HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Carl Oppedahl <0001811496@mcimail.com>
Subject: [INFO] Patents in class 424
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 04:28:00 GMT

The writer asks how to find the number of patents granted in the 
aggregate or by firm for the US patent class 424.  The writer observes
correctly that none of the online computer databases nor (no big 
surprise here since they come from the same place) none of the CD-ROM
products covers time before 1970.

One sure way to get the answer is to go in person to the Patent Office
in Virginia and physically review the "shoe" containing copies of all
patents in that class.  It is in the public search room there, which is
available to anybody.

Less convenient but just as workable is to go to any of the dozens of 
patent depository libararies, which have on microfilm lists of 
the patent numbers of patents in each patent class, and which also have
microfilm copies of the patents themselves, from which the firm name
may be read.

Newsgroups: comp.patents
From: Carl Oppedahl <0001811496@mcimail.com>
Subject: [INFO] degree in patent law?
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 04:34:00 GMT

A writer asks how to go about getting a degree in patent law.
The problem is there is no such thing.  All you can get is a non-denominated
"law degree", at least in the US.  Worse, most law schools do not have 
much in the way of courses in patent law.  Even those that do have only
a few courses, not enough to provide comprehensive background.

But you need not have a law degree to take the patent bar exam.  Perhaps
that is what the writer was really asking about.  You can take a
course to prepare for it.  Courses are offered in Washington (by the Patent
Resources group) and in New York (from the nonprofit Practicing Law
Institute).  The PLI course starts September 14 in New York, and I am on 
the faculty, composed of volunteers.

If the goal is to become an intellectual property lawyer one must have a law
degree, a strong technical background, pass the patent bar exam, pass the
state bar exam, and then get lots and lots of experience in the profession.
It helps a little, but less than one might think, to have taken coursework
in the area in law school.

Perhaps b1313 would find it helpful to stop by the Arizona law school for
more information.

Newsgroups: comp.patents
From: martelli@cadlab.sublink.org (Alex Martelli)
Subject: [ARTICLE] against patents in The Economist magazine
Organization: CAD.LAB S.p.A., Bologna, Italia
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 08:22:45 GMT


"The Economist" magazine, issue of Aug 22nd-28th 1992, publishes two
interesting pieces briefly arguing against the current overemphasis on
patents: a leader titled "The harm of patents", and an article titled
"America's patent mania" in the Business section.  The latter is
accompanied by a sidebar titled "Freeware" giving a glittering though
very short look at Cygnus Support's flourishing business.

I believe this material should be saved and hurled into the face of
anybody which, in the future, should attack anti-patent proponents or
arguments as "blue-sky anti-business socialism" or with similar terms
of abuse; "The Economist" can be, and often is, accused of many things
(check the recent huge thread in rec.arts.books, chock full of people
both pro and against it), but hardly of any anti-business sentiment!
-- 
Email: martelli@cadlab.sublink.org                   Phone: ++39 (51) 6130360
CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Ronzani 7/29, Casalecchio, Italia   Fax: ++39 (51) 6130294 

Newsgroups: comp.patents
From: pcassidy@world.std.com (Peter F Cassidy)
Subject: Patent Secrecy Orders
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:18:43 GMT
Summary: [REQUEST] Looking for stories of patent applications denied becuase
Keywords: patent secrecy, Cold War, patents, PTO


-	Friends,

-	I'm a writer on assignment with Technology Review working on 
a piece about Patent Secrecy Orders, a Cold War invention that allows 
the DOD to block grants of patents to inventors whose inventions are 
deemed inimicable to the national security for military rivals to know 
about or aquire.
-	I've got tons of figures on it from the PTO yet the one company 
that I've heard about that has recently fought a patent secrecy 
order - and won - doesn't want to appear in print.
-	Does anyone know an inventor - individual or corporate - who has 
had one of these things slapped on them? I'd appreciate any response. 
I'm stumped because all of this is . . . secret and unpublished so 
finding a victim of secrecy order will have to come from 
word of mouth, or word of net.

-	Thanks.
-				Peter Cassidy

Newsgroups: comp.patents
From: Paul Dourish <Dourish@europarc.xerox.com>
Subject: [REQUEST] CCFlash! NonNeXT: Important Patent Information Needed
X-Software: List-Server V 8.0
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 10:26:18 GMT
Comments: List problems/queries to <uklpf-request@uk.ac.daresbury>
X-Article-Number: uklpf Msg # 148

[mod- again from the UKLPF mailing list...]

