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Microsoft's 'IsNot' Patent Continued...
An anonymous reader writes " 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." This article continues the tale started last november, and here is an eWeek story on the same subject.
So what's the smallest pattern of bits that Microsoft can fairly claim to hold a patent on?
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
MS announced today their plans to patent the string object, the ampersand, coffee, comfy chairs, and the letter 'T'.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
I'd better finish filing out my patent application for "Is" before MS finds out. It's pretty brilliant, if I do say so. "Is" compares two pointers and returns "true" if they contain the same value.
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
It all depends on what the meaning of the word IsNot, is not.
I used to work for a company that trademarked the word "xor" (that was the name of the company, now defunct, 450 souls at the height of the dot-com boom). BTW no one (outside of the computer industry) knew how to prononunce xor, so they ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal explaining that it is prononuced "X like the letter, or like the word"
Rumor has it that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Honest Politicians Society and Slashdotters with girlfriends are all filing suit claiming that they're proof of prior art...
In all seriousness, the fact that a patent like this is even entertained is a more than a bit disturbing. How in the world one can patent a logical operator is simply beyond me...
In other words, the creation of a Microsoft specific "equals" means that code years down the road will require Microsoft specific tools to edit/change/run this code. I call shenanigans!
Well I can't help you. Stop calling me!
It is about time that Europe puts some tough law on software patents in place. Otherwise I fear that VB programmers will emigrate en masse to Europe. Please keep them over there!
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
Can anyone explain why IsNot != !=?
Microsoft IsNot sane.
Microoft IsNot reasonable.
Microsoft IsNot ethical.
Why shouldn't they get to patent "IsNot"?
Insert witty sig here.
is for the Linux Corporation to patent the IsTo operator and the competition can devolve to a completely childish level.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
> When they're resorting to patenting what appear to me to be boolean operations with an object-oriented twist, that's a bad sign about what real plans the company doesn't have.
Yes, but think how useful it could be in their advertising campaign:
IsNot reliable
IsNot secure
IsNot a good idea
...
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
They're only calling you 'cause they're too polite to call the person they really want.
sed -e 's/isNot/!=/g' msCode.c > ./gnuCode.c>
2 1337 4 u!
This computer application implements the isNot operator and therefore violates microsoft's patent.