Method and system to display, modify or substitute the contents of self-describing objects

A method in an object-oriented environment for processing data stored as a CORBA software object having an object type of “ANY”, the object including data and methods that are executable by the object-oriented environment, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

• decomposing and displaying the contents of the CORBA ANY object in an easily understood form;
• modifying the contents of the CORBA ANY object in an intuitive point-and-click environment;
• constructing a new CORBA ANY object from other CORBA objects;
• and
• wherein primitive types:null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, char, and octet are displayed directly with type-in capability to change values.

A data processing system including all object-oriented environment for manipulating a CORBA software object having an object type of “ANY”, the object including data and methods that are executable by the object-oriented environment, the data processing system comprising:

• a means for decomposing and displaying the contents of a CORBA ANY type in an easily understood form;
• a means for modifying the contents of a CORBA ANY TYPE in an intuitive point-and-click environment;
• a means for constructing a now CORBA ANY object from other CORBA objects;
• and
• wherein primitive types:
• null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, char, and octet are (displayed directly with type-in capability to change values.

A computer program product on a computer-readable medium for use in a network workstation for processing CORBA objects of type ANY, the computer program product comprising:

• instructions for decomposing the contents of a CORBA ANY object;
• instructions for displaying the contents of a CORBA ANY object;
• instructions for modifying the contents of a CORBA ANY object;
• instructions for copying data from any allowed Interface Definition Language object to a CORBA ANY object;
• instructions for pasting data from a CORBA ANY object to any allowed Interface Definition Language object;
• wherein the data object that is processed may be primitive or complex;
• and
• wherein the primitive object is one of the following types:
• null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, boolean, char, octet.