---- Start of forwarded text ----

From: Patty_Leeper@NeXT.COM

We need some help in Japan.

Toshiba has filed an application for a patent in Japan. The patent  
describes an electronic mail system capable of imbedding, delivering,  
and playing back sound files.  We're trying to find publications  
which describe such a system and is out in the public domain.  It  
must predate the Toshiba claim of April 24, 1981.  This will allow  
Canon to file an official objection to the Toshiba application and  
prevent Toshiba from coming after NeXTMail in Japan.  We are trying  
find something in the next week to ten days.

Do you know of anything?  Is there anyone who might know?  Are there  
places we might go for this information?  


Please respond to james_higa@next.com.

---- End of forwarded text ----
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Japanese kanji editor?
From: stvnolan@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 92 22:59:01 PDT
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Nanaimo, B.C.
Summary: Looking for Kanji editor

Hello!  I'd like to apologize in advance, for if ever there was a FAQ, this 
is it.. But I couldn't find the FAQ posting, and it's a fairly urgent 
request, so:
 
Can anyone suggest a good Japanese text editor for an MS-DOS machine 
(386DX)?  And hopefully an anonymous FTP site which has it available?  I've 
heard that MOKE is good, but can't seem to track it down.  Any help would be 
very appreciated.  Any info can also be emailed to the address in the .sig .
 
Thanks!
 -Steve.

           stvnolan@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Steve Nolan)
     The Old Frog's Almanac  (Home of The Almanac UNIX Users Group)    
(604) 245-3205 (v32)    <Public Access UseNet>    (604) 245-4366 (2400x4)
        Vancouver Island, British Columbia    Waffle XENIX 1.64
From: ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk (Philippe Goujard)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: What do you want in a simple editor?
Date: 14 Sep 92 16:14:02 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: ICL, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 4SN, UK

Hello,
I have written a small simple editor for unix. Yet another editor might say
some of you.. yes but neither emacs nor vi met my requirements which were :
Make it simple and intuitive to use for users who dont know about emacs or vi
and come from a ms/dos background.
This is why for example I choose to implement wordstar commands.

Now, before I release it to the net my question is : what would you need from
an editor if you where a beginner in unix and came from a dos background?

Please do not think of "I want everything plus the kitchen sink", emacs does
it well already but try to think for each application or task you do (mail,
news, writing memos, etc...) what you would need from an editor.

What do you think of micro-emacs word wrap (i.e insert a carriage return when
befor the last word at the end of line)? Do you think it's convenient or would
you prefer a full word-wrap?
What do you think of vi 'word' wrap (i.e wrap the line around the screen but 
not inserting a CR) ? 

Thanks for any answer, if you reply by email i'll take the time to make a
summary.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philippe GOUJARD                              Email : ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk
From: drdowns@bach.udel.edu (David R. Downs)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Can Elvis 1.6 run without a HD?
Summary: Too poor to buy a real machine.
Date: 14 Sep 92 13:19:41 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware


   I have been monitoring the discussion of Elvis for sometime and have
   been thinking about getting it, but I use an OLD laptop (mainly as a
   terminal) that doesn't have a HD.  I was wondering if it is possible to run
   elvis on such a machine, ie. use b: as the tempory storage.

   Can you set a variable to tell elvis to use a floppy drive, not a HD?

   Thanks,

   David


-- 
E-mail: drdowns@brahms.udel.edu   | U  | 316 Pencader D  | H  | David R. Downs
          downs@cis.udel.edu      | of | Newark DE 19717 | om | RD 2 Box 173 B
       downs@freezer.cns.udel.edu |  D | (302) 837-1189  |  e | Milton DE 19968
Computer & Information Science ** My opinions don't reflect those of the U of D
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: lewis@bnrmtl.bnr.ca (Pierre LEWis)
Subject: Re: What do you want in a simple editor?
Reply-To: lew@bnr.ca (Pierre LEWis)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Montreal, Canada
Distribution: comp
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 19:33:30 GMT

Chris writes

> IMHO, the Wordstar command set will outlive Wordstar itself. There does not
> seem to be any other contendor to the title of "editor key command standard".

