Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!spdcc!tauxersvilli!alphalpha!nazgul
From: nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: strange support of OSF/Motif
Message-ID: <1990Feb18.173750.10495@alphalpha.com>
Date: 18 Feb 90 17:37:50 GMT
References: <3780@paperboy.OSF.ORG>
Organization: Alphalpha Software, Inc.
Lines: 35

In article <3780@paperboy.OSF.ORG> chinn@osf.osf.org (David Chinn) writes:
>There has never been a bugs mailing list for OSF/Motif.  There exists
>an address 'motif-defects' (which is aliased to a person) to which
>anybody can e-mail bug reports.

Why isn't there? As a user of the toolkit it would help me a lot to know
what bugs other people are experiencing, and how they worked around them.
Mind you, I don't expect it to happen, I spent 5 years trying to get
Apollo to do it while I was on the inside and nothing happened, but one
can always hope.

>The reason we discourage people from reporting bugs and fixes in this
>public forum is that OSF/Motif is not public domain software. Our 
>lawyers inform us that, should source to Motif appear in public
>forums, Motif will move (against our will) into the public domain.  

That strikes me as strange.  Patch tapes have been sent around the
net for years without anyone getting too upset.  Those may be questionable
since they contain some context, but telling someone to make a change
on a particular line, or not to use an option on some widget is hardly
going to upset your copyright.

Let's put this in another light.  Ask your lawyer what they'll do if
someone *else* starts a Motif bug list. If they think they can sue, then
perhaps there is something to what they are saying, otherwise it sounds
like an overly cautious lawyer (is there any other kind?).

							-kee
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