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Mon, 9 Nov 1998 12:32:53 +0000 |
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> > > I think TeX society should not go under indirect supervision
> > > of ISO, W3C, etc. because there will come some time that one considers
> > > charging
> > oh come! dont be *too* paranoid. if we have to pay a license fee to use
> > ISO standards, the world will have become *very* odd...
in fact, there do exist iso standards which require you to pay
implementation licence fees. there are very strict guidelines,
however, about standardising patented techniques: in particular, the
owner of the patent is required to declare that they will never refuse
an application for licence.
> From what I understand with regard to Fortran standards, if you want a
> copy of the standard, you have to pay a substantial sum to ISO.
if you want a copy of the latex book, you have to pay a sustantial sum
to addison wesley longman. less, i admit, than one pays to one's
national standards body[*] for a transposed copy of something as big as
fortran, but the principle is the same.
personally, i would be quite happy to be using something for which a
formal specification, to which i could test compliance, existed. but
i think i'm a bit unusual in that. perhaps it comes from having seen
the standardsation process from the inside...
r
[*] none but a true idiot _buys_ standards from iso. bsi's charges
for standards are extortionate, but as nothing by comparison with
iso's.
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