Re: [Ocl-general] Questions about OCL

[Rhys W. <rwe...@zi...>]

"Smith, Scott D" wrote:

> With respect to the comments in the code, we did not use any Microsoft
> online documentation.  The dev team authored a tool that parses the XML file
> in which the ECMA libraries are defined, so all comments are worded exactly
> as in the latest spec.  This also guarantees our class signatures match the
> current spec.

I assume you are referring to "AllTypes.xml".  Is there a public
notice somewhere that explicitly places this XML file into the
public domain, for use by anyone?

The file has obviously been derived from Microsoft code at some
point in the past.  I want to clear up the current Copyright on that
file.  I don't want to incorporate information from that file and
then have Microsoft's lawyers turn up on my doorstep.

As a member of ECMA, Intel is probably within its rights to use
anything generated by ECMA.  But I'm not a member of ECMA,
and so I want to be sure that I can implement and use anything
with the "ECMA stamp of approval" without fear of reprisals.
An explicit notice from ECMA and/or Microsoft is needed to
allay my fears.

On a related note, has Microsoft given an undertaking to ECMA
that it will not pursue patent cases against people who make a
good faith effort to implement the specifications as written, and
who may inadvertently infringe patents that Microsoft holds?

This may actually turn into a big issue.  I discovered patent
#6,167,565 a couple of days ago, owned by Microsoft, which
appears to be a patent on the PInvoke mechanism, or something
very much like it.  Without PInvoke, implementing the C#
system library effectively becomes impossible.

Cheers,

Rhys.