Xref: utzoo comp.emacs:8810 comp.windows.x:25340 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!ub!boulder!grunwald From: grunwald@foobar.colorado.edu (Dirk Grunwald) Newsgroups: comp.emacs,comp.windows.x Subject: Re: X marks the suit Message-ID: <24334@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Date: 4 Aug 90 16:55:01 GMT References: <9008031720.AA08100@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> <9008040324.AA08838@efbhp1.draper.com> Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU Reply-To: grunwald@foobar.colorado.edu Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder Lines: 34 In-reply-to: mal@efbhp1.draper.com's message of 4 Aug 90 03:24:33 GMT >>>>> On 4 Aug 90 03:24:33 GMT, mal@efbhp1.draper.com said: m> Nicholas John Williams writes >Following this, Dave Edmondson yesterday received a letter from Paul >Lippe, the vice president of Solbourne stating that he had "engaged in >unauthorized copying of Solbourne's virtual desktop utility feature". m> So where do we write to tell him (Mr. Lippe) what a swhmuck he is? m> PS. sorry about the unreferenced reply earlier ML --- I briefly used 'vtwm' (it crashed too much on my server) & I've played with the Solbourne virtual desk top feature, but I was under the impression that the virtual desktop concept was older than Solbournes implementation, in fact, that it dated back to XEROX PARC days. VTWM differs in certain ways that make the SWM (solbourne window manager) easier to use & some what better. E.g., each window has a ``nail'' widget specifying whether a window is nailed in the display or should move within the virtual desktop. This is somewhat similar to the f.nail function in VTWM. But then again, SWM looks a lot like TWM, which was done when Tom LaStrange was at E&S, and it copyrighted by them and MIT. Perhaps Solbourne is in fact violating someone elses copyright by beeing too close to the look and feel of TWM (although that software can be modified & sold according to the copyright). If it's a simple matter of ``look and feel'' violation rather than copying code, perhaps just changing the VTWM virtual window manager would suffice, e.g. don't make it be a default window, force binding it to a key to popup the virtual desktop manager, which IMHO, would be nicer anyway, because the VD manager is the first thing I always nail anyway. Actually, if it's ``look and feel'' then how does having a *different* interface (and it is different, as I noted) infringe on SWM? Dirk Grunwald -- Univ. of Colorado at Boulder (grunwald@foobar.colorado.edu) (grunwald@boulder.colorado.edu)