[comp.text.desktop] Are there any public domain interfaces anywhere?

thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (Thom Gillespie) (02/20/90)

Hi,

	Are there any public domain interfaces anywhere? I'm not thinking of the code
	so much as the art of the interface. I ask this question because I wondered
	what would happen to Apple's interface claims if Xerox made the original
	design of the Star public domain. I realize that Xerox isn't going to do
	something like this but it seems like the world could use a good standard. I
	have this insane vision of the next generation trying to patent the sounds of
	words like : file, open, close, etc., so that everyone has to talk to their
	computers differently.

	I personally like the IBM Paradox3 Lotus like double menu line as very
	simple... but that doesn't help much does it?

	Again, this isn't a coding problem, it is a artistic/design problem
	complicated by money and lawyers. The prompt for this thought was Paul
	Heckel's book, "Friendly Software Design.' He discussed the change from
	engineering control of the movies to artistic control of the director and
	suggested a similar change may occur with software.

	--Thom Gillespie