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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 08 2012 @ 01:29 PM EDT |
I've been partial to the calculator analogy.
Your typical calculator has various buttons for math functions that you use to
interact with it, but the actual code and calculations within the calculator are
hidden from view.
If someone were to create a new calculator for sale, they could certainly use
different symbols for the buttons, but no one who knew how to use a normal
calculator would have any idea how to use yours. On the other hand, you can
completely change how the internals work, while the outer buttons remain
substantially similar.
The core set of buttons on Google's calculator look a lot like that on Oracle's,
but the actual code they run is different, and there are a lot of differences in
buttons once you get outside of that core set as well.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 08 2012 @ 01:33 PM EDT |
Note that the Judge views that the API being subject to copyright is a matter
for him to decide. The Jury was instructed to assume this so that if he rules
APIs aren't copyrightable, and is over turned on appeal there doesn't need to be
a new trial. (Of course as fair use wasn't decided there would likely need to
be one any way.)[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 08 2012 @ 04:27 PM EDT |
Actually, I think the car analogy is great! Sometimes in the
past there were no labels on thngs. One just had to know
via learning and experience where to look for various knobs
and switiches. Now they put icons on things! And, I for the
life of me, cannot figure out what half of them mean! So
its back to the try-it-and-see method for me and sometimes
that doesn't even work when there is some automated or
computerized control in the loop.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Tkilgore on Tuesday, May 08 2012 @ 05:22 PM EDT |
When it comes to cars, nobody mentions standard transmissions. One of the
standard arrangements of the gears on the old-fashioned three-speeds-forward
floor shift or column shift was, for years,
R 2
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---- <-neutral
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1 3
with the R and 1 side closer to the driver, whether on the column or on a stick
on the floor.
Well, it was not always so. This was settled on after some disagreement among
various manufacturers about where the locations of the gears should go.
My mother and grandmother used to tell me a story which, they said, happened
back in 1929 or so. The family was just leaving for home after an outing on
Mount Bonnell, just outside of Austin, Texas, where the non-standardization
nearly led to a catastrophe. There is a bridge about half way up the mountain
with a sharp curve in the road and a steep climb away from the bridge.
Grandfather had a new car with the whole family in it. The car had a different
gear arrangement from the one which had just been traded in. Grandfather drove
over the bridge, which required slowing down quite a bit, and then he had to go
up the steep climb. With the new car having a different arrangement of the
gear-shifting locations, he managed to put the car into reverse while trying to
put it in first gear, and hit the gas. The family had a very narrow escape.
It is very difficult even to imagine the idea of charging someone money and
license fees for the arrangement of the gears on a stick shift. But it seems
that is what the world has come to.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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