Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 13:42:08 -0700 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, Chuck Robey <chuckr@mat.net>, FreeBSD-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Microsoft has a patent on [] (fwd) Message-ID: <199810072042.NAA02254@dingo.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 07 Oct 1998 13:12:45 MDT." <4.1.19981007131127.041747f0@mail.lariat.org>
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> At 11:57 AM 10/7/98 -0700, Mike Smith wrote: > > >> I just got this from another list, but it's so outrageous, I had to post > >> it here (it certainly applies to us!) Apparently, Microsoft has > >> patented array indexing! > >> > >> Take a look, it seems real! > > > >It's real, but it involves taking a character string between separators > >(eg. []) and passing it to a run-time evaluator contained in a library. > > Not quite. What it means is that there's late binding. In other words, > any INTERPRETER that can take an expression as an array subscript is covered. You should read the definition: 1 providing a library associated with the application program, the library defining an evaluator for evaluating expressions according to the second syntax. 2 compiling the source code according to the first syntax into object code for executing on a computer. 3 interpreting a syntax structure in the source code consisting of a character string enclosed between a predefined pair of separators as an application-defined expression 4 converting said syntax structure to coded instructions in the object code (consisting) of a function call for invoking the evaluator with the character string as a parameter whereby the evaluator is invoked to evaluate the character string according to the second syntax on execution of the object code. Interpreters are specifically excluded (they don't produce object code). It's arguable whether a JIT bytecoder intrudes on enough of this to be covered. It seems to be a patent on a hack for handling associative arrays whereby you pretend that the language itself supports them. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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