> [ ... ]
>
> Microsoft reportedly is willing to stop the action if either a
> licensing agreement can be worked out or if Guido Van Rossum, the
> inventer, changes the name of the computer language and personally
> destroys all references to Spam, the Spanish Inquisition, and so
> forth, in all copies of the Python code and documentation whereever
> they may have propagated.
What ! MicroSoft bought Hormel !
I must have missed this in the business section of the newspaper.
When did this happen?
Does this mean I have to take the "SPAM" off the back of all those
T-shirts ? ( I sure hope the government doesn't plan on privatising NIST! )
The "official" ass-covering^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hexcuse was that both
NIST and SPAM were acronyms, so we were safe. Besides -- I really didn't
print those T-shirts. I was just fronting for the USGS. Which is why it
says in *tiny* letters on the tag:
"This T-shirt is being worn to obtain or provide technical
information relating to my duties at the U.S. Geological Survey."
> A highly placed Speaker of the House, who asked not to be named,
> is reported to have said, "I thought Guido was an Italian name.
> Those damn Japanese are sure crafty!"
There *is* a proper Dutch proninciation of his name, but Guido said
he has given up on trying to teach it to Americans.
( BTW: It's pronounced "kibo" in Dutch - remember this if you want
to impress him when you meet him at the next Python Workshop! )
> In an unrelated development, Stacker Inc. is reportedly considering
> bringing action against Van Rossum, Brian Kernigan, and Don Knuth
> over their alleged infringement on Stacker's "for loop" patent.
Ha! I see they haven't kept up with the latest technology!
For some time now, Python's 'for' has *actually* been a thinly
disguised 'while' loop. [look at ceval.c if you don't believe me!]
So I don't believe it's covered by that patent. They may be able to
patent the "for loop", but I don't think they can restrict the usage
of the word "for", as it has long been used in the (patented) "Marriage
Vows", and I believe it is also used in the (copyrighted) "Bible" (TM).
[ Note: I believe that the old implementation calling len() thousands
of times instead of just once, as in the typical C for-loop, was
a misguided attempt to avoid infringing on this patent. ]
Trying-to-stretch-a-bad-joke-even-fartheringly,
Steve Majewski