Sharing dynamically changing resources in software systems

A computer system for sharing a set of resources among a plurality of clients, comprising:

• a version manager capable of creating a version of a resource for each one of the plurality of processes that requires access to the resource wherein a version of the resource is one of:
• 1) a representation of the resource at a particular point in time;
• and 2) a transformation of the resource;
• and
• a resource manager capable of registering the set of resources and notifying a process in the plurality of processes when a resource in the set of resources upon which the process requires access is updated,
• wherein the version manager is further configured to:
• receive a resource list from a process of the plurality of processes,
• select a resource from the resource list,
• when a version of the resource does not already exist, create a new version of the resource, and set a reference count corresponding to the new version to a first value,
• when the version of the resource already exists but is not a latest version of the resource, create the new version of the resource, decrement a value of a reference count corresponding to the version of the resource, and set the reference count corresponding to the new version to the first value,
• when the version of the resource already exists and is a latest version of the resource, increment the value of the reference count corresponding to the version of the resource and not create the new version of the resource, and
• add the version of the resource to a version list that is sent to the process.

A machine readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon to cause a computer system to:

• for each resource in a set of resources, create a version of a resource for each one of a plurality of processes that requires access to the resource wherein a version of the resource is one of:
• 1) a representation of the resource at a particular point in time;
• and 2) a transformation of the resource;
• make each of the created versions available to the plurality of processes;
• and
• notify a process in the plurality of processes when a resource in the set of resources upon which the process requires access is updated,
• wherein the creating the version of the resource further comprises:
• receiving a resource list from a process of the plurality of processes,
• selecting a resource from the resource list,
• when a version of the resource does not already exist, creating a new version of the resource, and setting a reference count corresponding to the new version to a first value,
• when the version of the resource already exists but is not a latest version of the resource, creating the new version of the resource, decrementing a value of a reference count corresponding to the version of the resource, and setting the reference count corresponding to the new version to a first value,
• when the version of the resource already exists and is a latest version of the resource, incrementing the value of the reference count corresponding to the version of the resource and not creating the new version of the resource, and
• adding the version of the resource to a version list that is sent to the process.