🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <100107@uunet.UU.NET> rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams) writes:
>It's fun (and virtually indecipherable) reading. For example, they claim
>
>	   10. The compression apparatus of claim 5 further including
>	initializing means for storing in the locations of said memory
>	means an empty indicia signal representing that the location
>	storing said empty indicia signal is empty, said empty
>	indicia signal having a value not equal to any compressed code
>	signal.
>
>or, as best as I can figure out
>
>	int table[N]
>
>	for(i=0;i<n;i++)
>		table[i] = NIL;
>
>is one of their intellectual property claims. (So be careful about
>initializing your tables!)

Patents are a little hard to read unless you've been shown how.  The
interpretation of this claim is that

	 In addition to all the stuff mentioned in claim 5, you also have to
	 initialize the table.

Of course, the lawyers have to state this in a programming language
independent manner.

			Bruce Karsh
			karsh@sgi.com