rickman wrote in :

I think what you are trying to
do is to make it available to everyone, in essence to make it
unpatentable. To do that you merely need to establish prior art.

Pretty much. That would work for me so I'll look into your suggestion of
an initial filing. After all, my only concern is that when I write code, I
want it to help protect me as I get older, paying bills or whatever, without
having to worry about someone with a deliberately loose and aggressive patent
aimed at stifling anyone working on the area they spuriously claim for
themselves. After all, my work is writing code, not writing patents so I can
sit there ready to pounce on some poor sod who is anly trying to do what I'm
really trying to do.

I'd heard of prior art, but wasn't sure what it took to do it. 300 bucks is
still a tad steep, so are there other ways where I could do more work myself
to save money? I've often wondered what exactly qualifies as adequate
publication, becase I think that may be a way to do it.