Re: Shrinkwrap Licenses - Reply re UCC2b

Cem Kaner <kaner[_at_]kaner.com> wrote:
>
> One example in which many software architects will lay out an intensely
> data driven structure for a given program is the situation in which the
> underlying logic will change depending on circumstances external to the
> program. For example, if the program would function differently in a
> French version than an English than a German than a Japanese one, then
> all of the opportunities for variation are dealt with in data files that
> can be replaced without having to recompile and relink the program.
> Similarly, to the extent that different computers that run the program
> will be significantly differently configured, there is an advantage to
> encapsulating all of the device I/O and making it easy for the program
> to recognize and cope with new devices as they come along. Even the
> selection of the algorithm of choice to do basic mathematical functions
> might be externalized, with decision rules saved in tables, depending on
> the underlying precision of the processor chip found on this computer.

     To say nothing of Web-based applications, in which the user interface is a set of Web pages, which are not programs in the classis sense, only data with formatting parameters (bold, center, table, and so on). Yet they are "applications," in the sense that they are a set of computer files that execute as a whole.

     Then there are multi-tier applications, in which the user interface on your desktop computer is a "real" program or "just" a set of Web pages, and the rest of the application is scattered among "real" programs, data tables, logical rules, and relational databases anywhere on the network.

     This seems to be another case in which the authors of 2B have written special-interest legislation.

• Mike Bradley National Writers Union <michael[_at_]vision-soft.com>