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IBM Patents Optimization

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-that's-a-good-one dept.

jamie(really) writes "IBM appears to want to patent optimizing programs by trial and error, which in the history of programming has, of course, never been done. Certainly, all my optimizations have been the result of good planning. Well done IBM for coming up with this clever idea. What is claimed is: 'A method for developing a computer program product, the method comprising: evaluating one or more refactoring actions to determine a performance attribute; associating the performance attribute with a refactoring action used in computer code; and undoing the refactoring action of the computer code based on the performance attribute. The method of claim 1 wherein the undoing refactoring is performed when the performance attribute indicates a negative performance effect of the computer code.'"

2 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. If Only There Was a Way to Integrate This by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    IBM is on to something big here, folks. Now just try to wrap your mind around this idea: we somehow enable this optimization on ... multiple levels! Stay with me, stay with me, I know this seems like a crazy idea right now. But I imagine a future where just adding something as simple as -02 or -03 to your compile commands will increase the level of optimization at an expense of compilation time!

    Did you get all that? Because I think I just made history.

    *grabs his head* Oh Jesus, oh sweet Jesus, another one's coming to me. It's gonna be big! What if ... what if you didn't have to type out each of your compile statements when you're compiling hundreds of files? What if, and this is totally futuristic possibility here, we introduce a build tool of some sort to the whole process? Let's call it Mack ... no, wait, Make!

    Elvis MF Christ I am going to be a rich man.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  2. Let me guess... by russotto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...there was a $10,000 bonus for patents at IBM in the month of April 2008, right? Alternatively, this was submitted internally at IBM on April 1, and someone missed the joke.

    IBMs internal process must have slipped a lot since I was there. I was once on a team which applied for a patent which was useful and arguably non-obvious, the only problem being that IBM had actually done something similar some 20 years before (in a different language)... internal patent people shot it down.