't have the overhead the
big-boys do. A TRUE "try before you buy" concept. Some authors
have made some big bucks with this form of distribution
(virtually 100% of those authors are in the MS-DOS world).
Lately though, there have been more and more folks calling a
crippled version of a program, "Shareware". You get to try SOME
of the features or all of them on a limited basis and if you like
it you can send some $$$ to the author to get a complete version.
I don't think I've *ever* seen a bigger bastardization of a
concept than this! (I won't get into the fact that shareware
authors really do deserve to be paid for the program you
use...it's beyond the scope of this particular article.)
Demos: Any program showing what another program will do!
Generally it's considered a commercial program by a large
software house or distributor. But actually, any program,
commercially or shareware distributed, could be considered a demo
if it lets you play with the program and get a feel for it, with
1 or more of it's options disabled or limited. If you like it,
you send a check for the full product or run right down to the
local store. I think 50% of what is being distributed as
ShareWare should really fall into the category of DEMOS.
So finally a plea to the authors: "Clean up your act!" I can't
take any author seriously that says, "This program is released to
the public domain. (C) 1988 Joe Blow. You may give this away,
but you cannot resell it for a profit." His first statement
gives away all rights, the second takes all his rights back, and
the third gives away "some" of his rights. Sheesh! Besides, he
places his own program in jeopardy should he find himself in a
legal battle at some future point. Protect yourself and come
across as literate to your users! Know what the fine print means
before you place it in your program!!
Editor's Note: After reading this article I changed part of my
copyright notice. I had been abusing some of the terms, myself.
I guess Mike really knows what he's talking about when he says
that these terms are being abused.
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Fred Fish:
Fish recently released disks #155-162 in his public domain
library. In the last issue I over-viewed disks 155-158. In this
issue 159-162 are looked at. In future issues I will try to
condense these descriptions so that they do not take up so much
space.
I'm not sure who originally created the text for this file. It
might have been Fred Fish himself. It might have been someone on
Usenet. To whomever credit is due, it is given.
---Disk #159---
Free: A little command to put in your c directory that returns
memory status and number of tasks currently served by EXEC.
Includes source. Author: Joerg Anslik
MidiTools: A group of several different utility programs for
those who run a Midi system. Binary only. Author: Jack Deckard
StarChart: Nicely done intuition based program to display and
identify about 600 stars, galaxies and nebulae visible in the
Northern hemisphere. Version 1.2, includes source. Author: Ray
R. Larson
TaskControl: Nicely done task-handling program allowing you to
put to sleep, kill or change priorities of the all the currently
loaded tasks. Also potentially GURU-producing, so be careful
what tasks you kill, change priorities of, etc. Handy window
sizer will reduce it almost to an icon to hang around until
you want to use it. Binary only. Author: J. Martin Hippele
TUC: "The Ultimate Clock". Another window title clock/memory
minder. This one is in 132 columns! Also gives the free memory
on drives DF0, DF1 & DF2. Includes source. Author: Joerg
Anslik
---Disk #160---
Calls: A little utility to help analyze the flow of a C-program
by laying out the functions called in a hierarchical manner.
Author: Originally from Usenet with major revisions by Kevin
Braunsdorf, Amiga port by George MacDonald
Check: A useful little utility for finding structural errors
in C-source code. Many command-line options. Version 1.03,
binary only. Author: Keith Elbertson
Dis: A 68000 disassembler, written in assembly, this is an
update to the version on disk #128. Includes source. Author:
Greg Lee with enhancements by Willi Kusche
DMouse: A versatile screen & mouse blanker, auto window
activator, mouse accelerator, popcli, pop window to front, push
window to back, etc, widget. Version 1.09, includes source.
Update to version on disk number 145. Author: Matt Dillon
DWIP: "Daisy Wheel IFF Printer". A graphics printing utility
that allows the printing of IFF pictures on a daisy wheel
printer. Includes source. Author: Ken Van Camp
M4A: UNIX M4 look-alike macro processor intended as a front end
for Ratfor, Pascal, and other languages that do not have a
built-in macro processing capability. Pd M4 reads standard
input, the processed text is written on the standard output.
Author: Ozan S. Yigit (oz)
MemoPad: A shareware intuition-based memo reminder program.
Nicely done. Update to version on disk #146, version 1.2, binary
only. Author: Michael Griebling
NeuralNets: A neural network example using the generalized back-
propagation delta rule for learning, specifically applied to the
tabula rasa Little Red Riding Hood instance. Author: Josiah C.
Hoskins
---Disk #161---
Friends: Cute little screen hack with command-line options to
keep your mouse pointer company when you step away. Includes
source. Author: Michael Warner
Getsprite: A simple little program to convert Dpaint brushes
into C-source. Binary only. Author: Michael Warner
IncRev: A handy little program that will automatically increment
the revision number of a program every time it is recompiled.
Binary only. Author: Bryan Ford
LGZ: A Map generator/editor for the LGZ game. Not extremely
useful if you don't happen to play that game, but good source
example of intuition interfacing. Version 0.1. Authors: Lars
and Henrik Clausen
Mackie: A versatile cli/macro-key initiator based on POPCLI with
a unique method of "screen-blanking". I won't say more, just try
it! Version 1.1, includes source. Author: Thomas Rokicki
Nag: A shareware appointment calendar with it's own editor and a
unique 'nagging' feature utilizing the Amiga's voice and audio
devices.Version 1.6, binary only. Author: Richard Lee Stockton
Perl: Practical Extraction and Report Language, an interpreted
language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting
information from those text files, and printing reports based on
that information. Author: Larry Wall
VRTest: Another anti-virus utility that allows visual inspection
of ram starting a $7E7FE, ram cleaning, bootblock inspection and
vector monitoring/reseting. Written entirely in assembly
language. Version 3.2, binary only. Author: Babar Khan
XBoot: A very simple utility to convert a boot block into an
executable file so you can use your favorite debugger (Wack, Dis,
etc.) to study it. Includes source. Author: Francois Rouaix
---Disk #162---
Avi: A workalike version of the UNIX vi editor for the amiga.
