At 5:30 PM +0200 on 7/14/99, M. Uli Kusterer wrote:
>>OK. I see. I have my own CD-R, so I know what you're talking about. But
>>people expect pressed CD's from companies (imagine the tech support calls:
>>"Why the heck is this cd _green_? Is it growing mold?") and the pressed
>>CD's are more durable, too. Also, some CD-ROMs can not always handle CD-R's.
>
>Anthony,
>
> I don't think developers will mind a burnt CD instead of a pressed one.
>besides, I've got all varieties of CD-Rs. From gold, to silver, to blue.
>And usually developers are very less likely to send in some stupid tech
>support requests like the ones you mentioned. And so far I've only heard of
>problems with over-length CD-R media.
True. But there is also the problem of keeping relevant sources for three
years... I'd hate to have to dig up Interpreter sources from today three
years from now... and I could not, for example, dig up ANY ResCraft sources
from last October. Now I actually plan to keep them (on CD-R, not much
choice <g>)...but, it would be a pain to dig up old sources. And if sources
are lost? I think we'd be better off having it so that a wide distribution
mechanism is encouraged. And besides, downloading is often faster <g>...
Ok, I've rambled enough. I guess I just would not like having to deal with
requests from three years ago.
>
>>End users (a significant percentage) are dumb.
>
> You don't expect me to account for the dumbest possible user? We're not
>trying to imitate the US legal system where you have to write on a
>microwave oven that you shouldn't put a cat in there to get it dry?
Oh! _Now_ you tell me not to put the cat in! <g> But we don't want to get
sued in the afforementioned legal(?) system.
>
>>But even if there were no dumb end users, if there are 40mb of OpenCard
>>source (remember: minimum file size on a CD is 24K, 1700 1-byte files would
>>accomplish that! Add in a resource fork, and you'd only need 850).
>
> If there are 40 mb then what ... ? You kinda left that sentence unfinished.
If there are 40mb of sources, we're asking for 6% of the CD for stuff about
0% will use. And if we have more sources -- which we probably will -- for
example, we could end up with 5,000 files easily with all the OS and CPU
ports, the porting library, etc. 5000 files (with resource forks) are 234
megabytes. Ouch. 36% of the CD. We could compress a lot, no doubt. But
still, source can get _big_ consider what we need to include:
sound I/O for each OS
graphics for each OS
interpreter
editor
viewer
etc.
perl is 1600 files. And it does not have a UI. OpenCard will do more than Perl.
>
>>Agreed. I think the best way would be to get a domain name: OpenCard.com
>>(but with the real name!). Then, if someone types it into their browser,
>>they'll get the page wit the "download now" link.
>
>Shouldn't we rather get a .org name? Anyway, in that case we should have a
>clause in the license that they *must* include the URL.
.com, .org... hmmm... I'm not sure.
