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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!emory!wuarchive!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Apple Computer wins ruling against 'Windows'
Message-ID: <1991Mar16.191749.4423@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 16 Mar 91 19:17:49 GMT
References: <46873@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1991Mar15.101202.1@csc.anu.edu.au> <27E02D24.699@orion.oac.uci.edu> <1991Mar15.224201.2622@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Lines: 27


You can't deny people a right to practice their livelihood, and if
someone has spent their life developing windowing systems then after
leaving work at one corporation, after a short period of time, they
are allowed to continue their work along the same lines (as long as
patents are not infringed).

In my experience the Mac is a big step beyond Xerox Star/Viewpoint.
Xerox had an unreleased paint program but its interface was awful.
Xerox did not start working on a paint *product* for outside release
until 2 years after the Mac came out.  The interface is *still* awful
(last time I looked).  Xerox did not have a clipboard that would hold
picture language commands for interapplication communication.  Xerox
tried to integrate everything into one word processor, Because of
this, they missed the chance to standardize an open architecture with
a user-interface guide.  The Mac system software is about 2-4 times
faster than Xerox software, even with the microcode acceleration in
the Star.

Don Gillies	     |  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
gillies@cs.uiuc.edu  |  Digital Computer Lab, 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana IL
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"UGH!  WAR! ... What is it GOOD FOR?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!"  
	- the song "WAR" by Edwin Starr, circa 1971


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