Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!cica!ctrsol!emory!phssra
From: phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: NeXT boycott--why not? (was Re: Finder Open Wish)
Message-ID: <4259@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>
Date: 9 Aug 89 01:17:56 GMT
References:  <7259@microsoft.UUCP> <35921@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <4253@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> <35960@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: phssra@emory.UUCP (Scott Robert Anderson)
Distribution: gnu
Organization: Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta
Lines: 31

On 6 Aug 89 18:41:51 GMT, phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson) said:
>S> The issue here wasn't the program's functionality--there have been other,
>S> similar programs available for the Mac--but that it looked exactly like the
>S> Browser, at a time when NeXT was trying to establish its computer as
>S> something new and different.

In article <35960@bu-cs.BU.EDU> ckd@bu-pub.bu.edu (Christopher K Davis) writes:
>Right.  "It looked exactly like the Browser."

Yes, it even displayed a NeXT icon when it couldn't get a file's own icon.

>Visual interface was the problem, not functionality, right?
>Sounds like a certain computer "for the rest of us."

If I'm not mistaken, what people are worried about in this group is not the
particular graphic image used to represent a trash can, but rather the idea of
a trash can as a place to drag a file to delete it.  Apple's idea of "visual
interface" includes the latter, along with overlapping windows, etc.

>Admittedly, there was no lawsuit involved--but my question is whether one
>was threatened or not.  (A threat can have as chilling an effect as a
>lawsuit, as Digital Research's GEM would illustrate.)

I do not recall any mention of lawsuits, threatened or otherwise, in the
withdrawal note the author posted.

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  *      **                  Scott Robert Anderson      gatech!emoryu1!phssra
   *   *    *    **          phssra@unix.cc.emory.edu   phssra@emoryu1.bitnet
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