From the Guys and Gals at APLUS, First of all, thanks to everyone who has participated in and contributed to the success of the ASP CD-ROM BETA project. In add- ition, thanks in advance for your comments, suggestions and patience as we prepare for the ASP CD-ROM FIRST EDITION. For a Beta release we believe we've had a successful beginning. (The CD is together and actually works.) We did however encounter a few problems. With your help and a few bug fixes (You guys do know about bugs, right?) we hope to eliminate the bulk of the problems and make the submission process, CD-ROM construction and BBS operation as glitch free as possible. To start on a positive note almost everyone did it right. About 90% of the 250 (or so) programs submitted arrived in a format that we could move to the CD-ROM using limited automation. A few were so creative we had to call for help. All in all it went fairly smooth. Following is a list of some of the problems and some ways to improve. 1. BUG IN ASPEDIT. One of the biggest problems was a creature of our own creation. ASPEDIT outputs a comma delimited ASCII .ASP file which we import into a database. Unfortunately it should have been a comma/quote delimited ASCII file. What happened was every time an author used a comma in one of the ASPEDIT fields the database imported it as a new field. We had to do a lot of manual editing. (Virtually every single one.) We fixed this bug. Please, When you resubmit use the newest version of the ASPEDIT program. (There is a copy of the fumigated version in the \CONTENTS directory. ASPEDIT v1.2) 2. FILENAMES AND SUBMISSION DISKS. The submission disk should contain three things. Using the program YOURPROG as an example the directory on the submission disk should look something like: YOURPROG 01-23-90 10:51p YOURPROG.ASP 2013 01-24-90 10:52p YOURPROG.ZIP 232342 02-25-91 10:53p 2 File(s) 265734 bytes 543453 bytes free The directory should contain the ready-to-run or ready-to- install version of your program. Even if your program cannot run from a CD-ROM it can most likely be installed and even if it can't be installed or run DOC and README files can still be reviewed. The YOURPROG.ASP file is the file created by the ASPEDIT program and should be located in the "root" directory of the submission disk. It is very important that all three names are exactly the same. (We know there will be exceptions to this structure. If for some reason you cannot use this structure you can help us by including a note explaining what and why. YOURPROG.ZIP is the archived version of your program. These are the files that will be made available by BBS's. If your program is distributed in a 2 or more disk set you need to name the file using the letter A, B, C, etc. as the last letter in the filename. Example: YOURPROA.ZIP YOURPROB.ZIP YOURPROC.ZIP etc... Note: You only need 1 .ASP file per program and it should be named whatever your first disk's name is. In the above example the .ASP files would be named YOURPROA.ASP. 3. FILENAME CONVENTIONS. On a CD-ROM certain characters cannot be used as filenames. A CD-ROM recognizes ONLY the letters A-Z, the numbers 0-9 and the _ character. (underscore) Make sure that your subdirectory, .ASP and .ZIP files contain only these characters. 4. CONSISTANCY. Some authors had special requests such as being included on the CD-ROM only as a BBS download. While we will try to accommadate any such request it is still very important that we recieve the .ASP file in the correct location on the submission disk. Without the .ASP file our database cannot generate the BBS file listing so we have to create the .ASP file or wait for you to send us one. One of the most common misconceptions is that if your program will not run from the CD-ROM there is no need to have an unpacked version. Even if it won't run it can probably be installed from CD and even if it can't be installed your text files and any special README's can still be reviewed. 5. CREATE SPECIAL DOCUMENTATION. This is not a problem, just a suggestion. If your program cannot be run straight from the CD-ROM the most helpful feature you could add would be a README that explains how to install the program. If at all possible try to create an install routine that can install from the CD. We realize that some applications may not be able to do this. If this is the case a README that explains the program must be copied to a floppy disk to be installed would be very helpful. (Note: After reviewing the BETA version of the ASP CD you may note that some of the CD-ROM access program's features such as copying would helpful to mention in your documentation.) BBS SYSOPS The BBS files are located in the subdirectory created for each category. If the files are not formatted for your BBS and there is no easy way to reformat them please let us know. Send us the information we need to know. Examples of your text files, limits or capabilities of you system, and any suggestions as to how we can accomodate your need. We cannot promise that we will support every board but we will try. Considering the number of people involved and the diversity of of programs submitted we feel the BETA release ASP CD-ROM has been a resounding success. As with any program or system we expect to see improvements with each successive edition. Again, to all those who participated and to those who would like to be included in the ASP CD-ROM project, thanks. -- Advantage Plus Dist., Inc.