Re: Decoding an octet stream

[swhalen@netcom.com]

David C. Hoos, Sr. <david.c.hoos.sr@ada95.com> wrote:
: Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote in message
:>
:> 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.

From the U.S. Patent Office server (http://www.uspto.gov/):

United States Patent
4,956,809
George , et al.
September 11, 1990

Method for canonical ordering of binary data for portable operating systems 

Abstract:

A method for making files compatible between different computers
having different binary structures while using the same operating
system by keeping all files in a standardized canonical order when
they move to or from external data storage or communication means. The
method includes converting all binary data accessed from a file or
communications channel from the canonical order to the natural order
of the host computer before using the binary data in the host computer
and converting all binary data which is to be sent to a file or
communications channel from the natural order of the host computer to
the canonical order before sending the binary data.

Inventors:

George; Johann (Holland Landing, CA); Thompson; Trevor
J. (New Providence, NJ); Conroy; David G. (Maynard, MA);
            Tudor; Frederick H. (Evanston, IL)
Assignee: 
    
Mark Williams Company (Chicago, IL) 

Filed:    December 29, 1988

...

I'll try to supress my disgust at how far the patent process
has strayed from reality in the few years you've not been paying
attention, but suffice to say our Patent Office has no clue as
to what consitutes "prior art" or is "obvious" (at least in the
software field). 

Many patents have been issued in the last few years that have been
used widely in the past and/or were obvious to me many years ago,
and I've only been programming for about 30 years...

Steve

-- 
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                Steve Whalen     swhalen@netcom.com
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