So now we can't use linked lists anymore in our programming!! According to this http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7028023.html linked lists using pointers was patented in 2006 by an "inventor".
Isn't it just annoying! I thought they were common knowledge of programmers, so I just used them since the mid-80s. I should have patented them then and would now be living the good life supported by the royalties…
yeah you missed the opportunity 🙁
it's so annoying indeed.
On the face of it, I thought that patent look stupid…
BUT… actually it's not just a plain old linked list. (yes yes, I read the full text of it)
It a way of using pointers to traverse a linked list, but then be able to traverse the same items in a different order (as a different list) without reloading the elements. I think it works by having different starting pointers to traverse the list, where the two different start points give different orderings when traversed.
Booyakasha!
I actually read "most" of the text as well (hmn in skimmer mode…)
I read it as an ordinary double linked list, and from you reading it sounds a bit like it as well. So in my humble opinion, still not enough for a patent 😉 At least on the grounds of being in concise!
I always thought a double linked list is one that goes both ways (1 link both ways between 2 elements). What I got from that patent description was that if you started traversing the list from the beginning and used a differnt link, it links to the rest of the elements but in a different order.
Either way it's stupid. I think in the US you can patent anything and everything anyway.
You should be punished!! U made me read the text again 😉
Yes, you are right, the patent is on having more than one pointer point to different sequences of linked lists of the same objects.
Still quite extraordinary, because a double linked list would still qualify as a patent infringement if somebody "dared" to have two pointers pointing to two different objects in the same list 😉 Or as I did in my first year programming excersise, have a map of pointers, pointing to linked list of pointers to objects, hence creating several linked lists to the same objects…
I should be punished for my ingenuity 😉
Oh dear, I unwittingly broke that patent several times before it was granted… ah… prior art. It is a well known technique, surely?!?