Re: Microsoft patents 'isnot' operator

From: Jan Panteltje (pNaonStpealmtje_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 02/22/05 

Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 20:37:02 GMT

On a sunny day (22 Feb 2005 18:58:00 GMT) it happened Grant Edwards
<grante@visi.com> wrote in <421b80b8$0$46573$a1866201@visi.com>:

>On 2005-02-22, panteltje@yahoo.com <panteltje@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> Grant Edwards wrote:
>>> On 2005-02-22, Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> They're patenting the 'isnot' spelling of an object address
>>> comparison in BASIC implimentations.
>>>
>>> Therefore, the fact that C, Python, and a dozen other languages
>>> already have the same operation is supposedly moot (at least
>>> for prior-art). BTW, what they're patenting is comparing the
>>> addresses of two objects to see if they're the same object, so
>>> the C spelling is &a != &b.
>>
>> That cannot be the case?
>
>Which patent application are you reading?
>
>The abstract on the application is
>
> A system, method and computer-readable medium support the use
> of a single operator that allows a comparison of two
> variables to determine if the two variables point to the same
> location in memory.
>
>Claim 1
>
> A system for determining if two operands point to different
> locations in memory, the system comprising: a compiler for
> receiving source code and generating executable code from the
> source code, the source code comprising an expression
> comprising an operator associated with a first operand and a
> second operand, the expression evaluating to true when the
> first operand and the second operand point to different
> memory locations.
>
>Claim 2
>
> The system of claim 1, wherein the compiler is a
> BASIC-derived programming language compiler.
>
>Claim 3
>
> The system of claim 1, wherein the operator is IsNot.
>
>And so on.
>
>
>Claim 1 is definitely crap and ought to be disallowed. Many
>other languages have had operators as described.
>
>Sebsequent more specific claims might be argued as valid.
>
>
>> Do I see this right?
>
>No.
OK, you found the abstact, OK...
I agree (1) is to general, that is absurd.
As you indicated &a = &b does that
We need to see the full patent I think.

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