The programs placed in the Public Domain Forum are controlled by the GNU General Public License. Our copy of the license is dated June 1991; if a user finds a later copy, let us know. A copy of the license is in the Forum.

The license was created by the Free Software Foundation, Inc. of Cambridge, Masschuetts. The GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.

DMENU/CRTMENU First Found

The first piece of software under this license is the DMENU/CRTMENU software by David Croy. This software allows almost instant creation of a menuing system complete with line item/user security which supports multiple ETROOTs.

Comes From Nixdorf DCPA

Initially the software was written for Nixdorf's DCPA on about UNIX V.3. For our customer we have updated the software to POSIX standards as far as possible, moved it to UNIX V Release 4.2 and sent an updated copy with license back to David Croy and our customer.

Plans for MSDOS/PCDOS Version

Our plan is to provide an MSDOS version as soon as possible. Since the C source is part of the software package, any C programmer can modify it and keep the changes or place the changes back in the public domain.

UNIX Format is Standard On Internet

Most files are stored in a UNIX format on the Internet.  Tar, pack, and unpack are UNIX functions.  A UNIX file is stored as a tar (tap archive/retrieval) which has been compressed with pack.  For example, the trailing small z on the filename dmnutar.z inducated it is packed with pack and can be unpacked with unpack.  The tar in the name indicates that once unpacked the file is a tar file.  This tar file can be extracted by the tar program to give the relevant license, programs, makes and documentation for creating the programs.

DOS Does Not Require Source

For users operating only in MSDOS/PCDOS this complicated approach may seem strange. The approach is necessary because various UNIX versions are only compatible (or sometimes compatible) at the source level while MSDOS programs are compatible at the execution level. The difference is twenty years of knowledge.

Internet Addresses

The relevant internet and bbs addresses are as follows:

     David       Croy         croy@source.asset.com
                          or         croy@cyber.gate.net

     DMAC                      dmac@handley.lib.va.us
                    or bbs         1-703-667-2162