In article <1992Aug21.011014.3070@sol.UVic.CA> pmacdona@sanjuan (Peter MacDonald) writes:

quoted text
>Contrary to what someone said, Motif is NOT included in the SLS
>distribution.  Instead it includes the GWM (generic window manager)
>which has a Motif emulation mode.  So no patent infringement is 
>involved.

What about copyright? Or look and feel? (:-)

My reaction to the mwm emulator (after the initial aah and ooh) was:
Why did somebody bother to make an *exact* copy of the Motif window
manager? I mean, it looks pretty, but couldn't anybody have come up
with something more original? I can understand copying the API and
functionality of an operating system (for compatibility). But there
are no compatibility issues with window managers, at least none
concerning their appearance.

I guess the Motif emulator was easy to do, since all the design work
had already been done by the OSF...

(It might sound like I'm very worried about the legal status of the
emulator. Well, I'm not. (What, me worry?) I'm just astonished that
somebody would go through so much trouble to create something that
looks like mwm, but still isn't the real thing.)

--
Johan Myreen
jem@cs.hut.fi