boldinventions.com

KCMD Command Processor FAQ

Who created KCMD and why?

I created KCMD because I frequently use development boards which don't have a debugger. I like to be able to get up and running in a interactive way quickly. There were many iterations of attempts at a command processor before, and I eventually decided to do a better job. Then I decided that many people could also benefit, so I wanted to release it as open source. Writing the documentation was painful, but here it is.

Who are You?

I am Kevin Stokes. I can be reached via email at electronic-mail-address

If you are using KCMD, I would like to hear about it. After all, I put lots of work into it, and especially the documentation.

That doesn't mean I will answer any email. If tons of people start asking me questions about KCMD I will have to start ignoring them. Nothing personal, but I hardly have any time to work on my own stuff already.

About me, I have been programming since I bought a Cosmac Elf (RCA 1802 CMOS processor) with money earned from paper route in the 1980's. I'm a physicist who ended up with a job as a software engineer. I had my own software company for a number of years; Now I work for the man. I run the website http://www.boldinventions.com where I document some of my hobby trials and tribulations.

I still remember portions of the cassette tape bootloader for the Elf I had to type into the hexidecimal keypad every time I booted. 256 bytes of bootloader I had memorized...

Why is the Code so Poorly Written?

Because I'm not a very good programmer. However, I still think KCMD is useful.

KCMD obviously took some time to write and document. Why are you doing this for free?

I'm not releasing KCMD as open source because I'm a FSF zealot. I'm releasing the source because I don't think anyone would ever pay for it, and it was tons of work. I'd rather other people got to use it than just me.

I found a Mistake in KCMD

That is not suprising at all. Write me about it and maybe I will make a new release. See the Who Are You section.

Why haven't you made this into a SourceForge project or something else like that?

Oh, at this point I don't know if anybody will ever use it besides me. I may eventually put it on there if I think people are dying to help me keep it updated.