🚀 go-pugleaf

I suggest TeX and Metafont, and their formats for .dvi, .tfm, .gf,
.pk, and .pxl files.  I believe that these files are stored in a
standard format (written and read one byte at a time) that appears to
be insensitive to byte-swapping, though they contain non-byte data.
That is, I can write a .dvi file on a Sun, ftp it over to a Vax
(preserving only the "byte i+1 follows byte i" properties) and print
it there.  If the filing date was given correctly in the excerpt that
was posted, this is prior art, since I recall ftp'ing font files in
1985 between a Vax and a Sun, and making use of them on the Sun.

Do please note that they appear not to have patented XDR or
marshalling; there was ample mention of "file storage" in the patent
excerpt that I read.  It *may* be that use of a file is necessary
either to infringe or fight this patent.  (And my example above may
fail if the file is not shared among different computers
simultaneously.)

David Chase
Sun