Though not especially recommended for beginners, designed for
those of you who may have the vi commands permanently hard-coded
into your fingertips! Version 1.0, binary only. Author: Peter
Nestor
CLI_Utilities: This directory contains several subdirectories
with small utilities, collected from various sources, that are
only usable from the CLI. See the Readme file for further
information. Some include source. Author: Various
Dark: A small graphics and animation demo. Includes source.
Author: Phil Robertson
Flow2Troff: A little utility to convert from New Horizons
Software "FLOW" files to UNIX "troff" files, suitable for
printing
on any troff-compatible laser printer. Version 1.0, includes
source and a sample "FLOW" file. Author: Daniel Barrett
LabyrinthII: A shareware role-playing text adventure game
similar in operation to the Infocom text adventures. Includes
source. Author: Russell Wallace
Iffar: Maintains archives of Interchange File Format (IFF) FORM,
CAT and LIST files in a manner that complies with the IFF CAT
specification. Version 1.2, includes source. Author: Karl
Lehenbauer
SetPALorNTSC: A couple of utility programs for testing the
suitability of a developed program in either the PAL or NTSC
environments. Includes source and a sample program. Author:
Peter Kittel
TES: "The Electronic Slave" adds a gadget strip to the top of
the cli window to perform such functions as device directories,
info, run ED, and time. Currently, assignments are hardcoded but
not difficult to change if you own a compiler. Version 1.1,
includes source. Author: Joerg Anslik
UnknownGirl: Another small musical piece similar in execution to
"Synthemania" on disk number 153. Binary only. Author: Holger
Lubitz
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Leatherneck:
(Mark Greffen)
<AmUser News newsletter-August 1988>
If you are the type of person who balks upon hearing the word
"arcade" then read no further. Leatherneck is definitely an
arcade game.
This "Rambo style" shootem' up game has the one basic feature the
arcade game fanatic has come to expect, a high score list in
which the top three scores on that list can be saved to the game
disk. Leatherneck, however, differs from most computer arcade
games in that an adapter is available that will allow four people
to play the game via joysticks.
Leatherneck also features pleasant music that does not grate on
your nerves, smooth scrolling, well drawn graphics and very
responsive joystick control.
The objective of the game is to fight your way through the jungle
and rescue your buddies who are being held prisoner. Sound
familiar? To complete your task, you are furnished with a heavy
machine gun, a light machine gun and grenades. Because these
weapons do eventually run out of ammunition, the player must use
them sparingly as the ammunition boxes are few and far between.
Despite the basic mindlessness of this game I found it to be
infuriatingly difficult as for every man you kill, another two
appear. This game must be played cautiously with slow
advancement.
Leatherneck definitely does supply a respite from adventure games
and is, all in all, a well put together package that any arcade
game maniac will love.
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Trading Galore:
First we had a picture trade. Users were urged to send in a disk
full of pictures and, in return, were given a disk full of the
best pictures that had been collected so far. The picture trade
was, and will hopefully continue to be, a GREAT success!
Because of this, I have decided to open up a new trade which
allows everyone to participate--not just those of us with
pictures. Send me a disk full of anything you want. (Music,
Art, Animations, Sound files, and Public Domain/Shareware
software...anything!) Include a SASE (please remember the
stamps!), and I will send your disk back to you filled with
whatever you want. Just tell me whether you want music, art,
software (you can even specify a specific pd/shareware program
but I can't guarantee that I have it), and I'll send it back. On
request, I'll even send disk copies of all issues of Amy Today.
Send your disk and a SASE to:
Amy Today's Trading Galore
640 Willowglen Rd.
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
<<Any requests or submissions of illegally copied software will
be burned!>>
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Newsletter Trading:
(From Issue 1-1)
I am looking for Amiga user groups who would like to trade
newsletters with me. Every month I will send you three issues of
Amy Today and, in return, I would like a copy of your
newsletter. I know a lot of this trading takes place and would
love to get involved. The more articles and information that I
have about the Amiga, the better I can make Amy Today. If you
are interested please drop me a line on GEnie, Plink, or by mail.
I would really appreciate a sample newsletter and will mail you
Amy Today in return.
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Advertising:
Amy Today is open to advertising at VERY affordable prices.
Large and small companies both have a great opportunity for
quality advertising while supporting a public domain Amiga
magazine. If you are interested please write to:
Amy Today
ATTN Advertising
640 Willowglen Rd.
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
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In the Future:
A review of Bard's Tale II
A review of Professional Page 1.1
A review of Modula-2
A review of a CLtd 33 meg hard drive
A review of a Supra 2400 baud modem
An interview with a shareware programmer
Maybe even more interviews, also
And hopefully numerous articles from you--the readers.
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"Amy Today" is copyright 1988 by John Rydell. Portions of
the magazine may be reprinted but the content of this magazine
may NOT be changed without the expressed consent of John Rydell.
Yet everyone is encouraged to distribute it AS IS. Please give
credit to "Amy Today" as well as to the individual author when
reprinting material. "Amy Today" as well as any of its authors
are not responsible for any damages that occur because of errors
or omissions. Articles reprinted from other newsletters, as
noted, are not property of Amy Today but are under the control of
their original authors.
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