At 10:37 AM 5/31/01 +1000, TONY NIXON wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I just thought I'd put in a few words to the discussion.

---some stuff snipped out---

>I guess the initial "gung ho - in we go" attitude dies away when the
>enormity of the problem starts to arise out of the settled dust and it
>becomes near impossible to juggle time to devote to the project.

---lots snipped---

>This all get's back to a group effort, but as history shows, not many
>are willing to engage in it long term. It's got to be a labour of love
>for it to work, not a quest for money and that may be the killer.
>
>For my part, it is a labour of love.

Here's what The American Heritage=AE Dictionary of the English Language,
Third Edition  =A9 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company has to say about that
curious phrase "gung ho":

        gung ho (g=F9ng=B4 ho=B4) adjective, slang.
        Extremely enthusiastic and dedicated.
        [Earlier Gung Ho, motto of certain U.S. marine forces=20
        in Asia during World War II, from Chinese (Mandarin)=20
        gongh=E9, to WORK TOGETHER (short for gongy=E8h=E9zu=F2sh=E8,=20
        Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society) :=20
        gong, work + h=E9, together.]

        (from my online dictionary, capital letter emphasis, mine)

Tony couldn't have said it better. Gung ho, indeed. It originally meant "to
work together"; and as Tony pointed out, not enough are willing to go for
it in the long term.  Of course, software projects like the 'Universal
programmer' can't really be distributed very well among the masses like
Linux; rather, it's something that requires one person to do the lions
share of the work. And a lions share it is... as many have recently pointed
out on this list.=20

For myself, I am *REALLY GRATEFUL* to Tony for making his ROMZAP software
freely available to anyone who wants to download it.  Some people just
naturally write working code right out of their fingertips into the
computer. Others like me need to burn their pic-chips 1000 times to get a
program working. The idea of having to buy 3 or 4 UVEPROM's and wait 20
minutes for them to get erased just doesn't work for a dumb analog guy like
me.  If Tony charges for some of his products, he damn well has earned it.
For me, I can type come code changes, click my mouse 3 or 4 times and bang,
another version is downloaded into my target system. No, this isn't how
professional coders do it but as I said above, I am *REALLY GRATEFUL* to
Tony for making this available.  If you haven't tried it, check it out; you
might really like it too.

Thanks Tony!

Best regards,
Tom M.

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