my uucp

[Lauren at tgr.UUCP]

John,

My homegrown versions of UUCP/mail/basic netnews are in good shape.
As you know, it has taken me a LONG time to get everything working,
since I did everything from scratch without any reference to 
Unix UUCP sources.  If I'd known how hard it was going to be I
never would have started, that's for sure.  Anyway, I've been holding
off release while I added functionality to the mail sending/reading/answering
programs, including a good deal of 822 compatibility, special features
for ARPANET/MILNET mail transfers, additional netnews handling
functions, and loads of other similar niceties.

There are three basic versions of the code.  One is for Coherent (to be
distributed by the people that sell Coherent).  Another is for VMS 
(this one is supposed to be distributed by DEC but is on temporary
hold).  The third version is for MSDOS operating system based
machines (this one I'll distribute myself unless someone makes me
a terrific offer).  

Right now the only thing really holding up initial release of the
MSDOS and Coherent versions is lack of installation and user level
documentation.  Initial releases will probably be made to some people
with a "read.me" type doc for installation, since a lot of people
have been putting pressure on me to release the MSDOS version even
without nice looking docs and the code all seems to be working well.

Yes, I hope to make some money from my code.  I make no apologies
for this.  I decided to stop putting anything of much significance into
the public domain.  I made this decision after watching programs
that I released into the P.D. get hopelessly mangled by "well-meaning"
people who only succeeded in complicating and often breaking the code
(then people would call ME asking why it didn't work!), and sometimes
even sold by others without any reference to my original authorship.
In any case, I plan to provide real support for my UUCP/mail/netnews
package, and I hope to make enough to help reimburse me for the
massive amount of unpaid time I put into the work.  I'm a consultant
and do not have a "steady" source of income, but I still have
to pay the rent or the landlord will get very upset...

Bye for now.

--Lauren--