Thread: Microsoft Patents Breakthrough Technology!

  1. #1
    Guest Sebastiani's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Waterloo, Texas
    Posts
    5,708

    Microsoft Patents Breakthrough Technology!

    Whitespace!

    Historic times, these are.

  2. #2
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    7,396
    I don't have time to read the patent in full, but it looks like what they are doing is using whitespace to encode proprietary keywords in such a way that non-Microsoft compilers will interpret these keywords as whitespace and ignore them. Ostensibly, this is to maintain compatibility between "C++" programs using Microsoft proprietary extensions, and existing standards-compliant compilers.

    I could be wrong -- like I said, I don't have time to parse through all that right now. But it's certainly not a "patent on whitespace."
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

  3. #3
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    segmentation fault
    Posts
    8,300
    Yeah I read it the same way as brewbuck.

    Thank god they have patented this, otherwise it will spread.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  4. #4
    Guest Sebastiani's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Waterloo, Texas
    Posts
    5,708
    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck View Post
    I don't have time to read the patent in full, but it looks like what they are doing is using whitespace to encode proprietary keywords in such a way that non-Microsoft compilers will interpret these keywords as whitespace and ignore them. Ostensibly, this is to maintain compatibility between "C++" programs using Microsoft proprietary extensions, and existing standards-compliant compilers.

    I could be wrong -- like I said, I don't have time to parse through all that right now. But it's certainly not a "patent on whitespace."
    I was obviously exaggerating, yes.

    Still, this is hardly 'patentable' material, IMO. More like a clever hack, if anything...

    Thank god they have patented this, otherwise it will spread.
    My sentiment exactly.

  5. #5
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    9,607
    Didn't they just lose their XML patent?

  6. #6
    Registered User NeonBlack's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    431
    Certainly not a new idea though. Look around and you'll find programs that compile in both C++ and whitespace for example.
    I copied it from the last program in which I passed a parameter, which would have been pre-1989 I guess. - esbo

  7. #7
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    It's just another frivolous patent. It wouldn't hold up in court, but then it'd cost anyone who challenged it million of dollars just to get to court. Someone needs to get 50000 companies to simultaneously sue MS in a litigation version of a denial of service attack.
    Last edited by abachler; 09-25-2009 at 11:57 PM.

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Posts
    63
    Quote Originally Posted by abachler View Post
    Someone needs to get 50000 companies to simultaneously sue MS in a litigation version of a denial of service attack.
    Shhh..... Don't tell anyone that! After Microsoft falls, this unholy legion of lawyers will move on to new prey, until the rest of civilization is destroyed. You heard it here first!

  9. #9
    Banned ಠ_ಠ's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    687
    Quote Originally Posted by abachler View Post
    a litigation version of a denial of service attack.
    distributed denial of service attack
    ╔╗╔══╦╗
    ║║║╔╗║║
    ║╚╣╚╝║╚╗
    ╚═╩══╩═╝

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Problem building Quake source
    By Silvercord in forum Game Programming
    Replies: 16
    Last Post: 07-11-2010, 09:13 AM
  2. Is Linux More Secure Than Windows?
    By xErath in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 69
    Last Post: 06-29-2005, 07:13 PM
  3. Apps that act "differently" in XP SP2
    By Stan100 in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 08-16-2004, 10:38 PM
  4. Microsoft patents clicking
    By caroundw5h in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 06-04-2004, 04:59 PM
  5. Retaliation towards witch king\microsoft
    By Koshare in forum Linux Programming
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 10-19-2001, 04:54 AM