(1) Why are your scripts free? What’s the catch?

There’s no catch. Some of my scripts used to be shareware, but all are now freeware. I made the change to allow others to continue to develop them, as I’m no longer able to spend much time working on them. You may use, modify or redistribute any of them as you like.

There’s what you might call an old tradition on the Internet that those who benefit from the online environment ought to give something back to it. I’m just trying to live up to that ideal.

Like most everyone else who sets out to learn Perl CGI scripting, I started by picking apart the many freely-available scripts and programs that I came across online. However, as I’m an inveterate meddler, none of the scripts I downloaded was ever quite good enough. I’d start by making just a few small changes here and there. Then I’d discover and fix a bug or two. Then I’d add a new feature. Then I’d rewrite a bit of the code to more precisely do what I wanted it to do. Then….

Well, you get the idea.

Eventually, I wound up with a handful of what I think are really good scripts of my own unique devising. I figure it’s only fair to turn around and offer them, now, to anyone else who can use them.

(2) Can I advertise on the WebScripts site?

Perhaps….

(3) Your scripts are nice, but they don’t quite do what I want done. Where else can I look?

You can find anything on Google.

(4) I’ve noticed that a lot of the output pages from your scripts contain links back to the WebScripts site. Is it OK if I remove them?

Well, while I won’t state in absolute terms that you can’t remove them, I’d definitely prefer in most cases that you leave them intact. I don’t think it’s asking too much, especially since I don’t charge much of anything for the use of the scripts, to request a bit of “credit where credit is due.”