I've lost track of the number of software migrations I've had to be
involved with in 4 decades of computer work. Think that may have to do
with repression of painful memories.
In truth, if one talks about going from one kind of program system to
another different kind of program system, the commercial world
changeover of essential systems software can be anywhere from
difficult to impossible and has been known to cause a company to fail.
The trick is a plan that is a gradual merge of the old and the new.
Tree does not have the resources to flash cut, corporations cannot
take that much money from cash flow, the government gets in trouble
finding tax money for it.
My personal take is not the flash cut. I've seen so very few
successful ones in my lifetime that it just doesn't emerge in my mind
as a viable path. I KNOW how hard it is to port a complex program like
TRLog. You cannot imagine how much money SAS Institute spent porting
their product from PL-1 to C in the early 90's.
I'm talking about SOLVING THE WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT AND TAKING THE STEPS
NECESSARY TO COMMUNICATE OUTSIDE THE WORLD OF SERIAL PORTS. This is
likely some mix of inventions, inside and outside of TRLog.
As in named pipes? As in communicating via posting to a network disk
file? As in a central TRLOG server? As in a com port masquerade? As in
???
If TRLog cedes the multis to the WriteLogs, etc, just because of
network connections, then all the operators that get their wings and
first training at the multis will come out familiar/salted to the
other programs.
Most of us understand family life. Never a complaint about time to
raise kids. Been there, etc. We understand limited resources. 40 years
of understanding limited resources, privately and commercially.
As to who could help? Two people have the source code, and those two
people set the priorities as to what gets worked on.
In 2015 getting a 486 working will be the same thing as my current
restoration of a 75A3. Put off dealing with this collection of
problems until then and TRLog WILL be dead. LONG dead.
73, Guy.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tree" <tree@kkn.net>
To: <trlog@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Trlog] Who Will Kill TRlog?
> On Sat, Feb 22, 2003 at 08:42:53AM -0500, K5NZ@aol.com wrote:
>
> > It's about time for us to hear from you Tree....
>
> The Tree is silent in the forest - having pretty much said all there
> is to say on this subject. However, I can say it all again.
>
> > Speak to us oh master of TR, we your dedicated followers wish to
hear your
> > words on this subject! Lead us through this maze of discontent
and trickery
> > from the silicone giants.
>
> Well - I agree with some of the points being made. There is no
doubt
> that a Windows version of TR - which keeps all of the good stuff in
the
> current program, and makes it easier for users to take advantage of
the
> new possibilities that "windows" enables, would be a good thing.
>
> There are some that thing the recent real time scoring system that
was
> done during WRTC would be a cool thing to do for something like the
> SS or Sprints (although I think it is still more desirable to have
> those people actually on the air). This is harder to do under DOS
> without easy internet access.
>
> Networking is a tall order without being in the Windows environment
> (or linux).
>
> And yes, there have been several people who come along and think
they
> can help port TR to a windows environment... but so far, nobody has
> actually done it.
>
> Am I the only guy on the planet that can do this? Probably not, and
> certainly my lack of experience programming under windows is a big
> reason why I am probably not the guy to do this. When I started TR,
> I had been programming professionally (on and off) for 8 years in a
> DOS environment using the archaic language of Pascal.
>
> The logical choice for me to try and make a windows version would be
> using Delphi - which is essentially a Visual Basic type of program,
> that uses Pascal for the real work. I have from time to time
actually
> started trying to get familar with the program - and am trying once
> again to get comfortable with it. This might lead someday to some
> kind of windows version of the program - but it will probably take
> a long time until it would be good enough to replace TR for most of
> you. It might become a TR like program - that could appeal to a
> larger market than the die hard 100 QSOs/hour contesters that most
> of you are.
>
> As you all know, I don't have as much free time for doing this as I
> used to. This is a situation that will probably change sometime
> down the road. Hopefully, sometime in the next 10 years, I can set
> myself up for some kind of retirement - one that will leave me with
> more time for this sort of thing - and putting energy into it will
> be both possible and required as I doubt I will be so comfortable
> that having no income at all would be an option.
>
> So - there is some hope that in 2010 or 2015, there could be some
> kind of Windows version.
>
> Maybe having some kind of section in the manual about how to setup
> your disk for multi-boot would be a good thing. Someone who has
> actually done this would have to help write it - so I can learn
> how to do it.
>
> EFI is coming - which is a pretty scary thing from a DOS person's
> perspective. At Intel, we have a bunch of programmers working on
> redeveloping many of the DOS tools we current use during BIOS
> development - because the BIOS isn't going to support the hooks to
> support DOS in the next generation of PCs. Yes - there are BIOS
> engineers today at Intel that still rely on DOS to get their job
> done.
>
> I suspect that there are enough smart people who will enable the
> Pascal language to run under EFI - and a port of TR to that is
> possible - and that might even open up some functionality that is
> currently only available under windows... I don't know.
>
> Thanks for all of the nice comments about the program. It is nice
> to know that some of you feel strongly enough about the program
> to put up with the hassle. It really seems to me that having a
> computer setup to deal with TR and a second one for the windows
> stuff in your life isn't that big of a deal. The 486 PC that
> you need probably can be had on e-bay for under $100.
>
> And - I would like to yet again thank Ron for showing up and
> helping put a new coat of paint on TR. This has given me a
> chance to rest and have some of my creativity energy come back
> (albeit slowly). Hopefully, you will see positive results from
> this at some point.
>
> 73 Tree
>
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