David A. Wheeler’s paper identifies the most important software innovations by focusing strictly on technological innovations that have had widespread and critical impact on programming, deliberately excluding hardware advances and non-technological developments such as legal or social inventions. The paper also argues that software patents have largely failed to promote innovation, often covering obvious ideas or prior art, and have instead impeded software development, with most key software innovations never patented; this challenges the effectiveness of patents as incentives in the software industry.
The Most Important Software Innovations
