THE SWAP PROGRAM BY Michael Markov The swap program really started when the first computer user groups were formed. Conferences and meetings like this one have always been an ideal opportunity to exchange software. Our own swap program was first carried out on an organized basis at the Atlanta Conference some two years ago. Since then, the program has gained a considerable amount of momentum as other users groups picked-up the ball and began making their own swap disks. In this respect, it is not too surprising that the most active groups are the Handheld & Portable Computer Club (England), CHHU-IT (Italy) and the PPC Paris Chapter (France). Also, the contributions of gifted programmers like John Baker, Tapani Tarvainen, and many others (too many to allow me to list them here), by way of yours truly, continue to amaze me! So, where do we stand today? Most of you are aware that, while Richard was publishing the CHHU Chronicle, we were able to put together swap disks CHHU01 to CHHU06. In addition, I had started work on an index disk that included some minimal documentation for the CHH01 to CHHU05 disks. Since then, CHHU-IT produced a very nice disk of Connett graphs (see JPC 44 for an explication of how this was accomplished), then HPCC released the SWAPGB disk, which is somewhat unique in that all the software on the disk has documentation on the disk, with more detailed documentation being provided in the pages of DATAFILE. Next, Hand Held Products finally released their HP-71 Cross-Assembler, which runs on most any DOS system, version 2.11 or above, to include the Portable, the Portable Plus, and IBM PC's of various kinds. Finally, SWAP07 has currently over 330K of software, and contributions that are being made today could very easily force us to start SWAP08! Keep in mind that this is only "the tip of an iceberg" -- it represent only material that has been released to the public by the authors for non-commercial use. There is perhaps two or three times as much other material floating around that comes from the HP User's Library and other sources. When Richard closed down CHHU, a number of people asked me what I intended to do, and how could we keep the club going without the Chronicle. My answer was that the swap program has depended heavily on the contents of my private correspondance with people all over the world, with the consent of my correspondants. The Chronicle was an important part of the activities of the user community because it helped provide a focal point of interest for thousands of handheld maniacs. Nonetheless, other activities such as monthly Chapter meetings and private correspondance between members were equally important, and that these activities did NOT depend on the efforts of any single member or Chapter... I suggested that there were alternatives to the Chronicle already "in-place", to include DATAFILE and the Technical Notes (Australia) for English language users, and JPC and Microrevue for people who read French, plus a whole slew of Finnish, Italian, Dutch and other publications. Since then, Brian Walsh has made a committment to publish HPX (Handheld Program eXchange). I am sure he will be happy to provide us all with more details! So, once again, the swap program -- where are we headed? I, for one, have every intention to continue my activities. You have, by coming to the annual CHUG get-together in spite of the lack of "official" notification, have clearly indicated that you intentions are no different. Therefore, I believe I can safely say that we are all interested in keeping in touch and in exchanging information & software. Thus, the remaining question is how can we do it more efficiently? I have some suggestions, of course! I will be happy to share them with you, and in return, I would welcome suggestions from all of you. Suggestion #1 : Let's put the swap program on a regular schedule! We should be able to come-up with enough material to come out with a new disk every other month. This would be very easy if the contributors that send in material to HPX, DATAFILE, JPC, TN, ect., would provide the information on magnetic media, and specifically authorize use to use it for the swap program. Suggestion #2 : Send a copy to your Swaptape Coordinator, whoever he might be, as well as to the publishers of user group periodicals. This should help make sure that the information / software you provide becomes available to the users in a few weeks, rather than in several months... Suggestion #3 : Set-up an organized method for distributing swap disks. The best approach I can think of is the "chain-letter" method. For example, I could send a letter & disk to Al Duba once a month -- preferrably returning a disk I would receive from Al with CHUG's monthly contributions -- and Al would then make two or three copies to send to other chapters, so that no single individual would have to work like a slave to make sure that everybody gets a copy. Sending out a dozen letters on a regular basis is easy, but sending out hundreds is a royal pain in the butt - I know! Finally, Suggestion #4 : Let's put all contributed material on the disk in TEXT form, and include all the necessary documentation on the disk as well. For series 70 users, this is easy, all you have to do is to TRANSFORM your BASIC file into TEXT (or LIF1, as the case may be). This would help avoid resource allocation problem, and it would allow users who do not have the particular controller you own to still read the file and enjoy your work. Granted, this cannot be readily done for LEX files, or for HP-41 files, or for any non-TEXT or non-BASIC file. Still, to the extent possible, try to make your contribution easy to print with programs such as CPMM (for HP-41), or the series 70 equivalents PRINTEXT & PRINTXT75. MICHAEL MARKOV P.O. Box 17 Lockwood, New York 14859 CHicago Conference May 29th, 1987