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^3                             WARNING!!!!

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^4  This article is likely to make some people's blood boil, but I hope
^4that  it  will  spark off another Debate on TA.  It was sent to us by
^4YAZOO  who  used to put his work onto the APD library.  It appears as
^4he wrote it, but as not to offend most of our readers who complain if
^4I  spell things wrongly, over 30 spelling errors have been corrected!
^4Complaints  on any that remain should be sent to YAZOO at the address
^4at the bottom of the page.

^4 We  welcome views from all readers, whether they have paid for their
^4TA or are reading  someone  elses,  like  Yazoo must be.* NOTE I have
^4just  received a letter from Yazoo, he thought that TA was PD and got
^4a  copy  from  a friend, he has now told his friend to remove it from
^4his PD collection! 

^2 As  a  sideline  query from Yazoo, he asks if he gets a free copy of
^2TA5  for  contributing  to the mag...  others have asked this, mainly
^2people  who  do  not  buy TA regularly.  Answer:- as TA is a magazine
^2where contributions are welcomed from readers, and some issues have a
^2really  long  list of contributors, giving freebies to everyone would
^2not  be  practical  as we do not have an enormous membership (YET) to
^2support  doing  this.   We  do  give  away  some  free  copies...  to
^2reviewers  in  the  national  mags  for  example as this is a form of
^2advertising. (Look out for August's Amiga Shopper!!)

^6 Sandra  has had to endure letters and phone calls of this nature for
^6the  last  two years, it is something she probably will not miss!  If
^6you  reply  to TA on this subject, it will let everyone know what the
^6true AMOS user thinks!

^4 My  reply has been sent to YAZOO in letter form, brief comments from
^4me are at the end of the article.  You may agree with the writer, you
^4may  side  with  the  APD  rules, either way, I am VERY interested to
^4know!!

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^7                   >> THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM <<

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^6  This as you may of guessed is about the stupid rule by the APD that
^6says that all entries must be accompanied by their source code!
 
^6 As a programmer I find this appalling.  I spend a lot of work making
^6my  products, but for what, I can't share them with other AMOS users,
^6because of this rule.  I appeal to all other programmers, if you have
^6spent  a  long  time  developing  a program, which beats all like it,
^6would you include the source???

^6  I  would also like to point out that AMOS PD is the only libary who
^6imposes  such  a  dictatorish rule!  As if such a rule was imposed on
^6any  other  (such as 17-Bit) the company would go out of business, so
^6why  hasn't  APD?  Well its because it's the only place where us AMOS
^6phreaks can display our stuff (Not like that you perv!) without being
^6laughed at by all the 68000 programmers!

^6   I  have  made  many  demos  since 'Jumble' (which was the last one
^6which  was  let  into  the  APD)  but  none  of  them  have been made
^6available.   Syntex has had a different fate, who has seen their demo
^6for  the  NYC-Iris party, it's mind blowing, but no AMOS phreaks will
^6see  it  because  of the sarkeys rule.  Which is a shame, as they are
^6the  group  that Amos and the libary built its reputation on.  I also
^6know  that  FANATIX  feel  the same (Hi Jag!) as their Megademo 6 was
^6finished  in  November  last  year!  Sandra is effectivly killing the
^6AMOS demo scene.

^6  I do know how the learner feels, but half the fun in programming is
^6figuring  out  how the effect is created.  I don't want to see my new
^6cool  routine in some person's demo just because he can't be bothered
^6to  use  his  grey matter and figure it out.  So I will never give my
^6source  away, (Not exactly true, if you pay 10 pounds+ to register in
^6Copper Colourz, then you do get the code!)

^6Another  thing  it kills is competitiveness, as rival coders can just
^6peek  at  the source, so as the APD is for AMOS users, this AMOS user
^6wants  this  rule  chopped, and I urge all others to phone APD up and
^6complain  (in length!), and if she says its for beginners, just reply
^6'Easy  AMOS  is out which teaches any one with the IQ of a carrot how
^6to program' and I think she will be suitibly gutted!

^6     If  you have any feelings on the subject, or you are a AMOS demo
^6crew  and  you  would like to see some of the unpublished AMOS demos,
^6then you can always write to me at...  YAZOO/BITMAP, 104 London Road,
^6Stanway, Colchester, Essex, CO3 5HD, England.

^2 Written by Yazoo in 1992!

^7 Anne's reply.....

^1 The  Amos  PD  Library  was set up so that programers could see what
^1other  people  were  doing and HOW it was done.  I'm sure that Sandra
^1would  agree  with  me  that  it was never meant as a source of ready
^1written code that could be patched together to form a new product.
^1It  is  a  fact  that it is very difficult to rip out chunks to patch
^1into  other  coding,  you  have  to  really  know what you are doing,
^1therefore  the  only  people  who would be able  to rip off your code
^1are the `experts' who would really prefer to code it themselves.

