Lennie, I disagree on IBM ownership of PL1. IBM may have some specific trademarks and copyrights, but the language has been implemented on non-IBM platforms over the years (MIT commercially distributed a Multics Machine with the OS written in PL/1 back in the 70s, and Q1 Corp had a pre IBM PC (1974) setup much like the Pascal interpreters of that time). I don't think you can copyright the language, syntax, etc. But, obviously, you can copyright your compiler, run time libraries, etc. If you create the functionality independently without plagiarizing there work, I would think this would be AOK. (I'm not an attorney, so do your own research !!!) Think of it like the IBM BIOS of the PC, Phoenix and Award both cloned them without IBM shutting them down with their thousands of lawyers at their disposal. Award is still making many of the BIOSs sold to this day.
IBM, like Palm and Microsoft, have copyrights and trademarks documents for developers, advertisers, etc. I wouldn't call them, as they (like Microsoft) feel they own everything including the "air we breath", but I would find a copy of their latest copyright/trademark docs. Personally, I think at this late date in the palm game, that developing another development tool is not a profitable venture - at least not for the current hardware that will be abandoned soon (as announced by Palm). If you were targeting the compiled code to the current palm, the next palm, the pocket PC units, the Windows CE units and the other PDAs, then I think the endeavor could be profitable, as few have done this well in a high level language (PS - C is not a high level language - if anyone wasn't sure). I personally would like to see a language that shields the developer from the APIs for most common functions, but does provide direct API usage for the "things you just can't do". I'm not saying that there are not some good contestants providing this capability, but for whatever reason, most developers on this forum don't seem to be embracing them. If you do go forward and everybody starts using your PL/1 compiler for Palm OS, then I'm sure I will consider moving to it (if I'm not to ingrained in the development system of choice at the time). Good Luck -------------------------------------------------------------------- Gary Gorsline Easy Business Software ========================== End of Message ========================== ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Programmer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Palm Developer Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 2:09 PM Subject: Re: PL/I for Palm ? > --- D De Villiers wrote: > > > > I played alittle with the PL/I programming language and was just > > wondering - Any version/dialect of PL/I avialable for the PalmOS ? > > If 'not' then I may write my own implementation of PL/I for Palm. > > Lennie, > > According to IBM, "PL/I runs on AIX, MVS/ESA, OS/2, OS/390, OS/400, > VM/ESA, VSE/ESA and Windows NT." > > I believe that IBM owns *all* of the rights to PL/I, so I doubt that > they will let you write your own implementation for the Palm OS. You > could contact them and try. > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Send your FREE holiday greetings online! > http://greetings.yahoo.com > > -- > For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/ > -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
