Re: Spring Loaded Folders Reloaded

[Curtis Hovey <sinzui cox net>]

On Fri, 2003-02-28 at 12:43, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> On 28 Feb 2003, Christophe Fergeau wrote:
> 
> > > 
> > > However, looking at the Apple latest patent [1], it is clear that the 
> > > patch would make Nautilus violates claim 1 of that patent.
> > 
> > To my eyes, the more sensible thing to do with respect to patent is to
> > never read any so that you can say you didn't know about it if there is
> > some problems :)
> > Moreover, this apple patent is probably valid in a few countries, and I
> > don't think it's really fair to reject this patch because it's illegal
> > in the us (and maybe a few other countries). You can #ifdef it out in
> > the problematic countries if you want to be safe :)
> 
> That would mean you can't distribute nautilus.
> 
> >From the GPL:
> 7.  If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent 
> infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), 
> conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or 
> otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not 
> excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute 
> so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and 
> any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not 
> distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not 
> permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive 
> copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could 
> satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from 
> distribution of the Program.
> 

Thanks.  I wish I had remembered to check the license when I first
mentioned the patented issue and distribution complications.  I knew
there were real legal complications and I stopped after reviewing the
list archives.

I hope all is not lost.  I think this feature is valuable, and I we can
improve it (innovate it) so that there are no patent issues.  The
behaviour, restated in hopes of seeing an alternate implementation, is
that a gesture involving a selection of objects in nautilus will display
something that will help navigate the folder hierarchy using only
gestures.  I believe someone suggested displaying the tree instead of
opening folders.  And now that I think of it, Spring Loaded Folders are
never easy to navigate up the tree.  While hovering over a folder seams
natural to me (wanting to move, but hesitating) as a means to display a
helper, I'm not sure that is intuitive when you want the files to go
outside any desktop folders.

-- 
__C U R T I S  C.  H O V E Y____________________
sinzui cox net
Guilty of stealing everything I am.