Ya, this "hint bits" just sounds like a clever indexing/pointing
system... hard to defend any specific case of this as categorically
owned. This is at base in any fast database incarnation... or it
wouldn't be fast. You have to play access tricks (stack the deck) or
search algorithms will always scale linearly with data size.
Randall
On Jan 16, 2008, at 6:37 AM, Jeanne A. E. DeVoto wrote:
At 6:06 PM -0800 1/15/2008, Richard Gaskin wrote:
J. Downs wrote:
What made it possible to use HC that way was its "hint bits", a
system for indexing field contents which is not only proprietary
but patented as well. Hint bits made it ultra-fast for obtaining
data across the otherwise-complex structures that make up cards
and fields.
Certainly any such patent has expired by now. Patents are
enforceable a maximum of 20 years past the filing date.
Cool. Let us know what Apples says when you write to ask them for
the code. ;)
If they'd patented it, we wouldn't have to ask for the code, since
revealing the algorithm is required to obtain the patent. (Patents
don't function as some sort of extension of trade secret, although
some companies would like you to think so. ;-) The purpose of a
patent is to get a new technique into the public domain; the
tradeoff for the company is 1) you reveal how to do this to the
public, in exchange for 2) a limited-time legally enforceable
monopoly on the technique, which you get even if someone else
discovers it independently. For Apple, this means they could go to
court during the life of the patent against anyone who used the
same method, but the price is that everyone knows the method - so
once the patent expires, anyone can use it. In a real sense, a
patented technique is the opposite of proprietary.
However, this may be moot as I don't think they actually patented
the use of hint bits for searching. At least I can't find it at the
Patent Office site, although there are a lot of patents that
mention HyperCard and I haven't looked at most of 'em.
--
Jeanne A. E. DeVoto, Transcript Language Curmudgeon
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.jaedworks.com
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