whitney@THINK.COM (03/08/88)
I received this note: -------- From: Mark Crimmins <crimmins@csli.stanford.edu> >I had no trouble downloading zlink. Good work. A couple of things. >First, you've been complaining about share fees. There's no reason >to expect such fees until your program has something to it that makes >people prefer it to kermit and other shareware programs. I agree. >Second, on the version I just downloaded, the exit routine left me >with an error message "File not found" or something similar. You >should DEFINITELY use the prodos quit code. Anyone that uses ram >disks or hard disks will have trouble with your playing with the reset >pointers and so on. I do use the QUIT code. I've never had trouble. I use a //GS running Prodos 16, which then runs prodos 8 off of my hard disk. Every conceiveable hitch which might go wrong doesn't. When I quit, prodos 8 promptly reloads prodos 16, and I'm back at the finder desktop. You'll have to be specific about the error if I am to fix it. >If you really want to distinguish yourself from TIC and so on, you >need to blow people away. You already have a good program. My >suggestions: add kermit support (the apple // kermit is a shame), add >a mouse-editor patch to allow people to use emacs and vi with the >mouse (I have a patch that you could use if you want, originally >written for for the kermit program, to allow this -- it's real short >and something to sell your program over other stuff), add a scrollable >review buffer, macros, extra memory support, (dream) a mouse editor, >and whatever else you can think of. Nowadays, people have lots of >memory, and would love a com program that does everything. There are >already many com programs with less. People really would pay for >a program they would use. Right now, I see no reason to use ZLink >over TIC; give me some! Binary II and Kermit are on the way, as I have time to write them. I am a struggling (well, sort of) student, and work on Z-Link gets a low priority. I'm sure you can sympathise. Z-Link is distributed as-is with the promise to people who pay the shareware price that they'll receive the upgrade to Binary II and Kermit. Response was so low (actually none) in terms of payment that I had to assume that nobody was using it. This goes exclusively to the people who have paid (as of yet, nobody). If I receive some input from the net saying generally "well, I think Z-Link has potential, and I'll pay for it when it has the bells and whistles", then I'll post the updates to the net instead of sending only to those who have paid. I don't want to turn off the public, but I do want to be sure I can receive something for my efforts. If it seems that there is no interest in Z-Link (ie, no notes or money or whatever), then forget it. I'll work on it for my own benefit. Dave
mdelama1@ORION.CF.UCI.EDU (Michael De La Maza) (03/08/88)
Dave, Dave don't get so discouraged. Computer Scientists are
supposed to be tough (when the going gets tough, the tough get going,
right buddy?) Here's some advice from a guy who has sharewared (no,
Martha, it's not in the dictionary) six disks for the Apple // in the
last 5 years. It's going to be a bit windy and conceited, but if you
bear with me, maybe you'll learn something.
Each one of my six programs has an interesting history behind
(and in front) of it. I present two anecdotes for your edification.
Game Doctor was written and sold many eons ago. It had a bunch
of routines that taught you how to write all sorts of programs (i.e.
logic routines (for chess, cards, etc.), adventure games, arcade games, etc.)
I gave a way
an introductory version and told people they could get an upgrade for
$14.95. I made less than $100 on it. What's funny is that about six
months later, Broderbund came out with Arcade Machine. Now if you
remember this program was about three months late...I don't want to
suggest that there was any crosstalk between Game Doctor and Arcade
Machine, but I will anyway (I said it would sound egoistic, didn't I?)
In any case, Arcade Machine completely destroyed all sales of Game Doctor.
What's funny is that Game d
Doctor was a much more developed program than Arcade Machine: it had
more features and a better user interface. If the life cycle of the
program had been a little bit longer, it would have become an awesome
product, but I gave up on it after Arcade Machine came out.
Covenant is a shareware program I sold about two years ago. I
sharewared it for a year, made a measly $800. I ripped it out of
Shareware, advertised it in a couple rags, made a presentation in front
of an Apple user's group I belong to (you live 3 ft from the Boston
Computer Society, Dave). I made $800 in a month. The moral of the
story: if you want to make money, don't shareware. I only know of a
few guys who successfully shareware programs and they do it full time
and they market uniqe products with no competition.
Finally. Dave you are a student of (at?) MIT, the most venerated
science institution in the solar system. Don't give up, live up to
the name (hell, you don't want CalTech students to catch up, do you?)
-- Michael de la Maza
ATTnet 714-854-7093oliver@thelink.UUCP (Joel Sumner) (08/11/88)
This is directed to anyone that has downloaded the SECOND posted version of ZLINK (the latest one shall I say. but it is only the second one to make it to my node. It is the one with the Transposition error in the BSAVE statement). I captured it and EXEC'ed it just fine (after changing the typo) and then extracted it with BLU. All went well during the extraction but when I tried to run it, the program kept beeping and showing monitor lines scrolling through the screen (the kind you get when it BRK's on you). This all appeared after I hit a key for the opening menu. If I hit CTRL-RESET while it was beeping it would put me into the "quit Zlink" menu but if I hit 'N' it would just stick me back in terminal mode and start beeping at me. Vital info: I have an Apple IIgs with 1 3.5" drive, a USRobotics Courrier 2400 Modem hooked to the internal port, 1 meg of ram on an Apple card. (At the time I was running ZLINK off of the Ram disk [named /RAM5]). Could it me that it bombed trying to read the Z.LINK.CONFIG file (I obviously didn't have one?). Has anyone else had similar problems? Thanks.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | oliver@thelink.UUCP |AT&T (219) 291-8343| GEnie K.SUMNER [Joel] | | (Joel Sumner) |----------------------------------------------------| |USnail 1505 Sheffield Ct. | It is always darkest before the lights go out | | South Bend, IN 46614| | !--------------------------------------------------------------------------!
ptrepan3@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU (pat trepanier) (09/25/89)
I recently downloaded the new Zlink and after I unpacked it and thried to run it it crashed inot the monitor, I have tried to run it from the finder, basic, and from squirt and the same thing always happens. I did download the two files again but the same thing has happened. Is this just me or has someone else had this problem? I am running a IIGS with 512K. If this is just me could someone send me the SYS file. Thanks Pat ptrepan3@ub.d.umn.edu