MKS Toolkit/UNIX [r] System, SEA ARC/PKARC, ...

[Wolf N. Paul]

In article <1624 at hoqax.UUCP> bicker at hoqax.UUCP (The Resource, Poet of Quality) writes:
>> In article <166 at skep2.ATT.COM>, wcs at skep2.ATT.COM (Bill.Stewart.<ho95c>) writes:
>> >b) MKS has ported some UNIX tools and reimplemented others and is presumably
>> >   following the rules for the products they use,
>
>This raises a question in my mind in light of all the talk about
>SEA suing PK Ware over the "look" of the archive tools.  If SEA has
>a case doesn't AT&T?  

It remains to be seen whether SEA has a case. They think so, obviously. I'm
still not convinced that they base their case on look & feel, though. Reports
quoted on the Net vary quite a bit as to what the issue really is.

In any case, it seems to me that AT&T has chosen not to make look & feel an 
issue in the case of UNIX utilities: they have long ignored such UNIX look-alike
products as Coherent, Idris, Minix, QNX, and even MS-DOS (DOS mkdir looks &
feels a lot like UNIX mkdir to me :-)).

It should also be reiterated what Alex White of MKS said recently: NONE of the
MKS Toolkit utilities are PORTED -- they are all re-implementations, containing
no AT&T source whatsoever.

-- 
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