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From: braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Magazine programs  (to mag or not to mag...)
Message-ID: <1957@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: Wed, 7-Jan-87 01:12:55 EST
Article-I.D.: batcompu.1957
Posted: Wed Jan  7 01:12:55 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Jan-87 21:35:48 EST
References: <8701051324.AA00521@ncsc.ARPA> <8211@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <811@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: braner@batcomputer.UUCP (braner)
Organization: Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 29
Summary: You can't eat your cake and keep it

[]

I do not subscribe to any of the ST magazines, since they are too expensive.
(I am comparing them to the Apple II mags I used to subscribe to.)

Then there's the copyrighted-programs problem.  The reason to read a mag
(for me) is to learn to program the machine.  A side benefit is some
slightly-useful programs taken out of the mag as-is.  In the old days
you had to type those in.  Then came OPTIONAL disks, for extra money,
to save you the typing time.  Payment for typing service.  You could still
type them in by hand: they were printed in full in the mag, 5K of machine
code and all.  (I am thinking of NIBBLE magazine).

The ST mags appear to be an advertising vehicle (slick and colorful) for
some programs that come on the disk and are copyrighted.   Well, that's
stretching it: the programs are not so great as-is, and the source is still
provided.  But that's where they're heading, it seems.

I perceive of a real magazine as a vehicle of open information.  Reviews
should be scathing when appropriate, programs should be printed and heavily
commented.  Machine readable versions can be offered, at extra price (think
of the hardcopy as the extra if you want).  Financing can come from
subscribers and from advertizers.  Most magazines proud themselves (in front
of the advertizers) on how many people read each copy!

Let the publishers decide:
  a mag, or a software outlet.  They're not the same!

- Moshe Braner