simonian@x102c.ess.harris.com (simonian richard 66449) (10/31/90)
I am also interested in finding a source for the meta.sys metafile driver (also for use with Opus charts). I have G+Plus, which doesn't deliver it, and WordUp and Degas Elite; neither of these programs ship the driver. I have no other GDOS applications. Has anyone reverse engineered the driver? Rick Simonian Harris Space Systems Corp. simonian@x102c.ess.harris.com or rsimonian@nasamail.nasa.gov
grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas) (10/31/90)
From article <4690@trantor.harris-atd.com>, by simonian@x102c.ess.harris.com (simonian richard 66449): > > I am also interested in finding a source for the meta.sys metafile > driver (also for use with Opus charts). I have G+Plus, which doesn't > deliver it, and WordUp and Degas Elite; neither of these programs > ship the driver. I have no other GDOS applications. Has anyone > reverse engineered the driver? > > Rick Simonian It's a real pain, isn't it, the way GDOS has, and has not, been released. I think there was a Meta.sys driver with Microsoft Write, which Atari UK bundled with various machines for a while, but just because they gave the package away free doesn't mean we can distribute parts of it for use elsewhere, does it? I fail to see what interest Atari can have in stopping people from, say, saving an Opus chart as a .GEM file and importing it into a desktop publishing program. I suspect their answer will be that Doug Harrison should have paid them a big fee to distribute GDOS with the program. As it's a shareware program, and as he was only charging $15 for it, it clearly wasn't worth his while to do so. Maybe there's an opportunity for the CodeHeads to distribute a few fonts and a Meta.sys file with G+Plus? Simplest of all (well, maybe not, but then I'm no lawyer) would be if Atari just distributed GDOS with every machine - it is after all just another part of GEM. For some reason this reminds me of Atari's policy on the distribution of the Epson emulator for the Atari laser printer. It was written by DMC (from Germany, the people who wrote Calamus, I think). In the USA, Atari has released version 1.31 as freeware. In the UK, Atari are selling v1.00 for 30 pounds (just under $60 at current rates). Now, I bought the UK version before the USA version was released. A friend has since sent me the USA version and, as it seems to have fewer bugs and a better set of fonts than the UK version, I use it. Am I legal or not? Would the situation be different if I hadn't bought the UK version? Graham -- Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK JANET: grahamt@uk.ac.sussex.syma BITNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@UKACRL INTERNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk UUCP: grahamt%syma.sussex@ukc.uucp PHONE: +44 273 686758 FAX: [..] 685865
fischer-michael@cs.yale.edu (Michael Fischer) (11/01/90)
In article <3721@syma.sussex.ac.uk> grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas) writes: >For some reason this reminds me of Atari's policy on the distribution of >the Epson emulator for the Atari laser printer. It was written by DMC >(from Germany, the people who wrote Calamus, I think). In the USA, >Atari has released version 1.31 as freeware. Anyone know how to obtain this? Will Atari permit it to be placed at atari.archive.umich.edu? -- ================================================== | Michael Fischer <fischer-michael@cs.yale.edu> | ==================================================
larserio@IFI.UIO.NO (LarsErikOsterud) (11/02/90)
I've got the Epson emulator... It got it from Atari Norway, and they told me to give it to anyone that needed it (it's possible that this is an older version, but..) Lars-Erik / ABK-BBS +47 2132659 / ____ ______ ________________________ Osterud / larserio@ifi.uio.no / /___ / The norwegian ST __________/ ______________________/ ____/ / Klubben, user association