I wrote HANGMAN because I was struck by the lack of decent
word games on any BBS I'd looked at, and because I needed
an appropriately sized project as a maiden voyage into the
C language.  I've noticed some variations in behavior
when porting it around to various machines, and there may be
a few lurking bugs if, for example, you try to run it on a
Two Guys from the Far East Model Z-1 under XENIX.  Or whatever;
who can keep track anymore?  I didn't make any special effort to
deal with color, and if this is incredibly ugly in 256-bazillion-color
Turbo-Rembrandt VGA so be it.  You can write me if you want it
fixed.  I like getting mail.

I learned the chalkboard version of this game when I was in the
fifth grade or so-- as a spelling game-- and it strikes me that it 
might be a useful program for people teaching their children to spell, 
improve their vocabulary, and so on.  It might be equally useful for 
people learning foreign languages, and I'm willing to consider 
(for starters) French and German versions, and Spanish if I can find 
someone who knows the language.  Letters asking about this would provide
some motivation.

You can experiment with other dictionaries if you want; just put the name of
your alternate dictionary on the command line, eg.

			C:> HANGMAN YOURDICT.DIC

or whatever.  It's not fussy about extensions.  You make your own dictionary
by using a text editor to put one word per line, each followed with a <CR-LF>.
Word processors do this just fine provided you save the document in ASCII
format, sometimes referred to as a DOS text file.  Word processors which don't
do this explicitly will generally print a document to disk, and that will work
too.

The default dictionary has about 500 words in it.  They weren't chosen
for any particular reason or from any particular source.  They may be a
little hard, but I think the mix is pretty good on the whole.

I would ask that you NOT add obscenities and then pass the program along, 
since I don't want to be seen to be responsible for the corruption of youth.
My faith in human nature is such that I have no doubt somebody will.

While we're on the subject of human nature, let me add that I don't have
any illusions about the financial rewards of shareware publishing. I
have no documentation to withhold or any other form of coercion to apply.
You can prove my nasty cynicism (good word!) to be wrong by sending 
$2.50 or so, always room for more if you feel like it, to me, care of:

	IN MEDIAS RES
	147 Chestnut St.
	Ithaca, NY 14850 

You can write there, too.  I'm also reachable via BITNET as QBZY@CORNELLC,
or via Rudy Wacht's excellent Tompkins-Cortland BBS at 607-844-4475.  BBS's
have been dropping like flies around here lately so I would suggest regular
old boring paper mail as the most reliable.

Enjoy the game.

	Tom Bruce
	23 July 1989