The FAQ

1. What is my relationship with Caldera?

2. OK, what can you post here? ** UPDATED**

3. Why the name "Unofficial" CP/M web page?

4. Now that Caldera has released CP/M, deos that mean that I can put this software on my web site?

5. Can I make a CD of this software, and sell it?

6. Does Caldera have any more DRI software that they haven't distributed yet?

7. Why don't you have boot disk images on your web site?

8. Are you going to post a CBIOS for my "XYZ" computer?

9. Are you going to list the names of those who donate to your web page?

10. Why did I remove the PDF, and on-line viewable HTML, manuals?

11. What is THE CP/M DOCUMENTATION PROJECT?


1. Q : What is my relationship with Caldera?

A : Informal. I have been communication with Caldera for some time via email, and the occasional phone call. They have final approval on what gets posted here.


2. Q : OK, what can you post here?

A : Basicly, anything produced by Digital Research except the operating system products that posses some PCDOS/MSDOS compatibility. I can post all 8080/Z80, 68000, Z8000, and CP/M-86 products.


3. Q : Why the name "Unofficial" CP/M web page?

A : Because that is the name suggested by Caldera. They will be bringing a web site on-line soon, and they reserve for that site the title of "official" site. That doesn't mean that this site in not authorized.


4. Q : Now that Caldera has released CP/M, deos that mean that I can put this software on my web site?

A : You would need to get the real answer to that from Caldera, but I would say no. Caldera still reserves the rights to the CP/M products, and wishes to maintain control over the distribution of it.

NOTE : This does not apply to GEM. Caldera has released GEM under the GPL (GNU Public Lisence), so it may now be freely distributed.


5. Q : Can I make a CD of this software, and sell it?

A : NO. If there is CD to be made, Caldera would like to do that. For right now, we don't have enough of the old Digital Research software in usful form to make it meaningful to press a CD. I believe it will be at least a year before we have collected enough to make such an effort worthwhile.


6. Q : Does Caldera have any more DRI software that they haven't distributed yet?

A : No. They have sent me everything they have, and it is now on this site. Unfortunately, much of the software produced by Digital Research has been lost over the years. This is not Caldera's fault; it was gone before they bought it.

It is now necessary to collect copies of these programs from the users themselves. This will take time. Making the manuals presentable (or even finding them in the first place) is the real challage. Scanning and OCR'ing them is a time consuming, tedious process. Please be patient, and I will eventualy get them done.


7. Q : Why don't you have boot disk images on your web site?

A: In order to present boot disk images, there would need to be a program that could write them out to the diskette. There are multiple problems with this. What system would it run on? It would have to be able to support all the different diskette densities, and formats, that these disks come in. The program would also have to be able to do this. THis would be a non-trivial program.


8. Q : Are you going to post a CBIOS for my "XYZ" computer?

A : No. The CBIOS portion of any CP/M installation is hardware dependant. It is usualy written by the folks who manufacture the hardware. It is, therefore, copyrighted by the hardware manufacturer. Since I don't have the rights to any of these, they will not be posted.


9. Q : Are you going to list the names of those who donate to your web page?

A : No. I am deaply grateful for the contributions of the users who are making this the best CP/M web page. But, old habits die hard. In the old days, when we shared software (otherwise known as bootlegging) we did it quietly. We didn't wave a red flag and say "See what I did?". Caldera is being co-operative at the moment. For today! Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

I accepted a certain amount of risk when I decided to try to make this happen. I cannot extend that risk to those who chose to help me. If you had hoped to see your name "up in lights", I hope you will understand.


10. Why did I remove the PDF, and on-line viewable HTML, manuals?

The space for this site is donated, and I must be aware of the disk space it uses. Distributing manuals in these formats requires a lot of disk space. I removed them to make room for more software. I apologize if this was your favorite format, but I can no longer support them.


11. What is THE CP/M DOCUMENTATION PROJECT?

It is an attempt to get manuals for as many Digital Reseaerch sofware products in the hands of the public as possible. Previously, I had been working on manauls when I had the time and energy. That was not getting the job done. So, I decided to post the manuals in scanned, and ocr'd, plain text format. These are pretty easy to generate, and so I did. Some of these manuals will be usable the way they are. Some will require further processing to clean them up. That is what THE CP/M DOCUMENTATION PROJECT is all about.

If you can help, please do. There is a special page accessable from the DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY page that will explain this.

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