Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!apple!bloom-beacon!SUN.COM!rprobst
From: rprobst@SUN.COM (Richard Probst)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: XView source availability
Message-ID: <8908032301.AA17427@paba.sun.com>
Date: 3 Aug 89 23:01:22 GMT
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 63


On July 7, I posted:

	Sun will put the XView source on the X11 R4 distribution. ...

	We intend to donate the XView source in time for the R4 alpha
	release.  That means the source should be available via ftp by
	the end of July.  It will be in the standard contrib/toolkits
	sub-tree.  Naturally, we will announce the source availability
	on this mailing list.

I got a response from the X Consortium immediately, reminding me that
I had broken confidentiality by mentioning alpha and beta testing in
public.  My apologies; Sun makes this same sort of agreement with our
early testers, and we expect them to keep it; the X Consortium deserves
the same respect.

Now Kee Hinckley from HP/Apollo writes:

	I don't see the XView toolkit from Sun on the tape.
	Are they still planning to submit it, or is it past the
	release date for R4?

And Bob Scheifler replies:

	Um, I will discuss the private tape you got in private mail, I
	have no idea why you sent this to xpert.  Sun has not yet sent
	us XView, but we will make it available once they do.


First, it is now clear to me that putting XView source on R4 is
not sufficient to satisfy our intention, which is to make it widely
available as soon as possible.  XView source will definitely be on R4,
but R4 will not be generally available until "the end of the year"
(has a more specific date been published yet, Bob?).

Therefore, soon after Sun donates XView source to R4, we will also
place XView source on expo (and other FTP servers) for people to
retrieve before the R4 tape ships.  As we make bug fixes to XView
source, we will pass those fixes through to the R4 version, and we
will periodically update the expo version.

But, when?  Well, we missed the end of July, obviously.  The code
is ready, but we are currently waiting for legal approval.

The XView donation cannot use the standard MIT copyright statement.
First, it includes bitmap fonts from Bigelow&Holmes.  Second, if
the XView toolkit is not modified, applications built with it will
comply with the OPEN LOOK graphical user interface specification.
The OPEN LOOK trademark is owned by AT&T.  Both of these comments
had to be included in the copyright notice.

The XView copyright must be approved by lawyers from Sun, AT&T,
Bigelow&Holmes, and MIT (since it is not the standard MIT version).
This has taken far longer than anyone could ever have imagined.

As soon as this situation is resolved, we will donate the XView
source to the X community, as a free, product-quality, mature
OPEN LOOK-compliant X toolkit.  Please be patient.

And once the source is available, a message will be posted to xpert.

	--Richard Probst