Interactive EasyFlow: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox company

{{orphan|date=July 2010}}

| company_namename = HavenTree Software Limited

| company_logologo = [[Image:HavenTree EasyFlow.JPG|thumb]]

{{Infobox Defunct Company

| fate = Assets were sold to [[SPSS Inc.]].

| company_name = HavenTree Software Limited

| company_logo = [[Image:HavenTree EasyFlow.JPG|thumb]]

| slogan = The Choice of Professionals for Charting and Diagramming.

| fate = Assets were sold to [[SPSS Inc.]].

| successor = none

| foundation = 1981

| defunct = 1996

| ___location = [[Kingston, Ontario]], [[Canada]] {{flagicon|Canada}}

| industry = Computer software

| key_people = C. Farnell (founder)

Bill Reid (technology)

John Purdon (last CEO)

| products = Interactive EasyFlow<br/> EasyFlow Macintosh <br/> EasyFlow for Windows </br> NodeMap</br> NodeMap for Windows

| num_employees = 30 (cca 1990)

| parent =

| subsid =

}}

'''Easyflow''' was one of the first diagramming and [[flow chart]]ing software packages available for personal computers. It was produced by HavenTree Software Limited of [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]] [[Canada]]. HavenTree's mark on history for its product, which was subsequently renamed '''Interactive Easyflow''', is its notable plain-English license.<ref name=TakingLicense.IW>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Informationweek]]

|url=https://www.informationweek.com/taking-license/d/d-id/1013606

|title=Taking License Esther Schindler |date=February 5, 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=[[Y Combinator (company)]] (ycombinator; Hacker News)

|url=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12355390

|title=Interactive Easyflow}}</ref>

==History==

[[File:EasyFlowMenu.png|thumb|left|Main menu]] [[File:EasyFlowChart.png|thumb|left|Creating a drawing]] '''Interactive EasyFlow''' was one of the first diagramming and [[flow chart]]ing software packages available for personal computers. This product was the flagship software produced by HavenTree Software Limited, of [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]] [[Canada]]. HavenTree software, formed in 1981, offered predecessor non-interactive products "EasyFlow" (1983) and "EasyFlow-Plus" (1984). Interactive EasyFlow - so named to distinguish it from the preceding products - was offered from 1985 until the early 1990s, when the company dropped the "Interactive" adjective in favour of simply "HavenTree EasyFlow". It offered the software for sale until it filed for protection under [[Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act]] in April 1996. The assets of the company were purchased by [[SPSS Inc.]] in 1998.

[[File:EasyFlowMenu.png|thumb|left|Main menu, from Interactive EasyFlow for DOS 5.8]]

''HavenTree'' was formed in 1981. ''Easyflow'', a [[MS-DOS|DOS-based]] software package, was the initial name of the company's

[[File:EasyFlowMenu.png|thumb|left|Main menu]] [[File:EasyFlowChart.png|thumb|left|Creating a drawing]] '''Interactive EasyFlow''' was one of the first diagramming and [[flow chart]]ing software packages available for personal computers. This product was the flagship software produced by HavenTree Software Limitedoffering, ofwhich [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]] [[Canada]]. HavenTree software, formed in 1981, offered predecessorwas non-interactive productsand "EasyFlow"introduced in (1983) and. "EasyFlow-Plus" (was announced in 1984). Interactive EasyFlow - so named to distinguish it from the preceding products - was offered from 1985 until the early 1990s, when the company dropped the "Interactive" adjective in favour of simply "HavenTree EasyFlow". It offered the software for sale until it filed for protection under [[Canada's [[Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act]] in April 1996. The assets of the company were purchased by [[SPSS Inc.]] in 1998.

==Historical significance==

HavenTree and EasyFlow is mostly remembered today for its counter-cultural [[disclaimer]] and end-user license agreement.<ref name=TakingLicense.IW/> Both arewere written in [[plain English]] and not in [[legalese]], enabling end users to understand better the terms of these legal agreements, and emphasizing the problems with modern [[Software license|software licensing]]. Excerpts from the license and disclaimer are included into the [[Fortune (Unix)|fortune]] databases of many [[Linux]] and [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] distributions.

===Text of software license===

{{quotation|This is where the bloodthirsty licensing agreement is supposed to go, explaining that Interactive Easyflow is a copyrighted package licensed for use by a single person, and sternly warning you not to pirate copies of it and explaining, in detail, the gory consequences if you do.

We know that you are an honest person, and are not going to go around pirating copies of Interactive Easyflow; this is just as well with us since we worked hard to perfect it and selling copies of it is our only method of making anything out of all the hard work. For your convenience EasyFlow is distributed on a on copy-protected diskette and you are free to do what you want with it (make backups, move from machine to machine, etc.) provided that it is never in use by more than one person at a time.

If, on the other hand, you are one of those few people who do go around pirating copies of software you probably aren't going to pay much attention to a license agreement, bloodthirsty or not. Just keep your doors locked and look out for the HavenTree attack shark.}}

==Text of software license==

<blockquote>

This is where the bloodthirsty licensing agreement is supposed to go,

explaining that Interactive Easyflow is a copyrighted package licensed for

use by a single person, and sternly warning you not to pirate copies of it

and explaining, in detail, the gory consequences if you do.

===Text of disclaimer===

We know that you are an honest person, and are not going to go around

{{quotation|We don't claim Interactive EasyFlow is good for anything -- if you think it is, great, but it's up to you to decide. If Interactive EasyFlow doesn't work: tough. If you lose a million because Interactive EasyFlow messes up, it's you that's out the million, not us. If you don't like this disclaimer: tough. We reserve the right to do the absolute minimum provided by law, up to and including nothing.<ref name=TakingLicense.IW/>

pirating copies of Interactive Easyflow; this is just as well with us since

we worked hard to perfect it and selling copies of it is our only method of

making anything out of all the hard work.

This is basically the same disclaimer that comes with all software packages, but ours is in plain English and theirs is in legalese.<ref name=TakingLicense.IW/>

If, on the other hand, you are one of those few people who do go

around pirating copies of software you probably aren't going to pay much

attention to a license agreement, bloodthirsty or not. Just keep your doors

locked and look out for the HavenTree attack shark.

</blockquote>

We didn't really want to include any disclaimer at all, but our lawyers insisted. We tried to ignore them but they threatened us with the attack shark at which point we relented.}}

==Text of disclaimer==

<blockquote>

We don't claim Interactive EasyFlow is good for anything -- if you

think it is, great, but it's up to you to decide. If Interactive EasyFlow

doesn't work: tough. If you lose a million because Interactive EasyFlow

messes up, it's you that's out the million, not us. If you don't like this

disclaimer: tough. We reserve the right to do the absolute minimum provided

by law, up to and including nothing.

==Patenting==

This is basically the same disclaimer that comes with all software

Patent entries are dated in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://uspto.report/TM/74087368

packages, but ours is in plain English and theirs is in legalese.

|title=EASYFLOW: HavenTree Software Limited Trademark}}</ref><ref>{{cite web

|url=https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/haventree-software-limited-504298

|title=HaveTree Software Limited Trademarks}}</ref>

==References==

We didn't really want to include any disclaimer at all, but our

{{reflist}}

lawyers insisted. We tried to ignore them but they threatened us with the

attack shark at which point we relented.

</blockquote>

==External links==

* [httphttps://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/query?url=web/19991005083442/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4188/sw_doc.html&date=2009-10-25+07:46:30 http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4188/sw_doc.html]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Interactive Easyflow}}

[[Category:Diagramming software]]

[[Category:Computer humorhumour]]