^1 To me, competativeness means being the first to produce a new effect,
^1it`s  not  very often that we get sent a demo which has something NEW
^1in  it.  To people, like me, who just watch demos, even if the coding
^1is  different,  all we see is the same plasma effect and very similar
^1scrollers.   Demos  are  the only form of software where you can copy
^1someone  else's effect in your own code and get away with it!  (hence
^1blatent  copies  of commercial games are not on PD) I have to sit and
^1watch  every  demo from start to finish to make sure that they do not
^1contain bad language, offensive material or breach copyright, so
^1anything that's different catches my eye.

^1 Looking  at  it  another  way  ..   is your coding something you are
^1ashamed  of?   If  you  are  interested in getting work with Software
^1houses  in  the future, then you will have to let them see your code.
^1It  seems  to  have  gone  unnoticed that there has been a general PD
^1section  inside  the  APD  where  protected  programs  are available.
^1Anyone who doesn't want to provide the source code is welcome to send
^1their  work  in and it will be put into that section.  This was known
^1by  the  catalogue  numbers  starting  with  DV.  As I have only been
^1running  the  Library  since the middle of May, I am only now getting
^1around  to  reorganising this section which will be relabelled GPD in
^1the  future.   There are already several AMOS programs included, more
^1would  be  very  welcome.   This  is  NOT  an inferior section of the
^1library, it just lets people know that there is no AMOS source on the
^1disk.

^2 Does  the  fact  that the APD Library is still in business speak for
^2itself?   If you are afraid of being laughed at by other coders, then
^2as far as I can see, you must have something to hide!

^1 Amos is seen as the poor man's language by those who work in machine
^1code, but I bet there are times when they'd give an arm and leg to be
^1able to find bugs as quickly as you can with AMOS!

^1 Even  Fanatix  put  source on their disks, as a crunched ascii file,
^1but  it  is  there, also Jag is very co-operative whenever we ask him
^1for a donation to TA!

^2 I'm stopping there.....  it's over to you now!

^2 PS.  I have just received a reply to the letter I sent to Yazoo.  He
^2has  now  asked  for his Copper Colourz 2 prog to be put into the GPD
^2section  of the Library as Shareware.  DONE.  (GPD 129) It's a Copper
^2Editor  which  he  says  rivals  Rainbow  Warrior.   We  sent  Copper
^2Colourz2,  Rainbow  Warrior  and  a  source only copper editor to Ben
^2Ashley for Review, but as yet we have not receved the results, so you
^2will have to wait until the next issue for that!

^2 Just to round off Yazoo's views, here is an extract of the letter.

^6 The  source debate!!!!  When you talk about a person looking through
^6the  source looking for how to do an effect, he is ripping something,
^6your  idea, the whole point of a 'demo scene' is the competitiveness,
^6so  allowing  people to find how an effect is made by looking thriugh
^6the  source  kills  the  competitiveness!   also beginners can't look
^6through  a  complicated  routine like a 3-D vector part as it is very
^6complicated!!!   There  will  always  be rip off artists, and I don't
^6want  them to get fame on my routines, in most demos, the programmers
^6brag  about  how  an  effect  is  done (in simple terms of course) so
^6others can try to produce effects like it.......

^2Yaz  sent  us  in  his version of TA as he thinks it should be...  we
^2have  decided  not to use it as we have spent the best part of a year
^2customising  TA  to  the  needs of our readers and to meet a standard
^2where  it  received  approval from Europress Software.  Approval from
^2both these sources is very important to us.  We cannot put the source
^2for  Yazzo's  driver on TA or the Library as he wishes to use it on a
^2later  utes disk.....  Here are his views on  TA4....we would like to
^2know yours.

^2 Views  on  TA4...   Improvements for the present driver...  A larger
^2screen  (about  as  big as mine if Poss!) better music the one on TA4
^2was terrible, get rid of the flicker when you move up and down!!  Get
^2rid  of  the  menus, use an article and page system like mine, crunch
^2the programs so there is more room for articles!!  or use my driver!!

^2 Yazoo  sent  us  a  copy of his magazine driver which is quite good,
^2but  doesn't  really  meet  our  needs.   Perhaps  he  will  give  us
^2permission  to send it to someone to review one day, at present it is
^2aimed at a future Utes disk.

^2 The  programs  are  not  crunched  as this mag is primarily aimed at
^2beginners  and impatient people who just want to load in Amos and see
^2the progs as quickly as possible without doing anything else to them!
^2At least in their present form even I can test them out!!

^2 Anyhow,  we  know  that our readers are, on the whole happy with the
^2way  TA  looks and works as most of the 'extra' features are there at
^2your suggestion!
 
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