Stefan, just to clarify, not that I am involved with Microsoft marketing and distribution for the .Net Framework, but I think the plan is to roll MSBuild (engine and some basic tasks) into the framework distribution (but probably not into the Base Class Libraries that are defined in the public ECMA spec). This would effectively mean that it is part of the .net core, but not a public api.
I too would consider general patents on the ideas of a xml build tool, with specific technologies like tasks, xml reading and mapping to those tasks, workflow and such, as a major problem, and somewhat scary. I can't say I'm in any position to fight these possible patens legally, but I too would think that there are plenty of examples of prior art in (N)Ant. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stefan Bodewig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 12:52 AM Subject: Re: [nant-dev] FYI > Hi, > > as you are new to this list, Alex, let me introduce myself to you > quickly. > > I'm not a NAnt developer, but rather - a bit like you - a visitor from > a very similar product. I'm one of the developers of Apache Ant, the > product that inspired NAnt's birth. > > On Mon, 3 Nov 2003, Alex Kipman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > From: Scott Hernandez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >> Do you know if microsoft has any submitted or ourstanding patends on > >> the technologies included in the MSBuild stuff? > > > > This is a tricky question but I'll do my best to answer it openly > > and honestly :). > > > > 1) Microsoft has submitted and has some outstanding patents on > > technologies included in the MSBuild engine (core platform stuff). > > Forgive me, but this sounds a little scary to me. In particular as > I'm German and don't know too much about US patent law. I understand > that you cannot go into details, but I assume that "core platform > stuff" is just that, core .NET stuff. > > If Microsoft was going to patent things like the dependency checking > inside the MSBuild execution engine or how tasks get registered, > instantiated, configured from XML and all that, this would certainly > affect NAnt and Ant - although I'm sure that whatever NAnt or Ant do > would easily be considered prior art here. > > I want to thank you for being here, Alex. > > Cheers ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive? Does it help you create better code? SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help YOU! Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/ _______________________________________________ nant-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers
