sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) (08/11/89)
phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson) writes: |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. You know, that got me to thinking. Ever since it came out, Amigados's windowing system has had a lot more in common with Apple's Mac displays than anything I know of (including the trash can). I wonder why Apple hasn't gone after CA? Sean -- *** Sean Casey sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet, ukma!sean *** Copyright 1989 by Sean Casey. Only non-profit redistribution permitted. *** ``I'm a state machine with no state!''
bill@pd1.ccd.harris.com (Bill Davis) (08/16/89)
In article <12398@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: >phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson) writes: > >|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. > >You know, that got me to thinking. Ever since it came out, Amigados's windowing >system has had a lot more in common with Apple's Mac displays than anything I >know of (including the trash can). > >I wonder why Apple hasn't gone after CA? > That is probably because Apple does not consider them to be competition. Suppose you want to buy a personal computer. Quick now, what comes to mind? A IBM-PC-compatible or a Macintosh. I know, there are many choices and there are advantages and disadvantages to each. What you buy will depend on price, applications, and so forth. But the market leaders are the machines that run MS-DOS and its applications or the Macintosh. If they don't have a very large share of the market, it doesn't matter. Perception is everything. It is an unfortunate fact of life that Americans, in business or on a personal basis, are very litigious. Where else can an idiot put a ladder in frozen manure to paint the side of a barn, fall down when the manure thaws, sue the ladder maker, and win? Where else can a ladder maker lose a lawsuit when someone falls off the top step of the ladder even though there are warnings all over the ladder? With our present legal system, many businesses are finding it more profitable to sue competitors out of existence than to fight in the marketplace. Competition is tough. And Apple is merely doing whatever they legally can to effectively compete. Want to talk right and wrong? Want to talk fair? These things only apply if everyone agrees to play fair and do the right thing. Why are the Japanese making such inroads into world commerce? There are many reasons, but one of them is that they have a different culture and a different idea of what is fair and what is right. The USA and Japan fought in a war in the recent past. Perhaps you have heard of it? It is sometimes referred to as "The Big One" by those who were in it. War is the negative resolution of a significant difference between cultures regarding the perception of fairness and right/wrong. There are other ways to handle these differences. As people learn and, more importantly, accept them, we may have fewer wars. Consider business competition to be like professional football. Very serious stuff, but not quite on a par with warfare. Litigation is war within our legal system. With litigation you are trying to force your competitor to do or not do something. With competition you don't force your competitor, you do the best you can and let competitor do whatever is "fair".