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US 7,665,073 B2Granted
Compile time meta-object protocol systems and methods
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsHenricus Johannes Maria Meijer, Avner Y. Aharoni, David Schach
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The subject invention pertains to a compilation system and meta-object protocol to facilitate interaction with objects of various types including but not limited to XML documents. More specifically, a delineator or dot operator can be extended to hide idiosyncratic details of interacting with objects. Code details can be generated by a compiler behind the scenes. This enables a programmer to achieve the same results while writing much simpler and intuitive code.
Claims17
A compilation system comprising:
- a processor:
- a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the compilation system including:
- a receiver component that receives a delimited programmatic expression comprising a first element, a delimiter, and a second element wherein the programmatic expression is a member access expression where the first element is a receiver expression, the second element is a message identifier, and the delimiter is one of a dot (.), a series of dots ( . . . ), an exclamation point (!), or a pound symbol (#);
- a type detection component that determines the type of the first element;
- and
- a generation component that produces a translated expression based on the type of the first element and identities of the first element, the delimiter and the second element, wherein producing the translated expression comprises:
- determining whether the second element represents or is a member of the type of the first element;
- and
- generating a different type of translated expression based on whether the second element represents or is a member of the type of the first element, namely:
- when the second element represents or is a member of the type of the first element, generating a translated expression that incorporates standard methods for the delimiter;
- and
- when the second element does not represent and is not a member of the type of the first element, generating a generic method call as the translated expression, the generic method call not specifying any particular translation and not being bound to any particular method type.
9 more elements
A compilation system comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the compilation system including:
- means for receiving a delimited programmatic expression comprising;
- a first element;
- a second element;
- and
- a delimiter, separating the first element from the second element, and wherein the delimiter is one of;
- a dot (.);
- a series of dots ( . . . );
- an exclamation point (!);
- or
- a pound symbol (#);
- means for generating a method call based on the received expression and in accordance with a meta-object protocol, wherein a type of the method call is generated differently based on whether the second element is related to or is a member of the type of the first element and includes:
- determining whether the second element represents or is a member of the type of the first element;
- generating a different type of translated expression based on whether the second element represents or is a member of the type of the first element, namely:
- when the second element represents or is a member of the type of the first element, generated a translated expression that incorporates standard methods for the delimiter;
- and
- when the second element does not represent and is not a member of the type of the first element, generating a generic method call as the translated expression, the generic call not specifying any particular translation and not being bound to any particular method type;
- and
- means for incorporating the method call into the received expression to generate a translated expression.
17 more elements
A programmatic expression compilation method comprising:
- using a processor of a computing system:
- receiving a programmatic expression that includes a first element, a delimiter, and a second element, wherein the delimiter immediately follows the first element and the second element immediately follows the delimiter, and wherein the delimiter is one of a dot (.), a series of dots ( . . . ), an exclamation point (!), or a pound symbol (#);
- determining the type of the first element;
- and
- generating a translated expression based on the determined type of the first element and the identities of the first element, delimiter, and second element, wherein generating the translated expression comprises:
- determining whether the second element is a property or field of the type of the first element;
- and
- generating a different type of translated expression based on whether the second element is a property or field of the type of the first element, namely:
- when the second element is a property or field of the type of the first element, generating a translated expression that incorporates standard methods for the delimiter;
- and
- when the second element is not a property or field of the type of the first element, generating a generic method call as the translated expression, the generic method call not specifying any particular translation and not being bound to any particular method type.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.