Many Cards Versus One Card and a List Field

[Randall Lee Reetz]

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
> revolution at jaedworks.com
> http://www.jaedworks.com
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