Favorite Software Documentation
The manual was straightforward and thorough. It described every function and feature of the software in a clear, well organized manner. But the first chapter, Chapter 0, was something special. It is recreated for you here. (According to the manual's author, it had to be called chapter zero "because real computer programmers start numbering things at zero.")
|
This is where the bloodthirsty license agreement is supposed to go, explaining
that EasyFlow is a copyrighted package, sternly warning you not to pirate
copies of it and explaining, in detail, the gory consequences if you do.
We know that you are an honest person, and are not going to go around pirating copies of EasyFlow; this is just as well with us since we worked hard to perfect it and selling copies of it is our only method of making anything out of all the hard work. For your convenience EasyFlow is distributed on a non copy-protected diskette and you are free to do what you want with it (make backups, move from machine to machine, etc.) provided that it is never in use by more than one person at a time. If, on the other hand, you are one of those people who do go around pirating copies of software you probably aren't going to pay much attention to a license agreement, bloodthirsty or not. Just keep your doors locked and look out for the HavenTree attack shark. |
|
We don't claim EasyFlow is good for anything - if you think it is, great, but
it's up to you to decide. If EasyFlow doesn't work: tough. If you lose a
million because EasyFlow messes up, it's you that's out the million, not us. If
you don't like this disclaimer: tough. We reserve the right to do the absolute
minimum provided by law, up to and including nothing.
This is basically the same disclaimer that comes with all software packages, but ours is in plain English and theirs is in legalese. We didn't really want to include any disclaimer at all, but our lawyers insisted. We tried to ignore them but they threatened us with the attack shark (see license agreement above) at which point we relented. |
|
EasyFlow was developed, tested and documented through the efforts of Robert
McDowell, Bill Reid, Don Gravelle and Cam Farnell. We price EasyFlow as we do
(rather than at twice as much, like a lot of people told us we should), and we
distribute it on a convenient non copy-protected diskette (we were told that
was wrong, too) in the hope that when your friends and co-workers drop by and
say "Wow! Neat program; can I have a copy?" that you will give them the address
of HavenTree and politely suggest that they get their own copy, pointing out
that not only will they be doing good in the cause of reasonably priced
software, but they will then be the proud owner of their very own signed &
numbered copy of EasyFlow.
The serial number, signatures and embossed seal below certify that this is a real, genuine, accept-no-substitutes, original and bona fide copy of EasyFlow. (Signatures, serial number, and embossed seal appeared on original documentation) |
|
That's right:
don't lose this manual.
Especially don't lose it before you have read this page. Why are we telling
you this? Isn't it obvious that you shouldn't lose the manual?
That's what we thought. Then we started getting all these calls from people saying "Hi! I'm Joe Blow and you've never heard of me, but I bought a copy of EasyFlow from FlyByNite Software and now I can't find the manual ... will you send me a new one free?". At first we were nice guys and went along with this. Then we started getting a bit more hard nosed about it; after all it is trivial to copy the disk but the manual involves somewhat more work. Now we had to agonize over each request and try to distinguish between the genuine unfortunate ("the dog chewed it up") and the merely unscrupulous looking for free software. So what does everybody else do? We phoned the local Chevy dealer and told them we had misplaced the engine out of our new Camaro; that call didn't get us much useful information. Well ... cars aren't software. We called Borland and gave them a song and dance about losing our Turbo Pascal manual; they said to mail a letter to their "Lost Manual Review Committee". Wow! What a good idea. So we immediately rushed out and set up our own Lost Manual Review Committee. The committee meets once a month. They don't send out many replacement manuals, but they seem to do a lot of howling, rolling around on the floor and saying things like "oh wow - listen to this one". Don't lose the manual. Replacement manuals are available without going through the Committee for US$147.95 each. |
The author of the manual reports that HavenTree really did get all kinds of strange requests for replacement manuals; one guy even said he needed a new one because his yacht sank and the manual was on it.
Back to Jon and Jeanne's
page