[boost] Re: Re: Microsoft XML serialization patent

From: Jonathan Turkanis (technews_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-02-06 19:35:13

Hurd, Matthew wrote:
>> Jonathan Turkanis wrote:
>>> Robert Ramey wrote:
>>>> I just came upon an incredible thing.
>>>>
>>>> It seems that microsoft has filed a U.S. Patent Application for XML
>>>> serialization.

> It's hard to take it seriously ;-)
>
> <quote>
> [0019] The serialized data of an object may be thought of as a
> "dehydrated object" where all of the water (object functions in this
> metaphor) has been squeezed out of the object. This leaves only dry
> potato flakes (the data). Later, a hungry person wishes to have mashed
> potatoes (the object with the data), the potato flakes may be
> rehydrated. To "add water" to a dehydrated object, an empty object is
> created and the stored data is inserted therein.
> </quote>

Hah! I didn't realize objects were mostly water. Maybe we should keep them
dehydrated most of the time to save space.

Jonathan