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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,525be57bd7f45978 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!proxad.net!teaser.fr!easynet-quince!easynet.net!feed4.jnfs.ja.net!jnfs.ja.net!peernews.mcc.ac.uk!news.xenopsyche.net!news.mcc.ac.uk!clerew!chl From: "Charles Lindsey" Subject: Re: Ada syntax patents Message-ID: X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.2 (NOV) References: <421b581b$0$13221$9b4e6d93@newsread4.arcor-online.net> <1109170494.968883.195150@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 19:31:48 GMT Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8484 Date: 2005-02-24T19:31:48+00:00 List-Id: In <1109170494.968883.195150@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> "rien" writes: >here is a short article (including some possible interresting links) i >found about this patent: >http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1766949,00.asp According to the patent application?filed in mid-November by Paul Vick, lead architect for Visual Basic .Net at Microsoft; Amanda Silver, a program manager on the Visual Basic team; and an individual in Bellevue, Wash., named Costica Barsan?the IsNot operator is described as a single operator that allows a comparison of two variables to determine if the two point to the same location in memory. May I draw the attention of the assembled company to the built-in operator ISNT in ALGOL 68, which does precisely that. Moreover, apparently this patent applies only to use of that operator in the language BASIC. Yes, maybe it is valid on the grounds that nobody in his right mind would describe BASIC as a "language", and that therefore is in not obvious that concepts could be lifted from Real languages into it :=). -- Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------ Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl Email: chl@clerew.man.ac.uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K. PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5