On 19-Mar-07 21:00:37, Tom Horsley wrote:
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:37:58 -0000 (GMT) (Ted Harding)
wrote: For example, does it occur in standard textboooks on computer programming and data structures? Is there long-standing open source software in which it may be found?
Well, it is essentially the way all relational databases work, so they should clearly sue Oracle for a million billion zillion dollars.
Can you expand and clarify that?
I can see that storage in a relational databse table (i.e. "relation")
is facilitated by using a "double-linked list" (in the *traditional*
sense I described at [1] in my previous mail), where each record
is associated with two pointers, one to its successor in some desired
order (e.g. alphabetical sort) and the other to its predecessor.
But is the *other* "double-linked list" as I described at [2] of
my previous mail generally used -- i.e. is each record associated
with two or more sets of pointers, where, in one set, one pointer
points to the successor in one ordering and the other pointer to
its predecessor in the same ordering; and in another set one
pointer points to the successor in a different ordering and the
other points to its predecessor in this different ordering, and
so on?
You say "it is essentially the way all relational databases work",
which -- if we are talking about the same interpretation -- means
that in all relational databases each record in a relation is
associated with multiple forward pointers and a matched set of
multiple backward pointers. Is that the case (speaking from
ignorance here)?
It is the second interpretation of "double linked list" which is
the subject of the patent, not the first!
With thanks,
Ted.
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