Can someone tell me/us what the "standard" Wordstar editor key command set is?

Thanks,
-- 
Pierre LEWIS    +1 514 765-8207      ESN 852-8207
Internet: lew@bnr.ca                 Corwan: lewis@bnrmtl

Implementing standards is like walking on water -- both work best when frozen.
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: rchann@sound.ee.queensu.ca (Robert Chann)
Subject: HELP NEEDED:  key mapping in Elvis 1.6
Followup-To: comp.editors
Keywords: Elvis, key mapping
Organization: Image Processing and Computer Vision Laboratory
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 01:24:57 GMT

I vaguely remember that I could do the following in Elvis 1.3 but now I 
cannot do it in Elvis 1.6.  I would like to put the following line in my
elvis.rc:

map ^V^E :e#^V^M

where ^V denotes control-V (and is not really "visible")
      ^E denotes control-E
      ^M denotes control-M (or carriage return)

The problem is that when I try to edit elvis.rc using Elvis 1.6 the ^M 
never gets saved.  BTW, I have already tried using the :mkexrc command.  
Is this a bug or am I just missing something really trivial/obvious?

Thank you all in advance!
-- 
=============================================================================
Robert Chann
Queen's University                       Phone:  (613)545-6693
Kingston, Ontario, Canada                Email:  rchann@eleceng.ee.queensu.ca
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: wright@epx.cis.umn.edu (Mark Wright)
Subject: Brief macro problem
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 15:05:29 GMT

Can anyone explain to be why I'm getting a NULL GROUP OR EXPRESSION error
with the following Brief macro?  It really looks like a bug to me - it
looks like Brief doesn't want to escape the '{' when I use '\{'.  Note that
this is only a problem with a compiled macro.  I still can use that expression
when I use alt-s or the search_fwd "<\{" at the command line (F10).

thanks
/****************** NEXTFUN ************************************************/
 
void nextfun( void )
 
/*  nextfun takes you to the next '{' at collumn 1
**
**  Mark Wright
**  September 15, 1992
*/
 
{
  int line, col;
 
  /* if past end of buffer (ie. inq_position returns 1), then don't bother
  ** searching.  And save original position
  */
 
  if (!inq_position( line, col )) {
    down();
    if (! search_fwd ("<\{") ) {
      message( "No more functions." );
      move_abs( line, col );
    }
  }
  else
    message( "No more functions." );
 
}
 
/****************** NEXTFUN ************************************************/

-- 
Mark Wright
wright@epx.cis.umn.edu
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: rob@dragon.acadiau.ca (Rob Hutten)
Subject: Re: Is there .rc file for Elvis
Keywords: elvis
Organization: Acadia University
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 17:27:21 GMT

c99-aa@danube.Berkeley.EDU (c99 account) writes:

>I've been using Elvis on my PC, and have been happy camper, except...
>1. How do you do comfiguration file of any kind? (what's the name)?

I couldn't figger out a way of forcing elvis to read a exrc file,
so I kludged a vi.bat file which looks like this:

elvis +"so c:\elvis\exrc" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

(man oh man I hate dos)

It does the trick, but, like most things in dos, it's butt-ugly.

-Rob
-- 
Rob Hutten, Unix guy  
Acadia University Computer Centre, Wolfville, NS.
rob@dragon.acadiau.ca OR rob.hutten@acadiau.ca
Standard disclaimers apply.
From: jt@kgnaix11.aix.kingston.ibm.com (Julian Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: 132 columns
Date: 4 Sep 92 13:57:25 GMT
Organization: IBM Corp. Kingston NY

I sometimes use an 80 col window and at other times a wider window (or I may
widen and resize for whatever reason).  Is there a way to make the wrapmargin
automagically track this (or do I have to use a wrapper for vi - yech)?

tnx
-- 
-*-*-*-*-* JTdidit - from Julian Thomas -    jt@donald.aix.kingston.ibm.com
Inside IBM: jt@kgnaix11.aix.kingston.ibm.com  or JT at KGNAIX 
Snailmail: 83DA/988 IBM DSD Kingston Compuserve: 72355,20  MCIMAIL:  173-6393
  >>> BB00FFFFEEEE <<<
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk)
Subject: Re: What do you want in a simple editor?
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 18:54:16 GMT
Organization: Messina Software
Distribution: comp

ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk (Philippe Goujard) writes:

>Hello,
>I have written a small simple editor for unix. Yet another editor might say
>some of you.. yes but neither emacs nor vi met my requirements which were :
>Make it simple and intuitive to use for users who dont know about emacs or vi
>and come from a ms/dos background.

