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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

class::dbi::plugin::abstractcount

AbstractCount(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation					AbstractCount(3pm)

NAME

       Class::DBI::Plugin::AbstractCount - get COUNT(*) results with abstract SQL

SYNOPSIS

	 use base 'Class::DBI';
	 use Class::DBI::Plugin::AbstractCount;

	 my $count = Music::Vinyl->count_search_where(
	   { artist   => 'Frank Zappa'
	   , title    => { like    => '%Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar%' }
	   , released => { between => [ 1980, 1982 ] }
	   });

DESCRIPTION

       This Class::DBI plugin combines the functionality from Class::DBI::Plugin::CountSearch (counting objects without having to use an array or
       an iterator), and Class::DBI::AbstractSearch, which allows complex where-clauses a la SQL::Abstract.

METHODS

   count_search_where
       Takes a hashref with the abstract where-clause. An additional attribute hashref can be passed to influence the default behaviour: arrayrefs
       are OR'ed, hashrefs are AND'ed.

TODO

       More tests, more doc.

SEE ALSO

       SQL::Abstract for details about the where-clause and the attributes.
       Class::DBI::AbstractSearch
       Class::DBI::Plugin::CountSearch

AUTHOR

       Jean-Christophe Zeus, <mail@jczeus.com> with some help from Tatsuhiko Myagawa and Todd Holbrook.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright (C) 2004 by Jean-Christophe Zeus

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

perl v5.10.0							    2009-07-01							AbstractCount(3pm)