Programmers Leave a Free Legacy

How many Commodore programmers have disappeared into the PC world or who knows where,
leaving behind good programs with no support? Leaving Commodore users the dilemma of
scrupulously observing copyright laws, or simply being realistic and making copies of these
unsupported, abandoned programs? Conversely, how many have officially released their programs for unrestricted use?

The complete answer is unknown, but a partial answer is, at least four: Four programmers have
officially released their work for free distribution, as they moved on to other and probably more
lucrative activities.

Nate Fiedler, author of the GEOS paint program geoCanvas, released this program and its various
related parts for unrestricted distribution. The program includes Paint Can and ScrapCan, which allow
cutting and pasting of oversize photo scraps.

Also available for unrestricted copying is the highly acclaimed terminal program, Dialog 128, by Gary
Farmaner. He retained all copyrights, and others can't sell the program, but otherwise there are no
restrictions on the copying of the program. Although the program came with a printed instruction book,
it is not necessary except for learning the scripting language. 

Bruce Thomas reported in Loadstar Letter 63 on a third programmer, Jean Major, who stopped
working on GEOS programs at least four years ago, and no longer owns a Commodore. In Email Jean
wrote "All my [Commodore] software is released into the Public Domain. Thanks for the interest in my
work." 

This gives GEOS users free access to one of the most useful utilities ever, Dbgetfiles, which patches the
kernel to allow access to more than eight filenames, as well as scrolling through the list.

The premier disk catalog program, DCMR, was officially released to public domain by author Ray
Martin in late 1999.

Naturally these programs are without any guarantees or support, but the first three are easily
understood by the Commodore user who is familiar with the GEOS environment and/or general use of
terminal programs. And you can send comments to Gary at dialog@turing.toronto.edu, with of course
no guarantee of a response. The DCMR program contains extensive documentation which can be read
on screen or printed out.

From "The Interface," newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group