From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a883dc07df0d6bb1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "David C. Hoos, Sr." Subject: Re: Decoding an octet stream Date: 1999/12/01 Message-ID: <822o4d$ehh$1@birch.prod.itd.earthlink.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 555219770 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <877lj2q36g.fsf@deneb.cygnus.argh.org> <81u247$kc3$1@hobbes2.crc.com> <821rc5$bim$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Posted-Path-Was: not-for-mail X-Priority: 3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 X-ELN-Date: 1 Dec 1999 09:01:01 GMT X-ELN-Insert-Date: Wed Dec 1 01:05:10 1999 Organization: Ada95 Press, Inc. X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-12-01T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote in message news:821rc5$bim$1@nnrp1.deja.com... > In article <81u247$kc3$1@hobbes2.crc.com>, > "David C. Hoos, Sr." wrote: > > Here's a package I use for just that purpose. All two- and > four-byte > > scalar types used in network packets have their 'read and > 'write > > attributes overridden by instances of these generic > procedures. > > David, doesn't this infringe on the patent, or has 17 > years gone by now (I have not kept track, the patent holder > is I believe Mark Williams). What patent, pray tell? I admit to not having thought much about patents in recent years. But, from my previous employment with a company that was fanatic about patenting everything in sight, and the education I received in their attempts to obtain a patent on one of my electronic component designs, one principle that seems applicable here is that what is "obvious to one skilled in the art" is not patentable. Nevertheless, I am eager to learn what patent might be infringed by this small, and to my thinking, "obvious to one skilled in the art," snippet of code. If it does infringe, I shudder to think what other infringements might be buried in the hundreds of thousands of lines of code I've written over 41 hears of 'practicing the art. David C. Hoos, Sr. -- The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change. -- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers