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Not to worry. There's a GNU project called 'XML Gnu Accelerator System' that's been out for a year or so. It turns XSLT into emacs macros then runs it. Something to do with molecular transformations. Fantastic performance. I believe it qualifies as prior art. ramin > -----Original Message----- > From: Sean McGrath [mailto:sean.mcgrath@p...] > Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 4:09 AM > To: xml-dev@l... > Subject: Any prior art?: An upcoming patent for an XSL implementation > technique > > > I have just had an odd conversation with a Dr. Uvbin Hadson > (a distant relative as it happens) from the Lifford Institute of > Electrochemical Sciences. > > The conversation was both intriguing and worrying. > > Dr. Handson claims to have developed an implementation of XSLT 1.0 > (http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116) that is now > feature complete apart from some miscellaneous functions > (unparsed-entity-uri() for example). > > But here is the kicker: the implementation is based on a patent pending > trancoding of the infoset (http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/) > into molecular > structures. Once transcoded into molecular form, > the transformation essentially consists of the simultaneous application > of nano-templates (basically chemical reactions) that transform > the source XML per the XSLT stylesheet. > > Handson claims that the side-effect free nature of XSL is key > to this implementation as all templates can be executed > *simultaneously* to generate the result infoset very, very quickly. > (http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/199906/msg00406.html). > At the end of the process, a reverse transcoding takes place to > convert the hydrocarbon compound back to serialized XML in > UTF-8. The performance and scalability figures he cites are > truly mind-boggling! > > Apparantly, the approach is based on treating XSL templates as > nano-machines that exert force on the molecules in ways that > can be controlled to implement particular transformations. > > Using something called the "Born-Oppenheimer approximation", if you > know the positions r1, r2, .... rN of N nuclei representing element > nodes, then E(r1, r2, .... rN) gives the potential energy of the > system. Knowing the potential energy as a function of the nuclear > positions, means you can determine and then control the forces acting > on the individual nuclei. This allows you to control the evolution of > theirs positions over time and thus implement arbitrary XSLT > transformations. > > Unlike other workers in the field, who prefer diamond and isobutane > for representing structures, Dr Hadson is experimenting with > commodity hydrocarbons and sulphates for infoset representation > e.g (CaSO4)H20 and c2H5Oh. > > Hadson himself is not in favour of patenting his method but he > is under pressure from his employers to do so. Personally, I > hope this stuff does not get patented or we could be in > an analagous situation to the "gene wars". A US supreme > court ruling from 1980 permits the patenting of some > organisms found in nature... > > Hadson's methods seems to me to be certainly novel but I > am not a guru is this area. Is anyone aware of any prior > art that might skupper the patent plans? > > Dr Hadson does not subscribe to this list but he can be > contacted at Uvbin.Hadson@p.... > > regards, > Sean McGrath > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org, an initiative of OASIS > <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To unsubscribe from this elist send a message with the single word > "unsubscribe" in the body to: xml-dev-request@l... >
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