FSUIPC Payware?

[dfournie]

What does the original author (Adam Szofran) say about FSUIPC becoming Payware, when his original versions of the IPC software specifically stated that it was to remain free?

[Erik Haaland]

You mean this guy?

Adam Szofran

As of February 1st, 1998, the simming community has lost one of its great contributors. On that date, he withdrew from the community due to a change in employment and location, and has struck out to explore other interests. He is a contributor whose work lies at the very core of many of the functions and add-on's that we enjoy today. That contributor, of course, is Adam Szofran, the author of the programs FS6IPC.DLL, the Flight Sim Data Recorder, and the Freeware Scenery Assembler (FSASM) and it's add-on's. Though Adam is readily recognized for his FSASM module by the mainstream users in our community, he is far less known for his contribution of the FS6IPC.DLL.

In our opinion, his single greatest contribution is, indeed, the FS6IPC.DLL. Though the FSASM and Flight Recorder programs have provided an invaluable contribution to the community, the FS6IPC.DLL extends our hobby by orders of magnitude beyond what it would have been otherwise. This code lies at the heart of many, if not all, of the more complex functions that have come along since FS6.0 (FS95). GPS by David Drouin, EFIS by Chris Brett, SquawkBox and Procontroller by Jason, Joe and Marty and many others... All would have been impossible were it not for the FS6IPC.DLL from Adam.

Simply put, the FS6IPC.DLL provides a "gateway" that allows Microsoft's Flight Simulator 95 and 98 to communicate outside their own cloistered executables. It provides the interpretation and communications channels that these other programs need to function. Airspeed to GPS? Positional co-ordinates to EFIS? Altitude to SB/ProControl? All these parameters and more are "exported" by FS6IPC.DLL to outside functions. The core data whose absense otherwise would render all of them non-functional.

We are proud to recognize Adam for his contribution, but sad in the realization that for the time being, our community has lost a significant contributor and pioneer. We can only hope that Adam will make a reappearance and pick up his effort when the time is right for him. Whether he does or not however, his contributions to the community to-date deserve recognition and a place in the Honor Role. His will be some big shoes to fill.

Pete does Adam have anything to do with this?

[Pete Dowson]

What does the original author (Adam Szofran) say about FSUIPC becoming Payware, when his original versions of the IPC software specifically stated that it was to remain free?

On the contrary, Adam required licenses to be purchased by all commercial users of FS6IPC. When FSUIPC came out free for all, including commercial use, that was the first time there was actually a completely free interface.

Really there's no difference now, because the FS interface parts (IPC) of FSUIPC are free for freeware and end users, but licensed for commercial users. The only user license payable is for the extras which are added to the IPC functions, which were never provided by FS6IPC in any case.

The only similarity between FSUIPC and FS6IPC is the interface for external applications. I've always kept that the same to maintain compatibility for programs, though I'd often wished I'd changed it in the early days, it isn't the most efficient or flexible way to do it.

BTW, for those of you who don't know, Adam Szofran is now part of the Microsoft FS development team, and has been since well before FS2002.

Regards,

Pete