[K12OSN] Web based Student Information Systems?

[Tom Hoffman]

Sorry this is somewhat off topic, but we might as well see it through
to conclusion...

On 1/16/07, "Terrell Prudé Jr." <microman at cmosnetworks.com> wrote:
> Tom Hoffman wrote:
> > On 1/15/07, "Terrell Prudé Jr." <microman at cmosnetworks.com> wrote:
> >> It does sound good, but given Microsoft's recent tendencies, there is a
> >> concern.  Does it have patent restrictions, like their Office XML or the
> >> FAT file system?  Shame we have to think about this, but unfortunately
> >> we now do....

> "Actually, AJAX should be considered a Microsoft thing.  At the core of
> AJAX is a function called 'XMLHttpRequest', which started life as
> 'XMLHTTP', which was written by....  Microsoft.  (Even Microsoft can
> have a few good ideas)"

Jim's explanation there is a bit of an oversimplification.

Here Jesse James Garrett in the 2005 essay which created the term Ajax
(note he does not work for Microsoft):

http://adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php

"Ajax isn't a technology. It's really several technologies, each
flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways.
Ajax incorporates:

    * standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
    * dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
    * data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
    * asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
    * and JavaScript binding everything together."

All those pieces were prexisting technologies with multiple
implementations and at least draft specifications by an open standards
body.  Microsoft gets credit for coming up with the XMLHttpRequest API
originally (and supporting XML in general) but that's about it.  Also,
if you look at the examples in Garrett's essay, none of them are from
Microsoft.

> Hence, the concern.  Should (non-Novell) F/OSS developers really be
> using this before it's been verified safe, in the legal (i. e. patent)
> sense?

If F/OSS developers start trying to verify that they are infringing no
patents before they write software, they won't be able to write any
software at all, the whole software patent is just a complete mess.

--Tom