crl@newton.ARPA (Charles R. LaBrec) (07/02/85)
I thought I'd just put my two cents worth in on this issue. This is not the first time that Gosling's code has been distributed. I just checked and, sure enough, there was the display driver in the Maryland windows package, skull and crossbones and all. It even carries Gosling's copyright. I do not know to what extent it was modified, or whether the author of the package got permission to distribute it, but I don't remember any discussion about legal issues back then (1-2 yrs ago, I think). Does this have any relevance on GNU? By the way, as an avid user of EMACS, I have used/tried Montgomery's, CCA (based on Montgomery's), Gosling (before Unipress), TOPS-20, CCA (current), and GNU. By far, the best two of those above were TOPS-20 and GNU. I found both Gosling's and CCA's too slow, and their lisp not sufficient for my needs. (GNU is even so good that I think I might be losing my longing for a good TECO!). Charles LaBrec crl @ purdue-newton.ARPA
chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) (07/03/85)
Uh-oh. Here we go again... I did get (by EMail) what I felt constituted permission from Gosling to distribute the display driver that is in the Maryland Windows stuff. In fact, I even saved the mail; here is the relevant portion: Date: 29 May 1983 14:50-EST From: James.Gosling@CMU-CS-VLSI.ARPA Subject: Re: Windows I'm perfectly happy to have you remove my copyright from the version of display.c that you've heavily modified. (Note that the previous paragraph is complete and in context (since there was no context...).) The only reason I didn't do so is that I feel that he should certainly be credited as the inspiration (at the very least) for the code. (The algorithm that finds the minimal cost update to the screen is pretty much intact, though most of the supporting structure has changed, in that version of display.c.) Whether this proves anything one way or another, or has any legal standing, I don't know. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 4251) UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@maryland