From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Probably force you to buy the Microsoft Ribbons for Dummies book 

I really like text in my menus

"Gary Britt"  wrote in
message news:4592f165$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> What's the status of the law on "look and feel" type lawsuits??  If
> Microsoft tries to sue for someone not licensing from them and putting out
> their own ribbon interface do they have a legal leg to stand on??  Anyone
> know?
>
> What's so great about the ribbon?  It just looks like it takes up a whole
> lot of screen real estate with a bunch of icons in rows?  Am I wrong?
> What does the big round application button do?
>
> Gary
>
> John Beamish wrote:
>> I wonder what MS thinks of this:
>> http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WinForms/XtraBars/Features_Ribbon.xml
>> On Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:48:56 -0500, Rich Gauszka
>>  wrote:
>>> http://www.infoq.com/news/2006/11/Office-UI-License
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>>
>>> When asked if developers can implement ribbon-like interfaces that work
>>> differently but have the same underlying concept, Microsoft has said no.
>>> Microsoft has never before been this serious about enforcing this level
>>> of consistency before. Unlike past guidelines, mandatory requirements
>>> are legally mandatory according to the license agreement. While they are
>>> there specifically to ensure a minimum level of user experience, some
>>> developers are certain to dislike the idea of being forced to abide by
>>> the guidelines.
>>>
>>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5