[OT] Free software versus software idea patents

[Roy Smith]

In article <4da7abad$0$29986$c3e8da3$5496439d at news.astraweb.com>,
 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> What they give is ubiquity, which is a point in their favour. But just 
> because something is common doesn't make it useful: for the most part 
> both are used for style over substance, of sizzle without sausage, rather 
> than anything actually useful or desirable: think of a misfeature that 
> *degrades* the user-experience, and chances are it's implemented in Flash 
> or Javascript on tens of thousands of sites.

There's certainly a lot to hate about JS (and even more so, flash), but 
they fill a niche.  They provide a way to have better user interaction 
than you could with just forms and a submit button.

That's not to say there's not lot of sucky shit build with them.  But, 
if they didn't exist, something else would have to take their place.  I 
don't see JS going away any time soon.

Flash, on the other hand, is an unadulterated pile of dung.