> > > On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 11:39 AM ZB <zbigniew2...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > https://sites.google.com/site/vdeeditor/Home > > > > > > > > (see "Files Section") > > > > > > > > it seems it may be interesting to some
> > On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 11:38 AM dmccunney <dennis.mccun...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I'm the person who created and maintains that site. > > > > > > VDE is a clone of the WordStar editor and uses the WordStar command set, > > > > > > VDE's home page had been on the Short Stop DOS software site created > > > by Steve Adelewitz. Steve died of a heart attack and Short Stop went > > > off the air suddenly. VDE also had a mailing list hosted on the > > > Topica site. Topica changed its business model and mailing lists went > > > away. In cooperation with VDE author Eric Meyer and List Mommy Ben > > > Cohen, I migrated the mailing list to a Google Group, and in > > > cooperation with Eric created a new VDE home page. > > [..] > On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 4:33 PM Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> wrote: > > I'm curious if the source code to VDE has even been released. I don't > > see any source code on the website, so I suspect the answer is no. On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 4:06 PM dmccunney <dennis.mccun...@gmail.com> wrote: > Correct. It has not been released, and won't be. Why should it? VDE > is pure assembler, and IIRC, the assembler Eric used is no longer > available. You would have challenges trying to build and extend it if > you *had* the source. (And given the issues getting folks to update > FreeDOS and other packages, who would actually try to do anything with > the source? ASM programmers are something of an endangered species, > because hardware is fast and cheap enough that you don't *have* to > write in assembler to get needed performance.) > > In the early DOS days, VDE was a shareware product, along with editors > like Qedit. These days it's copyrighted freeware. Use it and pass it > along all you like, but you can't get the source. > > So VDE isn't something you might want to mirror on Ibiblio, but it > *is* something people might find worth running under *DOS. That's why I was asking (mirror on ibiblio). I had remembered VDE from its shareware days. I had missed that it was re-released as copyrighted freeware. (See below - highlights are mine.) That's interesting - I'll have to try it again. >From the "About" page: https://sites.google.com/site/vdeeditor/Home/about-vde > VDE started out as freeware; the DOS version switched to shareware >(with licensing required for commercial use) from 1988 to 2002, and has >since returned to freeware status. Even during its shareware period, VDE >was released in fully functional form without nagging displays, and >individual use was still freely allowed (a spelling-checker module was >offered as an incentive for registration). VDE has been widely distributed >by software libraries and online, and bundled with outdated computers for >use by the disadvantaged. It's been my own most-used software for over 20 >years, and my wish has always been that it should also be useful to as many >others as possible. > -- Eric Meyer (April 2009) Thanks for hosting the VDE website. This is a cool piece of history. Jim
_______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
