Sep 87 Mousehole
Volume Number: 3
Issue Number: 9
Column Tag: Mousehole Report
Mousehole Report 
By Rusty Hodge, Mousehole BBS
SuperPaint Update
From: David W
Silicon Beach Software just released an update to Superpaint in order to fix a
problem Superpaint has with the most recently released drivers (4.0) of the
LaserWriter. The new version is 1.0p. You can obtain a copy either by mailing a disk
to Silicon Beach Software or use the patching software that I just posted on MouseHole
Download. If you try to use the patching program FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS
carefully. Among other things you must first place your copy of SuperPaint on to a
400K floppy; it won’t work with an 800K floppy. Also you will need any version of
the installer program that Apple distributes to upgrade system disks.
[The following post summarizes the Editor’s feelings on the issue of piracy and
pre-release software, which recently became a hot topic on the Mousehole over Steve
Brecher’s SuitCase program. -Ed]
Piracy & Beta Software
From: David Sternlight
It’s not pious to say that taking someone’s property without their permission is
theft. (i.e., TSPWTPIT). It’s the law. If A is the beta tester and B is his friend,
whether B knows he has received stolen property or not doesn’t change the facts that B
is legally liable. The profit, by the way, is in knowing about it or using it. That’s what
“intellectual property” is all about. You don’t have to make money from someone’s
property obtained without permission for it to be theft.
If a developer wants the “benefit” of people seeing his beta and maybe buying the
release, he has the option to circulate his beta. If he chooses not to do that, and imposes
non-disclosure or non- distribution limits on it, then TSPWTPIT. You can’t make it
o.k.; only he can--it’s HIS property.
I believe that TSPWTPIT. I am under the impression the law says the same thing.
No amount of rationalization will change this. It won’t do to argue why it is a good
thing to take someone’s property without permission. It won’t do to talk around it.
The only LEGAL way to get someone else’s property is if they give it to you, or give
someone else permission to give it to you. People miss this point with software because
a copy seems not to affect the original; except for the cost of the medium, it seems
cost-free. However, software is intellectual property and the law specifically
recognizes that in this case, as with pirated tapes, passing on a copy is illegal. You are
allowed to make a single copy for your own archive use under the copyright law. You
are not allowed to give a copy to anyone else without permission. Beta or release
version, it makes no difference; copyright is copyright. The law doesn’t say, “Oh
yeah, if it’s a beta (or a pilot or test tape of a copyright song) THEN the law doesn’t
apply.”
Code Length/Time in Sorting
From: Geoff Bryan
It is very difficult to generalize from length of code to length of execution time.
The real issue is the quality of the algorithms you choose. For example, here is some
code for a short but extremely slow sorting routine known as a “bubble sort”:
bubble(item,count) /* bubble sort */
char *item; /* item = ptr to char array */
int count; /* count = no. of elements */
{
register int a,b;
register char t;
for(a=1;a
for(b=count-1;b>=a;--b)
{
if item[b-1] > item[b]
{
t=item[b-1];
item[b-1]=item[b];
Referenced by (2):