The Text Adventure Development System
Source Code Distribution
Copyright (c) 1992, 1999 Michael J. Roberts. All Rights Reserved.
NOTE — This is the markdown version of the original
readtads.src
file, slightly edited to better mirror the status and needs of this repository.
This is the C source code for TADS, the Text Adventure Development System. In order to help make TADS available on a wide range of computer systems, we're distributing this source code. TADS and this source code are copyrighted works, so please read the license information below if you're going to use these files. We want to keep TADS consistent in features and functionality across all of the different computers it works on, so we ask that you do not make any changes to this code beyond what is necessary to make TADS work on your type of computer system. In addition, the author retains the rights to TADS and any derivative works based on this source code.
If you're a user of TADS, you probably don't need this source code, since executable versions of TADS are available for a number of platforms. You will need a C compiler, and you may have to do some C coding to customize TADS to your system, in order to build a working version of TADS from this source code.
The TADS source code is a copyrighted work. The author grants you permission to use, copy, and distribute this software, subject to certain restrictions:
- You must include this license and the copyright notice with all copies.
- You may not require or collect a fee for copies of this software, or any part of this software, that you give to other people.
- You may not include this software with any other software for which a fee is collected.
- You may not modify this software except as permitted below (see "Derivative Works"), and each copy you make and distribute must be a full and complete copy of the software you originally received.
- Anyone to whom you give a copy of this software receives all of the same permissions that you did under this license and is subject to all of the same restrictions.
- You are not allowed to create derivative works, which are works that contain or are based on all or part of this work, except under the conditions described below.
- Any derivative works are subject to this same license.
THIS SOURCE CODE IS DISTRIBUTED FOR THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE OF FACILITATING THE CREATION OF VERSIONS OF TADS ON VARIOUS COMPUTERS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS. ALL OTHER DERIVATIVE WORKS ARE PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
A derivative work is a work that contains or is based on all of part of this software. Examples of derivative works would be a library that incorporates some of the code from this software in source or compiled form, an executable that contains code from this software, or modified version of this code in source or compiled form.
You may create and distribute executables derived from this source code.
You must clearly identify the executables as versions of TADS, and include this license information (or the license information included with the author's freeware distribution of the TADS executables for MS_DOS or Macintosh platforms) with the files you distribute.
We also ask that you provide some sort of information (in a README
type of file, for example) identifying yourself, so that people using your version can distinguish it from other versions of TADS.
You should identify any executables you create from this source code by placing an appropriate value in the file oem.h
for the macro variable TADS_OEM_NAME
; refer to oem.h
for instructions.
You may make modifications to the source code that are required in order to adapt the code to different computer hardware and operating system environments. For the most part, such modifications should be limited to source files whose names begin with or contain "os", since TADS was designed to be portable to many different computers, and the "os" files isolate the code anticipated by the author to be platform-specific; changes are permitted in other files when doing so is required in order to port the code to a new machine, though. In the course of making TADS work on a particular computer system, you may customize the user interface; again, since TADS has been designed to be adapted to different types of user interface systems, you should be able to make this type of customization by changing only the "os" files.
You may distribute modified versions of the source files, as long as the changes you make are allowed as described above.
If you distribute modified source files, you must clearly identify your changes and their purpose, either in the source code you changed or in a README
type of file that you distribute with your changes.
You must also clear identify the files as derivative works based on the TADS source code, and include this license file with the files you distribute.
In order to ensure the consistency of TADS implementations created by different people, we do not allow any changes beyond those required to port TADS to different machines.