Re: Building An Apple ][ Software Archive

[Sandra Warnken <warnken@mother.com>]

Users groupr do this sort of thing with their Apple disk libraries.
The software that was good came out on the Disk of the Month.  If you have
access to the card catalogue you work backwards from last to first.  That
way you pick up the last upgraded version.  The newsletters and magazines
have reviews and in some cases comparisons.  

Sandy


On Mon, 18 Sep 2000, John King, Jr. wrote:

> Something like that would be very useful to Apple newbies, like myself.
> Also, I would like a user rating, or something else, to know if the software
> was well regarded.
> 
> 
> "Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill" <wbdesnoy@ucalgary.ca> wrote in message
> news:7izx5.5013$m8.924731@news1.telusplanet.net...
> > While not a software archive per say, creating a catalogue of known
> > Apple II software might be useful.  Such an archive could include the
> > name of the software, the copyright date and owner, distribution media,
> > intended platform (ie. model) and system requirements, operating system,
> > disk catalogue, and some form of checksum.  A description of the
> > software, and whether there are any known derivatives (ie. is the
> trademark
> > still valuable) could also be significant.
> >
> > What would this catalogue allow us to do?  It would allow us to preserve
> > the past, before all known copies are destroyed.  If there is a large
> > volume of "discarded" software (ie. the version nor concept no longer hold
> > any commercial value), it may form a case for software copyright reform.
> > It would allow owners to check the integrity of their copies against other
> > known copies.  It would form the basis of physical collections, so that
> > interesting/significant software can be preserved.  It could also serve as
> > a starting point for those who want to ask authors to release software
> into
> > the public domain.
> >
> > Well, it is just an idea.  And it is an idea which ought to be safe from
> > the piracy police . . . and the pirates.
> >
> > Byron.
> >
> > lowlife2270@my-deja.com wrote:
> > > I've been reading, both with interest and concern, about the entrenched
> > > views regarding software piracy and software archival (and its
> > > associated retrieval). Clearly, people have issues with how this has
> > > been happening in the past (the Asimov topic would be an obvious way to
> > > prove this).
> >
> > > I propose that we build a software archive. One in which access is
> > > controlled. One in which those that post material can ensure that they
> > > can access their own material again. One which shows all the skills
> > > which the Apple ][ series fostered in the community (and yes, that
> > > includes the cracking of software titles). I could get into more
> > > details than this, but I don't know that they would be overly useful at
> > > this point. Suffice to say that there would be a cute web-based
> > > interface to the system, and people could browse through a listing of
> > > the current contents of the archive. I have several years' experience
> > > of doing this kind of work, and I'd be more than happy to apply that
> > > knowledge to something constructive like this. I'm not in it for the
> > > money (or the disk images).
> >
> 
> 
> 
>