At 11:16 AM 3/31/2009, usul wrote: >Question on these as I don't really understand. > > > <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5745902>U.S. > > Patent 5,745,902 Method and system for accessing a file using file > > names having different file name formats > > - > > <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5579517>U.S. > > Patent 5,579,517 Common name space for long and short filenames > > - > > <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5758352>U.S. > > Patent 5,758,352 Common name space for long and short filenames > > - > > <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6286013>U.S. > > Patent 6,286,013 Method and system for providing a common name space > > for long and short file names in an operating system > > > > There is no patent on the actual technique and data structures used > > to handle/maintain FAT12/16/32 FAT tables (and the DOS standard 8.3 > > type file names) > > > > Also, IBM holds a patent for non-DOS extensions in the use of FAT > file systems > > <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5367671>U.S. > > Patent 5,367,671 System for accessing extended object attribute (EA) > > data through file name or EA handle linkages in path tables. > >Are these patents on a technique or on the concept? >with a technique we can just do different can't we? just read the patent and >come up with another way to do it. > >Or am I completely uninformed?
Is this case, it is the concept of how to accomplish a certain task. So there isn't really "another way to do it". And this means that basically implementing FAT12/16/32 in order to store and retrieve files, while using the old 8.3 filename scheme, in FreeDOS is perfectly fine, you just can't implement long file names and Extended Attributs as covered by those patents. Ralf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
