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c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

Matter at hand US Patent Application 20140196008 [freepatentsonline.com].
What (seems to me like) MS wants to patent:
* immutability by API:

Systems level programming is based upon tight and efficient management of access to and lifetime of resources (such as objects) throughout the system. One common way to provide this tight management is to use an Application Program Interface (API) to manage the lifetime and access of the resource.

* immutability by language extensions:

At least some embodiments described herein relate to a language extension that advances safety in system programming. In accordance with the language extension, an entire type may be declared to be immutable in the case in which all instances of that type are immutable. The immutable type declaration automatically causes any instances of that type to be treated as immutable, and automatically causes all directly or indirectly reachable members (e.g., fields, methods, properties) of the instance to also be treated as immutable.

If you have ideas on prior art, visit the patents.stackexchange.com entry [stackexchange.com].

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Original Submission