🚀 go-pugleaf

From article <1991Nov1.000617.15311@cs.umn.edu>, by charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu (Charles Geyer):
> In article <31OCT199101462431@minnie.me.udel.edu>, johnston@minnie.me.udel.edu
> (Bill Johnston) writes:
> 
>> It is often argued by LPF/FSF apologists that the fact that Macintosh
>> was developed before the legal concept of "user interface" copyright
>> was established proves that such guarantees are not necessary to 
>> ensure the continued innovation in the computer industry.
>>
>> This begs the question.  Of course it is true that the UI concept
>> had yet to be established in 1980-84 when the Mac was developed!
>> The Macintosh _introduced_ the concept of a computer user-interface,
>> and Apple was fought tooth and nail by competitors who are now
>> fighting for the right to introduce similar products.
> 
> Baloney, there have been UI's as long as there have been computers.  Every
> computer language and OS is a UI.  Apple did not even develop the GUI. The
> most that can be claimed for Apple is that they popularized one particular
> GUI which seems to be dumbed down to about the right level for a large
> market.

Sure, every OS has a user interface. What the Mac introduced is a
*standardized* user interface, where all applications share a similar look
and feel. That look and feel is imposed by the Mac OS and ToolBox, and Apple's
Human Interface Guidelines.
If you want to compare that to the mess in the DOS and UNIX worlds, where
every utility uses a different command-switch syntax, and every interactive
program uses different control/escape sequences - fine! But don't pretend
you know what is meant by the term UI these days.

> But before Apple, no one ever thought that a UI was protectable by any
> means.  They weren't "intellectual property" of any sort.

Of course not, because there was nothing to protect. See above.

 - Thomas (thomas@duteca.et.tudelft.nl)