🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Oct18.132320.2068@cs.utk.edu> Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov> writes:
>It occurred to me that perhaps the FSF could develop it's own Free
>version of the Motif libraries, not based on the reference
>implementation marketed by the Open Software Foundation.  I don't
>think there would be any legal problems with the existence of such a
>product.  Am I wrong?  Would the name "Motif" be able to be used in
>the name of the product?

I do not believe there would be any problem with this.  Here at Visix, for
example, we build applications that have been certified as MOTIF-compliant,
but we do not use the reference implementation at all (except as a reference
for testing our own internal toolkit).  This is how, for example, we
can provide MOTIF look and feel under SunView or Intergraph Eviron V as well
as the X Window System.  We do belong to the OSF, however, and I don't know
if that affects our ability to use the name.  I believe that it just refers
to the look and feel itself, not the details of how it is implemented.

For an X toolkit designed for general distribution it might be harder, since
you might want to provide an API that is source-compatible with the reference
Motif toolkit (ours isn't even close--not a widget in sight :-)).  Reverse-
engineering widget behavior could be a real chore...

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so I'd check with the OSF first, but they do
seem to be pretty friendly.

-- 
Amanda Walker						      amanda@visix.com
Visix Software Inc.					...!uunet!visix!amanda
--
X Windows: Live The Nightmare.