From: Marko Mäkelä (marko.makela_at_hut.fi)
Date: 2003-07-08 09:51:28
Hi Nick,
> "closed source" ;)
Well, I prefer open source software and hardware, and I like to educate others
about it. What if the original author loses interest in the project or is
extremely busy with other things? With open source, other people can take
over the development. With closed source, the work would have to be started
from the scratch again. Also, with open source, it is easier to troubleshoot
problems, and you will get less support requests.
You could as well make the source code available and remove the obligatory
registration process. You would still get some money for the hardware from
those people who prefer not to build it themselves. At least I'm not expecting
to make money with a hobby project. If I have invested a couple of thousand
hours in developing the C2N232, I would have to sell at least one thousand
units at double or triple price to earn an adequate salary. But this is a
hobby, not a living for me.
> Your comment about shutting down computers for file transfer is not correct
> for all.
I forgot that MS-DOS can access SMB and even NFS file shares with appropriate
device drivers. Thanks for pointing this out.
> Working on a more robust DOS-Box version.....
Have a look at this: http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday/talk.zip
It's a terminal program that gives processing time to Windows whenever it's
not busy with other things. In that way, Windows should keep running the
program at full priority. You could insert similar "voluntary sleeps" in
the serial bus protocol for those points that are not guarded with a timeout
on the Commodore side.
Marko
Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list
Archive generated by hypermail pre-2.1.8.