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Did President Obama Infringe on 1995 Microsoft Patent for Teaching Kids to Code?

1 points by theodpHN 12y ago

dalke 12y ago
Is this one of those artificial outrage things? The patent says that one of the requirements for the patent is: > (d) mode selection means for enabling the user to select a mode from among a plurality of different modes, one of said plurality of different modes displaying at least a portion of a textual computer program listing corresponding to a portion of the graphical program, a plain text mode enabling the user to enter text that is translated to program commands in the textual computer program listing for modifying the graphical program, said textual computer program listing assisting the user to learn computer programming by exposing the user to the program commands of the text-based programming language that correspond to the graphic program steps of the graphical program. and in further detail: > The plurality of modes selectable by the user include a plain text mode enabling the user to enter text that is translated to corresponding commands in the text-based programming language for modifying the graphical program. The plain text entered by the user is constrained to text that correctly translates to the commands in the text-based programming language. Preferably, the plain text that can be entered by the user is limited to a predefined set of programming language constructs that are presented to the user as keys on a graphical keyboard displayed on the display screen, for selection and use in designing and modifying the graphical program. I don't see this sort of plain text entry option in Blockly.
theodpHN 12y ago
From the Vice link, the President did not use Blockly for the JavaScript statement he entered, but dropped into a text mode from graphical mode, like the 1998 Microsoft patent describes: 'The code is "not rocket science,” Partovi wrote, but that’s the point (Obama used an as-of-yet unreleased version of Patovi's coding tutorial, apparently).'

1 points by theodpHN 12y ago

dalke 12y ago

Is this one of those artificial outrage things? The patent says that one of the requirements for the patent is: > (d) mode selection means for enabling the user to select a mode from among a plurality of different modes, one of said plurality of different modes displaying at least a portion of a textual computer program listing corresponding to a portion of the graphical program, a plain text mode enabling the user to enter text that is translated to program commands in the textual computer program listing for modifying the graphical program, said textual computer program listing assisting the user to learn computer programming by exposing the user to the program commands of the text-based programming language that correspond to the graphic program steps of the graphical program. and in further detail: > The plurality of modes selectable by the user include a plain text mode enabling the user to enter text that is translated to corresponding commands in the text-based programming language for modifying the graphical program. The plain text entered by the user is constrained to text that correctly translates to the commands in the text-based programming language. Preferably, the plain text that can be entered by the user is limited to a predefined set of programming language constructs that are presented to the user as keys on a graphical keyboard displayed on the display screen, for selection and use in designing and modifying the graphical program. I don't see this sort of plain text entry option in Blockly.

theodpHN 12y ago

From the Vice link, the President did not use Blockly for the JavaScript statement he entered, but dropped into a text mode from graphical mode, like the 1998 Microsoft patent describes: 'The code is "not rocket science,” Partovi wrote, but that’s the point (Obama used an as-of-yet unreleased version of Patovi's coding tutorial, apparently).'