Re: Method and apparatus for generating inline code using template metaprograms

From:
"James Kanze" <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:43:26 CST
Message-ID:
<1174850974.919493.188640@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 25, 6:09 pm, Francis Glassborow <franc...@robinton.demon.co.uk>
wrote:

Zeljko Vrba wrote:

On 2007-03-25, Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email)
<SeeWebsiteForEm...@erdani.org> wrote:

If I understand things correctly after a summary read, the patent is on
using C++ to generate code with templates. I wonder to what extent does
the patent limit people's ability to write C++ code without risking
infringement?


Hah, this is ridiculous :) But prior art already exists, so my _guess_
is that the patent is as good as non-existant.


I am not so sure, did you check the date of the patent?


And the author. Todd is definitly one of the inventors of
template meta-programming. In some ways, it's actually
refreshing to see a software patent that does refer to an actual
orginal invention. (Of course, like most patents, the wording
is very vague---vague enough that probably some of the STL would
be covered. Code that Stepanov had definitly written before the
patent was filed.)

Still, like you, I hope that the goal is just to prevent others
from patenting it. Given that the patent has been around for
over ten years, and that as far as I know, no one has ever been
pursued under it, makes me think that this is probably the case.

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