Date   : Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:59:28 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: ReTuLa, a Tube ULA

On 05/04/2010 14:17, Darren Grant wrote:

> Personally I feel the best way to deal with such a project is get
> pre-orders so that a production run can be made and therefore all
> costs recovered then when these have been shipped make the design
> available so that anyone who would like to build one can but it will
> likely cost more than simply ordering one from a batch. That way
> people can take the design and improve on it and also it will still
> be available in the future when the designer is dead. Using closed
> designs just serves to make another dead end.

I completely agree. Once costs have been recouped, making the design 
open will allow others to see, and possibly modify/improve the design.

And, let's face it, how many of us can actually roll our own? For the 
most part there is some security in knowing the design is available, but 
going to Jon for the board because he is assuming all of the problems: 
the programming, making the PCB, sticking the chip to said PCB, blah blah.

I mean, it is not overly difficult to bit-bash the basic protocol to 
talk to an SD card, and it is not overly difficult to build up an IDE 
interface using a 6522 plus a couple of logic chips. So why do we even 
bother to buy stuff like the DataCentre and GoMMC? Simple. It's a 
finished product. Stick it in and use it. If the designs of each were 
fully open, I bet the majority would STILL buy the actual hardware. For 
"it just works" without all the development and testing that would 
otherwise be necessary. Perhaps those who would roll their own are doing 
so for the fun of doing it, or for highly specific mods ("can I get this 
to talk old-school SCSI instead of IDE?" etc).


I would like Jon, and others, to take a moment to think about this. I'm 
not asking for an immediate release of everything, but rather once 
you've made some money on it - it is only fair. It could even, if you're 
worried, be released under a licence that says people cannot SELL this 
design while you are still marketing your original.


While thinking about this, I suggest you take a look at Rob's blog where 
he talks about Prestel stuff and how it has more or less been wiped from 
existence here:
   http://blog.irrelevant.com/2010/02/only-echoes-remain.html
and couple this with the current situation for our own loved machines. 
We, luckily, have an annotated disassembly of the MOS, and others have 
worked to disassemble DFS and the like. But the original code for most 
of this, and units such as the FileStore, seem to have vanished into the 
ether. We have schematics for a lot of the hardware, but some things 
(the teletext adaptor, for instance) are missing. We have a very healthy 
community in ROM images, the majority of which are legally dubious, but 
in many cases nobody cares because nobody knows who owns what any more. 
So we put up images of DFS and DNFS and we all know there's like zero 
commercial value here but still, there are quibbles and there are bugs 
and being able to fix these without first disassembling the thing, would 
be nice.

The world is packed with forgotten hardware and forgotten software. This 
mailing list alone is testament to the BBC range which, let's face it, 
is a forgotten machine. I have not put my old BBS on-line as my server 
(Hugo's ArcBBS) is not available as source and there are 'issues' using 
it on a RiscPC. I didn't fancy porting it to ARMBBS which is arguably 
better, but also a closed source program that hasn't seen a recompile in 
many years. The list is, actually, really depressing.

So is this to end up another closed source design? Or another closed 
source bit of software? Or...

...just think about it, okay?



Best wishes,

Rick.

PS: FWIW, mom has instructions that, if I should drop dead, *all* of my
     software is to be dumped on my website (or anywhere else
     convenient). I don't think she understands what or why, I'm just
     hoping, as I've said it enough, it will register as being important
     enough to do it. Mick, if you're reading, feel free to call and
     remind her! :-) Unless, of course, I should die on April 1st. Again.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...