This is a very noble undertaking.

>This is why for example I choose to implement wordstar commands.

Quite honestly - how many DOS users know Wordstar commands?  Only those
who have been using PCs when Wordstar was still alive, that is, a
negligable minority.

>Now, before I release it to the net my question is : what would you need from
>an editor if you where a beginner in unix and came from a dos background?

QEdit.  Since it's not there and I suppose it would be rather hard to
implement it's full functionality without making it ridiculously
difficult to use, I settle now for mg for small stuff (letters, small
files) and vi for bigger stuff.

>What do you think of micro-emacs word wrap (i.e insert a carriage return when
>befor the last word at the end of line)? Do you think it's convenient or would
>you prefer a full word-wrap?

Give either an option of hard or soft return if you can, but hard MUST
be there.

>What do you think of vi 'word' wrap (i.e wrap the line around the screen but 
>not inserting a CR) ? 

That's the first I hear about it.  set wrapmargin=<whatever> does
insert hard returns.  I think you are talking about a feature of your
emulator, not vi itself.


t.
From: edwarda@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Edward Au)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: document format conversion
Date: 10 Sep 92 14:40:42 GMT
Organization: Monash General Access UNIX System

Is there any program to convert WordPerfect documents into other formats
such as Microsoft Word, MacWrite, etc? If there is, where can I get it?

Please reply via email as I do not normally read this newsgroup.
Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Edward
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
email: edwarda@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au | ASK:
Department of Computer Science       | Ask and you will be given;
Monash University                    | Seek and you will find;
Australia                            | Knock and it will be opened to you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.editors,comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac.wanted
From: alen@crash.cts.com (Alen Shapiro)
Subject: Re: good vi editor for the mac
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:39:08 GMT

In <CKD.92Sep8115511@loiosh.eff.org> ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis) writes:

>JW> == Jon W{tte <d88-jwa@black.nada.kth.se> 

> >> To Tom:  Just what can't you do in MSWord 5.0 that you can do in emacs?

> JW> Keyboard macros
> JW> Toggle words
> JW> Execute other program
> JW> Towers of Hanoi (OK, OK)

>Read news, send/read email, do blinking-brace matching, do syntax-based
>indentation...

SANITY CHECK....SANITY CHECK....BEWARE OF RELIGIOUS ARGUMENTS

Which editor you use depends on, what your needs are, what you are used
to, and how much pain you can stand to get your job done. Arguments
about whose is better are a hiding to nowhere. If we restrict ourselves
to sensible utility/facility this thread might not degenerate before
some information is imparted. Here's my $0.02.

My text-processing requirements often include powerful replacement/
transformation. I've often missed the regular-expression replacement
provided by "ed/ex" style command line editors. I'd love to see MSWord
provide full "regex" form replacement.

As an example (not the only one), try replacing all occurances of
	aaaxxxbbb with cccxxxddd
where xxx can be any set of 3 characters that must be preserved across
the transformation and differ from string-match to string-match. Vi does
this with internal string registers that exist for one command and may
be set on the "find side" and referenced on the "replace side"
of a substitute expression.

If you solve this one in word, try doing the same thing for all cases
EXCEPT where "xxx" (above) is equal to "123".

the Unix "sed" command is supreme in many of these transformations (that
is not to say that ex can't hack the above transformations though).

Does Nissus deal with the above?

MSWord though provides a really neat mechanism for extracting a column
of text (vi does not). Try holding down the option key while you drag
the mouse over the middle of a page.

I try to use the simplest tool for the given range of tasks that I need
to perform now (where "now" may vary from a minute to several days depending
on whether I'm sending out a letter, writing a book, or programming). Means
I need a set of tools to call upon. I'm not sure if I'd use an editor that
combined ALL my needs. It would likely be too big, cumbersome to use,
and not available on enough platforms to make it worth learning.

--alen
alen@crash.cts.com

BTW. vi is a very simple editor, when I'm asked to explain it, my answer is:
Learn the cursor movement commands. If you can move to a point in the file,
you can (usually) get your command to range over that block of text defined
by where you are to where your movement command would take you.

