Apparently, "windowing" (i.e., assuming a two digit date is in whatever
century it is 'logical for it to be in) has been patented:
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1426450.html>
Windowing is officially part of Common Lisp, though.
"Will Fitzgerald" <··········@no-spam-please-neodesic.com> writes:
> Apparently, "windowing" (i.e., assuming a two digit date is in whatever
> century it is 'logical for it to be in) has been patented:
>
> <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1426450.html>
>
> Windowing is officially part of Common Lisp, though.
now this is interesting, could the fact that CL is an ANSI standard
be used as a weapon to make the patent authorities withdraw their
unbeleivably stupid decision?
--
(espen)
In article <··············@wallace.nextel.no>, Espen Vestre
<·····@*do-not-spam-me*.vestre.net> wrote:
>"Will Fitzgerald" <··········@no-spam-please-neodesic.com> writes:
>
>> Apparently, "windowing" (i.e., assuming a two digit date is in whatever
>> century it is 'logical for it to be in) has been patented:
>>
>> <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1426450.html>
>>
>> Windowing is officially part of Common Lisp, though.
>
>now this is interesting, could the fact that CL is an ANSI standard
>be used as a weapon to make the patent authorities withdraw their
>unbeleivably stupid decision?
You would think that prior invention from at least 15 years ago (I
just checked my CLTL1) would mean something to the PTO, especially
if the patent fails to cite it
paul
>Apparently, "windowing" (i.e., assuming a two digit date is in whatever
>century it is 'logical for it to be in) has been patented:
>
><http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1426450.html>
>
>Windowing is officially part of Common Lisp, though.
>
>
>
Someone asked me where this is defined. From the Hyperspec
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/clm/node232.html>
From 25.4.1. Time Functions, and the definition of encode-universal-time:
Decoded Time format represents calendar time as a number of components:
Second: an integer between 0 and 59, inclusive.
Minute: an integer between 0 and 59, inclusive.
Hour: an integer between 0 and 23, inclusive.
Date: an integer between 1 and 31, inclusive (the upper limit actually
depends on the month and year, of course).
Month: an integer between 1 and 12, inclusive; 1 means January, 12 means
December.
Year: an integer indicating the year A.D. However, if this integer is
between 0 and 99, the ``obvious'' year is used; more precisely, that year is
assumed that is equal to the integer modulo 100 and within fifty years of
the current year (inclusive backwards and exclusive forwards). Thus, in the
year 1978, year 28 is 1928 but year 27 is 2027. (Functions that return time
in this format always return a full year number.)
>>>>> "Will" == Will Fitzgerald <··········@no-spam-please-neodesic.com> writes:
Will> Someone asked me where this is defined. From the Hyperspec
Will> <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/clm/node232.html>
That's not the HyperSpec, that is CLtL2. In the HyperSpec it is
Section 25.1.4.1, e.g.:
<http://www.harlequin.com/education/books/HyperSpec/Body/sec_25-1-4-1.html>
--
Russell Senior ``The two chiefs turned to each other.
·······@teleport.com Bellison uncorked a flood of horrible
profanity, which, translated meant, `This is
extremely unusual.' ''
Will Fitzgerald <··········@no-spam-please-neodesic.com> wrote:
> Apparently, "windowing" (i.e., assuming a two digit date is in whatever
> century it is 'logical for it to be in) has been patented:
>
> <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1426450.html>
>
> Windowing is officially part of Common Lisp, though.
The patent is about "dates stored in symbolic form in a database". It
threatens only database vendors, not language implementors.
Look it up at http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05806063__
Bruno
Bruno Haible wrote in message <············@news.u-bordeaux.fr>...
>Will Fitzgerald <··········@no-spam-please-neodesic.com> wrote:
>> Apparently, "windowing" (i.e., assuming a two digit date is in
whatever
>> century it is 'logical for it to be in) has been patented:
>>
>> <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1426450.html>
>>
>> Windowing is officially part of Common Lisp, though.
>
>The patent is about "dates stored in symbolic form in a database". It
>threatens only database vendors, not language implementors.
>
>Look it up at http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05806063__
Read the claims. The claimed invention revolves around "A method of
processing symbolic representations of dates..." in which steps
including "reformatting the symbolic representation of the date" are
key.
CLtL is in no danger from the patent, not because it isn't relevant, but
because CLtL establishes prior art (a ANSI standard no less) expressly
for the claimed novelty (the patent even refers to "window") thirteen
years before the patent was filed. All the rest of the verbiage is
clearly obvious since it concerned with ideas like "stored in database"
and decimal notation like "values C1 C2, Y1 Y2, M1 M2 , and D1 D2" (all
concepts which exist in the CLtL implementation).
jim
------------------------------------------------------------
James P. White Netscape DevEdge Champion for IFC
IFC Exchange - Insanely great Java - http://www.ifcx.org
Bruno Haible wrote:
...
> The patent is about "dates stored in symbolic form in a database". It
> threatens only database vendors, not language implementors.
Expect Lisp books to flood bookshops as prior art evidence - including
but not limited to German ones!
Robert
In article <·················@fisec.com>, ·······@fisec.com wrote:
> Bruno Haible wrote:
> ...
> > The patent is about "dates stored in symbolic form in a database". It
> > threatens only database vendors, not language implementors.
>
> Expect Lisp books to flood bookshops as prior art evidence - including
> but not limited to German ones!
Take a Lisp machine manual. There you have a book of prior art.