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Old 10-07-2010
Why Software is Abstract, by PolR
Why Software Is Abstract
by PolR




Following the ruling of the Supreme Court in Bilski, the USPTO asked, in substance, how to tell an abstract idea from an application of the idea. In this article I propose an answer to the question of what makes software abstract. It is a follow up to the previous article, Physical Aspects of Mathematics.

The logic is to look at why a mathematical calculation is abstract and then see if the same logic applies to software. It happens that it does. It is possible to show that software is abstract with references to the underlying mathematical aspects. This is not, however, the topic for this article. The argument is presented without any assumption as to whether or not software is mathematics. I work from the observation that a mathematical calculation solving a mathematical problem is abstract. Then I look at what makes it abstract. Then I observe that the exact same logic is applicable to all software whether or not the law sees it as an algorithm as defined by Benson. This is not surprising. Software is mathematics and this makes it abstract, but I don't use or rely on this fact in making the arguments in this article.



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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

pod::abstract::tree

Pod::Abstract::Tree(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation				  Pod::Abstract::Tree(3pm)

NAME

       Pod::Abstract::Tree - Manage a level of Pod document tree Nodes.

DESCRIPTION

       Pod::Abstract::Tree keeps track of a set of Pod::Abstract::Node elements, and allows manipulation of that list of elements. Elements are
       stored in an ordered set - a single node can appear once only in a single document tree, so inserting a node at a point will also remove it
       from it's previous location.

       This is an internal class to Pod::Abstract::Node, and should not generally be used externally.

METHODS

   detach
	$tree->detach($node);

       Unparent the $node from $tree. All other elements will be shifted to fill the empty spot.

   push
       Add an element to the end of the node list.

   pop
       Remove an element from the end of the node list.

   insert_before
	$tree->insert_before($target,$node);

       Insert $node before $target. Both must be children of $tree

   insert_after
	$tree->insert_after($target,$node);

       Insert $node after $target. Both must be children of $tree

   unshift
       Remove the first node from the node list and return it.

       Unshift takes linear time - it has to relocate every other element in id_map so that they stay in line.

   children
       Returns the in-order node list.

   index_relative
	my $node = $tree->index_relative($target, $offset);

       This method will return a node at an offset of $offset (which may be negative) from this tree structure. If there is no such node, undef
       will be returned. For example, an offset of 1 will give the following element of $node.

AUTHOR

       Ben Lilburne <bnej@mac.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright (C) 2009 Ben Lilburne

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.10.1							    2010-01-03						  Pod::Abstract::Tree(3pm)