Re: Nathan vs Rubywand: Choose sides?

[yeo@pigeon.qut.edu.au (Willie Yeo)]

Charles A. Plater (cplater@rattlehead.accs.wayne.edu) wrote:

: Can you please explain to me why it is that you take issue with Nate for
: standing up for Apple II programmers?  If you check on GEnie/Dephi and
: the like you will see that Nate is a respected programmer, who contributes
: to the Apple II scene.  He's only one of a few left.

	I ain't denying Nathan is a great programmer, he's great. I seen 
his works, although I do not really use much of his work. I have been more 
a fan of Ian Brumby, Peter Watson & Richard Bennett.

	But in some sense Nathan has been selfish. He expected us to join 
Delphi so that we could get his latest GUPPs ? For one thing, unlike tose 
who could afford a shell account on Delphi, I can't. I have a web account 
to read, post messages, but still, InterNet time costs me. I'd rather jump 
into a FTP site and pull it off, read csa2 rather then downloading pages 
of info that takes too much time. NNTP is mirrored into the server here 
locally, Delphi isn't.

	Nathan has changed in character, but not in his skills and 
knowledge.

	I have nothing against Nathan, but this is how I see and feel it 
at the moment.

: then don't rally behind known pirates like Dr. Tom.  What did his camp
: ever give us?  4D sound HAHAHA, WPGS (Do we have proof)?  What tangible
: evidence to we have?

	I don't speak for Turley, nor do I condone his piracy actions. But 
certainly, you cannot refuse him credit for even TRYING to get WPGS 
reclassified :- Would YOU have even tried ? You would not have bothered 
would you ?

	If you want something that he really contribute to, well, he's 
responsible for the re-classification of Medley GS. (I confirmed this with 
the copyright holder).

	He inspired me to start the Treasure Chest Project, which list the 
reclassified software which has been sort permission to redistribute, on 
the copyright owners terms and conditions. I wrote to many of the software 
companies, and some authors to seek permission, it ain't easy.

: I know for a fact that Nate has spent quite a lot of time tracking down
: bugs in System 6 to update GUPP so that all of our GSs are more stable.

	I beg to defer. I know Nate wrote GUPP as a collection of patches 
to the OS, from bug reports, as well as existing patches here and there 
and make them into one simplied patch - hence Grand Unified, which GU 
stands for. Nate would not have known of the OS bug exposed by Wolf 3D, 
and I guess, he's probably not testing the System now, then when it first 
came out.

: As far as I can see, something drastic needed to be done, and as far
: as I can see, it's still not over.

	It's not over, but I still would support Nathan's great work in 
providing great software as well as sharing his wealth of knowledge and 
expertise.

	Just my 5c worth.