Linked List Patent
google.com
Linked List Patent
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: Linked List Patent
#2Looks like someone accidentally added a digit to the date...
Re: Linked List Patent
#3I don't think this is quite a skiplist, but it is amusing that someone's trying..
Re: Linked List Patent
#4Seems like I have been saying this a lot lately but regardless I'm going to say it once again.
It's amazing what you can patent.
Re: Linked List Patent
#5It's not a skip-list. It's a single-linked list, except that it may contain more than one "next" pointer per item. This way you could traverse it by either one of the next pointers, so you could keep the list ordered by 2 predicates at the same time.
Doesn't sound very useful in practice to me though. The interface would be complicated, error-prone, slow in many use cases, and this functionality can be much more simply be achieved by keeping two lists of pointers/references. It's also more or less obvious, so I'd be surprised if no one had done that before.
Re: Linked List Patent
#6It looks like a doubly linked list actually is covered by that - a doubly linked list just happens to use opposite orderings on the two references. I'm going to go out on a limb and claim that we had doubly linked lists before 2006... or 2004 (is that the filing date?).
Other prior art: about a gazillion structs with multiple list_head members in the Linux kernel.
I'm guessing they don't have actual programmers review software patents?
Re: Linked List Patent
#7This feels like Reddit to me. It's a quick laugh, and lets us feel smug in our shared values. Not informative, insightful, or hacker news. Flagged.
Re: Linked List Patent
#8It's not a skip-list. It's a single-linked list, except that it may contain more than one "next" pointer per item. This way you could traverse it by either one of the next pointers, so you could keep the list ordered by 2 predicates at the same time. Doesn't sound very useful in practice to me though. The interface would be complicated, error-prone, slow in many use cases, and this functionality can be much more simp…
Actually, it's an old idea and very useful for exactly that: different orderings. It's used extensively in the Linux kernel, for example, where structs contain multiple list_head members.
Re: Linked List Patent
#9It's not a skip-list. It's a single-linked list, except that it may contain more than one "next" pointer per item. This way you could traverse it by either one of the next pointers, so you could keep the list ordered by 2 predicates at the same time. Doesn't sound very useful in practice to me though. The interface would be complicated, error-prone, slow in many use cases, and this functionality can be much more simp…
Whoops, you're right.
Doesn't really change the fact that this is in no way novel, and likely has published prior art going back to at least the 70s.
I just don't see how anyone with any significant knowledge of computer science could think this was a new idea.
Re: Linked List Patent
#10It's not a skip-list. It's a single-linked list, except that it may contain more than one "next" pointer per item. This way you could traverse it by either one of the next pointers, so you could keep the list ordered by 2 predicates at the same time. Doesn't sound very useful in practice to me though. The interface would be complicated, error-prone, slow in many use cases, and this functionality can be much more simp…
Actually, it's an old idea and very useful for exactly that: different orderings. It's used extensively in the Linux kernel, for example, where structs contain multiple list_head members.
Interesting! I found a good explanation at http://locklessinc.com/articles/flexible_lists_in_cpp/
I do wonder how they could have missed the obviousness of it. Or maybe it's just the shotgun approach to patent trolling.