Re: Patents Unleashed and the future of Java Programming

From: Joona I Palaste (palaste_at_cc.helsinki.fi)
Date: 05/23/04 

Date: 23 May 2004 15:18:20 GMT

George Neuner <gneuner2@dont.spam.me> scribbled the following:
> On Fri, 21 May 2004 07:54:13 GMT, Andrew Thompson
> <SeeMySites@www.invalid> wrote:
>>On Fri, 21 May 2004 03:39:32 -0400, George Neuner wrote:
>>> CS is still more of an art than a
>>> science and much knowledge has been passed by tradition
>>
>>..like what?

> Have you ever seen documented an algorithm for determining the number
> of '1' bits in a word? The highest '1' bit in a word? The lowest?

> When you learned to program you a) didn't care, b) figured them out
> for yourself or c) somebody showed you how and you never looked back.
> In 25 years, I've never seen these algorithms covered in ANY book or
> paper targeted for ANY level of programmer. Yet we all know how to do
> these elementary things.

> FYI, software solutions to the above are patented by NEC.

A really simple way to determine the highest '1' bit in a word is to
keep right-shifting it until it becomes 0. Similarly, a really simple
way to determine the lowest '1' bit is to keep right-shifting the word
until it becomes odd, or 0 (in which case there were no '1' bits).

Are you telling me that if I implemented those algorithms out in actual
code, I would be stealing NEC's intellectual property? 

-- 
/-- Joona Palaste (palaste@cc.helsinki.fi) ------------- Finland --------\
\-- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/
"Parthenogenetic procreation in humans will result in the founding of a new
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   - John Nordberg