On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 14:40:09 +1100 (EST), Robert Swan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> Hi ho gang. > > I'm new on this mailing list, but have been enjoying FlightGear on > Linux for a fair while. It's great having such sophisticated software > freely available. > > I particularly like doing all the correct navigation, approaches, > and what have you, but I only had a few approach plates from an old > copy of FSII from years back. > > A web search turned up the shareware "Final Approach" by Georges > Lorsche. There are thousands of freely available plates for it (.iap > files). Seemed like just the business -- but for the fact that it was > for Windows and I just don't run it. > > The .iap file format is closed and binary, but I enjoy a good puzzle > and have managed to work out just about everything in there. I have > written a rather ugly Perl script which takes .iap files and generates > PostScript directly (I learnt a lot about PostScript while I was at it > which was also good fun). ..excellent, the generated postscript makes the ip goodies available on all platforms. The embedded work retains its original licensing, if free, remains free. Tell him moving free stuff to the GPL would provide stronger rights to the author, than the wintendo "freebie shareware" licenses I've seen this far, the author retains full control, Linus Torvalds uses this license on the Linux kernel, and has Microsoft _wet_ their pants. ;-) > I tried contacting Georges Lorsche, both for advice on some of the > more obscure things in there, and to see how he felt about opening > out the .iap files to a wider public. I can see how this might eat > into his shareware fees. The e-mail bounced. ..keep trying. A lot of people are willing to pay for GPL ip goodies too, I would think this would more than compensate for Georges' potential "shareware loss". > The .iap files are freely available, and have been developed by people > who have agreed to them being distributed on the Web. I feel the > position of my program is ethically sound. > > I wouldn't call the script quite complete yet, though all the really > important stuff is there. I would be happy to forward some of its > output to anyone who's interested (hope this doesn't lead to a huge > rush). I'd be interested in suggestions. > > The other thing, assuming I release it under GPL, where do I put it? > It's only one ~35kb script. Would someone like to provide a > distribution point for it? > > Have fun, > > Robert Swan ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > -- ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-) ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry... Scenarios always come in sets of three: best case, worst case, and just in case. _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-users
