dobbins@EUPHRATES.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU (Gary Dobbins) (02/28/91)
Ok, I'll go ahead and expose my ignorance for asking, or, maybe it needs asking... Can someone explain what the various versions of KA9Q are. Why some are called NET.EXE, some are NOS.EXE. The differences between the G1EMM and the PA0GRI, and the "genuine" KA9Q versions. Why there is so little documentation attached. (understood that since NOS is free, etc., and its originators have no need for heavy docs) A recent referral on this list mentions to get NOS from thumper.bellcore.com, and that it includes certain modules. However, I find that those modules are actually only present in the G1EMM and PA0GRI versions. And, the G1EMM version actually is available as both G1EMM, and KHxxxxx. Is there a "master list" somewhere that follows this product closely? It's a great deal! (but only after wading around a while to find the right version)
karn@epic.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn) (03/09/91)
In article <612.dobbins@euphrates.ccit.arizona.edu>, dobbins@EUPHRATES.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU (Gary Dobbins) writes: |> Can someone explain what the various versions of KA9Q are. Back when I started this project, I made a conscious decision to make the source code freely available. The idea was to maximize the benefit to the amateur packet radio community (the primary target for the KA9Q package) and to spur contributions by others. I believe I have succeeded in this. I was also aware of the potential for lots of competing versions and user confusion, but that was a price I was willing to pay. The "base" version (the stuff I put out) is on thumper.bellcore.com under /pub/ka9q/nos. There are several parallel, experimental versions also on thumper under directories such as /pub/ka9q/g1emm and /pub/ka9q/pa0gri. These versions are uploaded by others and I do NOT support them in any way. I get lots of questions regarding features unique to these versions and I am NOT able to answer them. Occasionally I will "buy back" a feature from one of these other versions and incorporate it into the "base" code, but even then I direct inquiries to the authors. Please note that every source file now contains an authorship statement, so if you have a problem with a particular feature you have no excuse for not asking the right person... I agree that much work needs to be done on documentation, but as usual in labor-of-love projects like this, the people doing the labor have much more love for hacking code than they do for writing documentation. You can find what documentation exists in /pub/ka9q/docs. There's also the source code, which others have described as "very well commented". Phil