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| Authored by: reiisi on Friday, February 01 2013 @ 08:54 AM EST |
And if we can really grasp the concept that formal specs are the mid-point, and
remember that formal specs are still not enough for one skilled in the art to
actually implement in any deterministic sense (waterfall management, anyone?),
it should become obvious that mere pseudo-code is little more than a wish list.
And patenting a wish list seems most, well, not very beneficial to society.
If we have to have patents on software, let them provide the source code, the
formal specs, the pseudo-code, the flowcharts, the whole works. Then we have a
bases for working out what the limits of the patent should be and what the
merits of the claims are.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, February 02 2013 @ 09:31 AM EST |
OK, looked at that page - "In computer science, a formal
specification is a mathematical description of software or
hardware that may be used to develop an implementation. "
We're getting back into the software is math. In
particular, looking at the VDL page in Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Development_Method)
it's clear that the refinement goes from a mathematical
description of the algorithms to the actual algorithms of
the program in C, Ada, or other language (algorithms, sounds
like math). Also, if you can build a formal verification,
you can code the program. In fact, given the few times I've
seen any kind of "formal specification" in these terms
before some project gets coded, I'd guess the source code is
even easier to do.
Look up the original patent for the Cotton Gin. Look up
Abraham Lincoln's patent on a device to get boats off of
shoals (yes, we had a President with a patent). Both have
detailed drawings - one "skilled in the art" could very
easily RECREATE EXACTLY what was required. Both, of course,
also required models to be provided to the Patent Office.
Why not a working model of the software - as in WORKING,
COMPILABLE SOURCE CODE, accompanied by a all necessary info
on building so someone can build and run the software and
verify it does exactly what it says it does.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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