> Which at means that even Software 2000 could tell the difference between a
> program written in (mainly) C code (TheNet) for Z80 and one written in pure
> 8086 assembler (BPQ). Incidentally BPQ source is not in the public domain (it
> contains a number of bits of what John regards as proprietary [= not
> his to give away] software). However, the result is most definitely FREE.
Since I have a copy of the G8BPQ source code, and know John quite well (I wrote
the frame monitoring code in it) ...
His reason for not releasing the source was to stop being hassled when people
made changes to the code. Being a TSR means that writing the code and debugging
it it not easy. There was at least one amateur in that period (late 80s) who took
code and modified it, his copy of the TheNet said something different and so did
his BBS. So in order to reduce "support problems" he decided to keep the code to
himself so that he wouldn't have to debug someone elses bugs.
What is interesting having seen the open source become established, I don't think
John had mush to worry about. Relatively few people play with the code, and those
that do, tend to know what they are doing.
As a matter of history the first versions of BPQ came with source because hardware
configuration was done by editing the assembly code ! And the reason why John wrote
his code in the first place was that we both bought Pac-Com PC-120s which came with
no software (late 1987). Fun days. I also remember him making an old very very dumb
telephone modem send packets around the same time.
Jonathan
