IS NOT OPERATOR (application with USPTO). I believe it’s been filed on behalf of some Microsoft employees, who are heavily encouraged to come up with as many patentable ideas as possible. Never mind real R&D ;-)
So what is this magical new invention?
A system for determining if two operands point to different locations in memory, the system comprising: a compiler for receiving source code and generating executable code from the source code, the source code comprising an expression comprising an operator associated with a first operand and a second operand, the expression evaluating to true when the first operand and the second operand point to different memory locations.
Further reading tells us that it’s about VB classes, and specifically comparing pointers to classes.
Basically it’s the same as
if (ptra != ptrb) ...
in C which has been around since about 1970. There’s some extra checking to see if the operands are actually pointers and such, but that’s trivial stuff you get for free in higher level languages (which you have to do yourself in C).
This patent application is very silly, and not “new” even in the most pathetic basic context.
Granting this application would be further proof of the current sillyness in the US patent system, particularly regarding software patents.
The fact that the application was filed at all is already very sad. They obviously expect it to be approved, why otherwise spend the money….