🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9107171617.AA09177@wubios> david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp) writes:
>In Reply to this Note From: <Jacob Gore>
>>
>>/ gnu.misc.discuss / cheeks@tantalum.eds.com (Mark Costlow) / Jul 15, 1991 /
>>> 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said file comprises an object
>>> file expressed in binary.
>>
>>Incredible.
>>
>>Just reverse the bytes in an object file, and it runs on a different
>>computer!  This is indeed a revelation...
>>
>
>Your joke is funny, but the word "object" refers to more than code
>modules.  Its use for that purpose may have distorted its usage in the
>language, but it originally applied to a broader class of phenomenon.

Actually I think you can find applications covered by this claim even
if you restrict yourself to the very conventional definition of an
"object file" (that is, an input file for the loader).  For example,
from one of the Plan 9 papers:

    5.9  Writing the object file

    The last pass walks the internal assembly language and writes
    the object file.   The object file is reduced in size by about
    a factor of three with simple compression techniques.  The most
    important aspect of the object file format is that it is
    machine-independent.  All integer and floating numbers in the
    object code are converted to known formats and byte orders.
    This is important for Plan 9 because the compiler might be
    run on different computers.

Bingo.  Instant patent violation.

Dennis Ferguson