4 ms·
I'm really too tired to read this, but is someone seriously trying to patent a linked list? This is really a "palm to the forehead" moment for me.
by char 17y ago
I'm really too tired to read this, but is someone seriously trying to patent a linked list? This is really a "palm to the forehead" moment for me.
- bartl 17y ago"Trying"? >Date of Patent: Apr. 11, 2006
- kelnos 17y agoIt's not exactly what you'd think when someone says "linked list." The "next" pointers are there, but there's also an "aux" pointer that the patent suggests can point to any other element in the list, not just next or previous, and can be used for any purpose to form any kind of sequence desired. I think it's "new" and "novel" because really there's no use for it. (Ok, I jest... I expended barely 30 seconds worth of thought and couldn't come up with anything. Maybe there is a use for it, but the patent's still pretty lame.)
- mone 17y agoNot patenting a linked list, but an enhancement to it, as a reader suggests. Not that the idea is bad, but doesn't seem ingenious enough to be patentable. Node(Value, Node next, Node auxNext, ...) is just unnecessary complication of the simple concept of a linked list, and seems useful only for very specialized needs.