------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Future.txt -- Access! (C) 1987/88 By Keith Young -- Other text files in this archive: Access!me The origional 'doc' file describing most of Access!'s features. Script.doc Documentation describing Acc!'s new scripting language. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Time: -23:- Date: 8/14/88 Subject: Plans for the future of Access! and other ramblings Well, it's been a few months but I'm back at it again... There have been many new additions/changes to this version of Access! with many more on the drawing board. I'm a little uneasy about releasing this version as-is... there was a lot more 'interfacing' I had hoped to get done prior to posting it but I thought I'd go ahead and let you people play with some of the new features (and a bug fix or two) while I smoothed things in a bit better. A couple of cases in point... you can now load seporate fonts for the Transmit and Recieve windows, the plan is to have these fonts listed on the DEFINE window and be loaded/saved as part of the .def file. This may have caused a new format of the .def file and I wanted to wait to see what else I might add to it before causing any incompatibility problems. There are also more features I plan to add to the new scripting. This Scripting is one area that will probably be exanded each new incremental release. And while I'm on that subject... I think I've finally decided on a "revision numbering scheme". Incremental releases (those that add more features) will be numbered like so... 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, etc... Any 'bug fix' version (or other small changes) will use a smaller increment in between the release version numbers like so... 1.41, 1.42, etc. There a few important additions/changes that are currently under devolpement. The major one(s) being the addition Xmodem 1K, Ymodem and Zmodem (!). I have these working now but have a lot of interfacing left to do with them before they go in (they are planned for V 1.5). Also, completely re-written documentation is under way. The mess in "Access!me" has IMHO gotten out of hand (doc writing is not one of my strong points 8). I will be posting this seporately as soon as it's finished. That brings me to the last topic... To date, I have posted a fully functional (barring any bugs) program with no features 'ghosted' in the menus (other than by design). Beleive me, I am not so naive (sp) to think everyone who is using Access! is honest enough to pay for it and support my efforts in developing it. I also have no intent or expectations of getting rich off the thing. I do (and have) however, spend a _lot_ of time working on it, have bills to pay and was hoping (dreaming?) that more than some 2-10% of the people using it would help support it. I have asked for what I consider a reasonable fee ($25) for the time and effort I've put into the program and from the response that I _have_ recieved, I must not have been far off (many people have sent more than I asked with one person sending $80 and another registering 4 copies of it because he (his company) was using 4 copies). Many people have said they would register when "xxxx" was added and many people who have registered have asked for "xxxx" (some of which being loadable-fonts, scripting, morerows support, Y/Zmodem, etc..). Well, this version has many (to some extent) of the most requested features and a few that I dreamed up all by myself , with Y/Zmodem well on it's way in. Ok, here's what all this b*tchin' boils down to... If I feel I have to post 'crippled' versions and then mail out fully 'working' versions to registered users then I will start doing that. If so, I will have to ask for disk/postage/handling money to do so (maybe $5 per upgrade?). Along with that, the registration fee will go up. I understand many ShareWare authors take this approach and are very successful doing so. I prefer not to do it this way as I would then be spending more time copying/labeling/mailing disks and less time improving the program. My guess is that new revisions would not be posted as often either. Here's the deal... if you are using the program and would like to support my efforts and continue to be able to d'load frequent, fully working versions (without having to wait on me to mail it to you) then now's the time to register. The fee is 'expected' to go up for 1.5. I'll leave it up to you... I'll make my decision based on the response I get between now and _before_ posting version 1.5 (there may be one or so between now and then for cosmetic changes or if any bugs crop up). Just so's I dnÍh7šÐhµ ÙkAªÖƒu›ZÌàó ÄÀ.»:žt*˜ÜgA¤Îƒi³: æt,è6YÐg÷ åoAµÞ“¸mè;»Ðh7 ØoA¨Þƒq½“z ¦ôÍè:80ið`Î Á™ÁƒŸƒ± ºô5ˆ0h0`Ø`Á™Aƒqƒæ}Ú0l”`êhÁ¡Ñƒf£F ÚŒu6ê0kÔ`ß¨Á ÓD¦†Ll˜<©ðvàÐgÁ¸OƒjŸá>*|D=ˆ{ö !ì@CØ€‡±b‚Å=Š{ö(!ìPCØ ‡±Ab‚Å=‹HpqÖ#!¬VC¸¬†‡YFrìä:iÈi3ÿg!›NC™œ†Ç9 ’r$ä6IÈl“Ù/!²^C¼†ëyjò%ä:KÈt—üo!žÞC–¼†Óyòt5ˆ(jPPû®¡Þ]Cƒ†‡± f”4:èhh°Ðü«¡•WCê®†C]6zäô>ièaÐà§¡»OCÙ¾†e}zú-ô<«è`00í*a ÔÃQ©†SÆ¦å¬8‰ØiW°ðoaæ^Ã½‡u{ 2ö ì3«Øq—°Øoaí^Ã½‡C{ jö¥ì2ØsW°Ý/aàÞÃ½tion and/or volunteered their time to supply Icons, Documentation or Beta testing. Enough of this... hope you like the new version, if you need to get ahold of me, your best bet is on Compuserve in the AmigaTech forum conference most nights after 11 pm EST. Or on GEnie in the "Random Access! for registered users CAT #21" (sorry, I don't currently have an account on PLINK). Enjoy, Keith U.S. Snail Mail: Keith Young Rt. 2 Box 261 Goodview, Va. 24095