Microsoft Wins HTML App Patent

crataegus writes "'Microsoft on Tuesday won a patent for launching a certain kind of HTML application within Windows. The patent, "Method and apparatus for writing a Windows application in HTML" (Hypertext Markup Language), describes Microsoft's way of opening up HTML applications in a window free of navigation and other interface elements, known as "chrome," and browser security restrictions.' Why does this sound vaguely familiar?"

Comments

Defensive Patent?

[donutello]

Remember the case where Microsoft is getting sued by that company who claims to hold the patent on browser plugins?

If Microsoft wouldn't patent this, what are the chances that someone else would and sue them for patent infringement? It's quite possible that this is just a defensive patent to prevent stuff like that.

What the hell am I thinking?! This is Slashdot. We don't give MS the benefit of the doubt. Ever.

Re:It doesn't bother me!

[Nedmud]

To that I say, you should try writing a program in binary (I assume you mean machine code) at least once: it will do you good as a programmer.

My point wasn't that VB was a good language to use *for anything*, in fact I said it was a horrible language.

My point was that VB is actually a real programming language. It is not directly comparable to binary, because it is an abstraction of a imperative computational model, just as is C, Java, Perl, and all other high-level imperative languages.

Binary is not (at least not to nearly the same extent as all the above).