k1t8c1                           APEL O SOURCE'Y

c3Pewnego  dnia  dostaīem  maila  od  niejakiego Hansa Guijta.  Nazwisko
c3nadawcy  nic  mi  nie  mówiīo,  a sam tekst byī doōź dīugi.  Mimo tych
c3"niesprzyjajācych"  okolicznoōci  przeczytaīem  go.   Jak  siė okazaīo
c3tekst  zawieraī  bardzo ciekawy apel dotyczācy programów wysyīanych na
c3Aminet.   Hans  zaproponowaī,  ūeby  do  kaūdego  wysyīanego  programu
c3doīāczaź  kod  śródīowy.   Po  co  to  komu?  - moūecie spytaź.  Wbrew
c3pozorom  ma  to sens.  Od jakiegoō czasu procesory PowerPC sā dostėpne
c3na  rynku.   Wkrótce  czeka  nas premiera nowego systemu operacyjnego.
c3Wiele  starych  programów  nie  zadziaīa  na  PPC  i  nowym  systemie.
c3Rozwiāzaniem  jest  przeportowanie  ich.   Najszybciej moūna to zrobiź
c3posiadajāc kod śródīowy.  W koļcu mamy juū "Dooma" i "Descenta", które
c3zostaīy  przeniesione  z  PC  dziėki publikacji ich śródeī.  Dla nowej
c3generacji  Amig  moūna  zrobiź to samo.  Jeōli wiėc masz kody śródīowe
c3swoich  programów  i  "nie  jest  Ci  ich  szkoda",  to doīāczaj je do
c3programu  w  wersji  wykonywalnej  przed  wysīaniem na Aminet.  Jeūeli
c3Twoje  programy  juū sā na Aminecie, to śródīo moūesz wysīaź osobno do
c3tego  samego katalogu, ale z nazwā rozszerzonā o "_src" (np.  wysīaīeō
c3kiedyō plik "Demko.lha", to plik ze śródīem nazwij "Demko_src.lha").

c3Nie  wiem  ile  osób  otrzymaīo  maila z tym apelem.  Przypuszczam, ūe
c3sporo (byź moūe kaūdy kto wrzuciī coō na Aminet).  Niezaleūnie od tego
c3na  pewno  sā  tacy, którzy go nie dostali, a mogā byź zainteresowani.
c3Dlatego  poniūej  zamieszczam caīy tekst.  Sorry, ūe po angielsku, ale
c3tekstu  jest duūo i nie chce mi siė go caīego tīumaczyź (najwaūniejsze
c3sprawy zawarīem we wstėpie).

Subject: The Amiga Community Source project

Hi!

At  some  point  in  the  past  one  or more programs were uploaded to
Aminet,  with  you  specified  as either the author or the uploader (a
list of these programs can be found at the end of this message).  This
means you have been, or maybe still are, involved in creating software
for the Amiga.

No  doubt  you  have  noticed the current sad state of the Amiga.  The
number  of  people  that  still  create software for it has grown very
small  (and  it  is  quite  likely  you  are no longer among them).  A
rebirth  is  in  the  making, but whether this will work remains to be
seen.

However,  some  people  are  willing to make it happen.  They want the
Amiga  to  be  a  viable platform again.  And for this to happen, that
future  Amiga  will  need two things that are closely related:  users,
developers  and  software.  This is a classic chicken'n'egg situation:
users attract developers; developers write software; software attracts
users.

Fortunately, there is something you can do to help break this circle.

Much  of the software on Aminet is in binary form only.  Porting it to
the  new  Amiga  will  only  be  possible  after  a  complete rewrite.
However, the process of porting could be greatly sped up if source was
available.   And that is why I am asking you to upload your sources to
Aminet.

      *** If you have ever written something for the Amiga, ***
             *** please upload its sources to Aminet. ***

As I see it, there are three advantages to this scheme:

- Your software will live on, and continue to make people happy.

-  Maintenance and upgrades will be possible for current Amiga systems
(there  is  a  lot of software around that fails to work with high-end
Amigas).

- The next generation Amiga will be able to profit from quickly-ported
programs.


Now,  you  may argue that there are numerous reasons for not doing so.
This  message  was automatically generated from a .README found on one
of  the Aminet CDs.  It may not apply to you at all.  In that case, my
sincere apologies for disturbing you.  However, if you have any source
still  lying  around,  please  give  some  thought to making it freely
available to the Amiga community.

Don't  be  shy.  Noone writes perfect source.  You are not expected to
write  perfect  source  either.   If you make source available, people
will  not complain about bad source quality (well, some might:  ignore
them  ;-)  );  they  will  thank  you for the opportunity to keep your
source  up to date.  And eventually someone will come and improve that
source.


As a suggestion, if you decide to upload source, do it like this:

suppose  you  have written a program called 'AmigaBla'.  It is located
on  Aminet in misc/misc/AmigaBla.lha.  If so, please put its source in
that same directory, under the same name, but with a _src extension to
the     filename.      The    final    archive    would    then    be:
misc/misc/AmigaBla_src.lha.  This way all source can be found close to
its binary, and vice versa.


Once  again, my apologies if this message is totally inappropriate for
you.   But  if  it  applies, and you decide to upload your sources, my
heartfelt  thanks.   You  will  be  doing  the Amiga community a great
favor.


Regards,

Hans Guijt


                         c2PopoCopc0/RetroActive
                           c5pcop@polbox.com