BTW2. I'd REALLY like to see "elvis" (the vi clone, not the dead dude) on
the Mac. I'll provide the "sublaunch" capability if anyone is porting it.
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: c99-aa@danube.Berkeley.EDU (c99 account)
Subject: Is there .rc file for Elvis
Summary: Is there any way to do .rc file with Elvis?
Keywords: elvis
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 20:28:24 GMT


I've been using Elvis on my PC, and have been happy camper, except...

1. How do you do comfiguration file of any kind? (what's the name)?
2. Can one do key maping in Elvis?
   
   (I don't have the source code so I can't look for the answer there)
   Thanx

   Dmitry
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: jaf@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (J Anthony Fitzgerald)
Subject: Looking for info on SPF like editor for UNIX
Organization: University of New Brunswick
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 01:31:37 GMT


Just over a year ago I saw an ad or a new product announcement in one
of the trade journals for an SPF like editor for UNIX.  As I recall, the
product was developed by a company in British Columbia.  I can't find the
add and don't remember any more specifics than the above.  Is anyone in
this forum familiar with such a product and able to give me more information.

Specifically, I would like the actual product name and supplier address or
phone.  Also, how closely the program comes to SPF.  We have a large number
of TSO users who like the simplicity and power of SPF and I have to admit
to missing some SPF features when using vi.  It would be very nice if the
program has the ability to split the screen and run a subshell in the split
screen and even nicer if the program incorporates some UNIX facilities into
the SPF editor such as regular expressions in the find/change commands.  What
I miss most is the ability to exclude lines from the display to simultaneously
view and change widely separated portions of the file and to pop out lines
using the find command.  The sunview text tool sort of gives this with
split display, however, the text tool has its own shortcomings.

I guess I want a bit of everything ;-)
-- 
J. Anthony Fitzgerald    jaf@UNB.ca	(506) 453-4573
Computing Services  UofNB  Box 4400	(506) 453-3590  (FAX)
Fredericton, NB,  CANADA,  E3B 5A3
Newsgroups: comp.editors
From: messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk)
Subject: Re: What do you want in a simple editor?
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 04:15:41 GMT
Organization: Messina Software
Distribution: comp

cwong@cs.cornell.edu (Christopher Yoong-Meng Wong) writes:

>In article <862@ozz.oasis.icl.co.uk> ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk (Philippe Goujard) writes:
>>messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) writes:
>>>[various comments from various posters deleted for brevity]
>
>IMHO, the Wordstar command set will outlive Wordstar itself. There does not
>seem to be any other contendor to the title of "editor key command standard".

I wish I knew what "standard" you're talking about.  I have several friends
who used Wordstar (like I did) way back when, but none of them could
fluently operate it now.  If you mean 5 or 6 most common cursor
movement commands or block commands, then that's hardly a "standard"
considering that cursor keys (just look at their name) are certainly
easier and more popular among most users (alright, you geniuses 200
gadzillion words per minute vi users, yeah, I know, you saw the cursor
keypad off).

>A look around my machine is all I need: DR Dos's editor, Borland's Turbo C++, 

DR DOS editor is pathetic compared even to "edit" in MS-DOS, and
frankly, resembles Wordstar 1.0, if there ever was one.  Borland's
IDE implements wordstar keys *also*, besides more intuitive keypad and
mouse commands, not as the *only* set.

>some freeware editors (VDE and TPE) and even the editor in my
>telecommunication

Never heard of them.

>program, use the Wordstar commands. It seems that every time someone writes 
>an editor and needs an interface without pull-down menus etc, the Wordstar
>command set is picked.

That's funny, just looking at the most popular programmer's editors
(not necessarily in that order): Brief (why did Borland possibly buy
it if their "wordstar" editor was do good?), vi, Emacs, QEdit, I don't
see a single one that implements Wordstar commands.

>Just look at the index to files in Simtel20's
>pd1:<msdos.editor> archive. 

Forgive me, but at least half of the stuff on all archival sites is
total crap.

>If you do not use Wordstar commands, what other alternative is there?

Look at the four editors above, each one of them implements different
alternative.  Each of those alternatives is better than Wordstar.


t.
Newsgroups: comp.editors