|
The APDL PD Library
For over a decade APDL's main business was selling floppy discs of 'Public Domain' software for RISC OS. With the rise of the internet this part of the business almost vanished but during most of this period APDL was by far the biggest and most successful PD library and eventually 'absorbed' the other three main libraries.
People no longer buy floppy discs of PD software but the APDL library still exists and contains a huge collection of programs and other material, much of which was not (and is still not) available from other sources. A lot of this can be found on the APDL PD-1, PD-2 and DTP CDs. But for those who don't want a complete CD or who have older RISC OS computers without CD ROM drives or who are running emulators which can't access a CD drive we have decided to make the entire library available for everyone. Nearly two and a half thousand discs for you to download.
Each 'disc' is supplied as a zip file which contains the contents of the original library disc. Most of this material was compressed using ArcFS, and this is retained, so the zip files will usually contain mainly ArcFS archives. Most discs originally included a copy of the read-only version of !ArcFS but this has been removed to reduce download size. ArcFS archives can be opened using !SparkFS or you can download a copy of the read-only !ArcFS.
Copyright
Although this material is loosely labelled Public Domain only a very small part of it actually is. By far the majority should more properly be called Freeware. This means it can be used and (usually) copied by anyone but that the author actually retains copyright. Also many programs (and most of the clip art) were only licensed to be distributed by certain named libraries, so although it can be distributed by APDL circulation by other persons or organisations may be a breach of the author's copyright.
APDL claims no copyright over most of this material, but what we do own are the compilations (that is, the 'discs'), the descriptions and the catalogues. This represents many thousands of hours of work spread over many years. We are now doing even more work to make it all freely available to anyone, but on the understanding that it will not be copied wholesale. If we find this archive being mirrored or otherwise exploited we will take action to prevent this. If these actions continue then we may remove the whole library.
So if you are a RISC OS enthusiast you are welcome to browse, download and enjoy this material for your personal use. However please don't abuse it or it may vanish forever.
The catalogues
The catalogue is divided into a number of sections. Some of these are no longer relevant, but the main ones are shown below. Each section is a text file which describes the various discs and with it a link or links to the page where you can download the discs described in the catalogue.
Note: Not all discs or sections have yet been made available. Some links might therefore give a Not found or Access denied error. We're still working on adding more material but it does take quite a bit of time, so please be patient. If there's something in the catalogue you particularly want please do let us know and we'll try to prioritise.
Discalimer
Most of the material in the library dates from the 1990's, some is even earlier. You should therefore be aware that this is an historical archive and some programs may mot work on more modern RISC OS computers or operating systems.
It is therefore offerered with absolutely No Warranty or guarantee as to Fitness for Purpose. There is no reason to belive that any of this could in any way harm your computer but because of its age you use it entirely at your own risk and APDL accepts absolutely no responsibility for any consequences of its use.
This web site © APDL 2010. Artwork produced using DrawWorks XL
| 
