Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!hao!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Obnoxious software (was Re: C license agreements) Message-ID: <870@bsu-cs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Jul-87 13:42:28 EDT Article-I.D.: bsu-cs.870 Posted: Thu Jul 23 13:42:28 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 11:19:57 EDT References: <8387@brl-adm.ARPA> <6146@brl-smoke.ARPA> Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) Followup-To: comp.misc Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana Lines: 33 In article <6146@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: >I think Ken & Dennis would have croaked anybody who tried to make >UNIX utilities print out identifying messages etc. Wish Ken and Dennis could get a lynch mob together. If you use Microsoft's make utility to compile a collection of say 20 C files using Microsoft's C compiler, and then link them with Microsoft's linker, you get a steady barrage of obnoxious copyright messages: one from the make program when it starts up 20 from the C compiler, one for each file compiled one from the linker Datalight C is just as offensive, more so if you don't use a switch to suppress a message from each pass of the compiler. VAX/VMS is also frequently loud, for example, there's no way of convincing the DIFF command to not print a copy of the command line that you typed, along with a lot of fancy page headers, or to convince the LOGOUT command not to tell you that you just logged out a process (as if you didn't know). The chatterbox fever is even catching AT&T, for the dircmp utility insists on invoking pr to filter its output and add a lot of cute headers and page formatting etc. Now, a solution for the paranoid. You CAN display a copyright message without harrassing the user. Just do it only if your program is invoked without the proper arguments. Along with the usage message, you can print a brief and courteous copyright message if you really have to. If your software is provided under a license, you may not even have to do that, so try and give the user a break. Followups to comp.misc. -- Rahul Dhesi UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo}!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!d: <1