Easyflow was one of the first diagramming and

flow chart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of va ...

ing software packages available for personal computers. It was produced by HavenTree Software Limited of Kingston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. HavenTree's mark on history for its product, which was subsequently renamed Interactive Easyflow, is its notable plain-English license.

History

''HavenTree'' was formed in 1981. ''Easyflow'', a DOS-based software package, was the initial name of the company's flagship offering, which was non-interactive and introduced in 1983. "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 The ''Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act'' (BIA; french: Loi sur la faillite et l'insolvabilité) (the ''Act'') is one of the statutes that regulates the law on bankruptcy and insolvency in Canada. It governs bankruptcies, consumer and commercial prop ...

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 A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally recognized relationship. In contrast to other terms for legally operative langua ...

and end-user license agreement. Both were written in

plain English Plain English (or layman's terms) are groups of words that are to be clear and easy to know. It usually avoids the use of rare words and uncommon euphemisms to explain the subject. Plain English wording is intended to be suitable for almost anyone, ...

and not in

legalese Legal writing involves the analysis of fact patterns and presentation of arguments in documents such as legal memoranda and briefs. One form of legal writing involves drafting a balanced analysis of a legal problem or issue. Another form of legal ...

, enabling end users to understand better the terms of these legal agreements, and emphasizing the problems with modern

software licensing A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both source c ...

. Excerpts from the license and disclaimer are included into the

fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

databases of many

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

and

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...

distributions.

Text of software license

Text of disclaimer

Patenting

Patent entries are dated in the 1990s.

References

External links

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4188/sw_doc.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Interactive Easyflow Diagramming software Computer humor