On 19-Mar-07 21:00:37, Tom Horsley wrote: > On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:37:58 -0000 (GMT) > (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> For example, does it occur in standard textboooks on computer >> programming and data structures? Is there long-standing open >> source software in which it may be found? > > Well, it is essentially the way all relational databases work, so > they should clearly sue Oracle for a million billion zillion dollars.
Can you expand and clarify that? I can see that storage in a relational databse table (i.e. "relation") is facilitated by using a "double-linked list" (in the *traditional* sense I described at [1] in my previous mail), where each record is associated with two pointers, one to its successor in some desired order (e.g. alphabetical sort) and the other to its predecessor. But is the *other* "double-linked list" as I described at [2] of my previous mail generally used -- i.e. is each record associated with two or more sets of pointers, where, in one set, one pointer points to the successor in one ordering and the other pointer to its predecessor in the same ordering; and in another set one pointer points to the successor in a different ordering and the other points to its predecessor in this different ordering, and so on? You say "it is essentially the way all relational databases work", which -- if we are talking about the same interpretation -- means that in all relational databases each record in a relation is associated with multiple forward pointers and a matched set of multiple backward pointers. Is that the case (speaking from ignorance here)? It is the second interpretation of "double linked list" which is the subject of the patent, not the first! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Mar-07 Time: 22:12:46 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
