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Microsoft patent
- From: dlw <danw6144 at insightbb dot com>
- To: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 10:50:12 -0500
- Subject: Microsoft patent
How will the gcc maintainers avoid being ensnared
by Microsoft patent 6,748,585 awarded June 8, 2004 when including
new compiler techniques and features in gcc ?
ABSTRACT
"Programming language constructs called pronouns and referents, and
a method, system, and apparatus for translating computer source
code that contains the pronouns and referents. A referent is any
semantic or syntactic construct in the source code (e.g., a
statement, a portion of a statement, an expression, or a value) to
which a pronoun refers. A pronoun is a programming-language
defined source-code symbol or a sequence of symbols that refers to
the referent. As a result, pronouns eliminate the need to define
new names or macros for repeated program segments. When a
translator encounters the pronoun in the source code, the
translator searches the source code for the referent and
substitutes the referent for the pronoun. Thus, by using pronouns
and referents, the programmer can write programs faster and easier
and eliminate program redundancy without losing readability."
This thing is so broadly written concerning sytax and semantics
in computer languages that it could encompass just about anything.
Daniel Wallace