On Fri, 22 Jun 2012 08:57:14 +0200, Fabrizio Giudici
<[email protected]> wrote:
On Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:55:30 +0200, phil swenson
<[email protected]> wrote:
it's always easy to minimize other's innovations.
iphone? there were smartphones in 2000, they just stuck a pretty UI on
it.
Facebook? same as friendster.
mongodb? how is it any better than oracle?
java? c++ dumbed down
This is straw man argument. I talked about Twitter, so please tell me
what's so technologically innovative in it.
Anyway the latest emails helped me in advancing my mental model of the
"innovation vs patents" thing, and I'd like to share with you to hear your
opinion.
I think that innovation can be classified in two branches: "interface" and
"implementation". As per the classic definition of terms in the former
branch there are things that are exposed to users ("what can I do? what
can I do in a simpler way that I was already able to do?"), in the latter
the things required for the things to work.
So, let's take Java / C# and Twitter as examples.
Interface. With Java / C# programmers can do many more things than they
were used to with previous industrial languages: WORA, by means of a
portable bytecode, all the things that you can do with bytecode
manipulation, powerful OO languages much simpler than the previous C++
(now please let's not discuss on how relevant WORA, bytecode manipulation
is, we're discussing on an example). With Twitter I don't see anything new
that I can do, that I couldn't previously do with RSS feed or such.
Perhaps I can admit that from the user's perspective it's easier to do
that since I have a centralized portal where I can find (almost)
everything I need.
Implementation. In order to deliver the things, Java / C# need a lot of
stuff under the hood. Some of this stuff was already invented (indeed, I
think that back in 2000 most of the stuff was), but an integration process
was needed to deliver it working. Some things, instead, have been truly
innovated (such as new algorithm for GC or JIT). In order for Twitter to
serve billions of users, a lot of innovation in software architecture and
design has been done, as well as stuff in the web user interface, or REST
APIs for integration, etc. I'd say that most of innovation of Twitter lies
under the "implementation" label rather than "interface".
Now, my resuming point. I'm way less tolerant of software patents in the
"interface" field (I could be even convinced that you can't patent
anything here) rather than in the "implementation".
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
[email protected]
http://tidalwave.it - http://fabriziogiudici.it
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