US 7,890,929 B1Granted

Methods and system for a tool and instrument oriented software design

AssigneeKenneth Raymond Johanson

InventorKenneth Raymond Johanson

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A Toolbox and Instrument software design and runtime system which simulates real-world Tools by providing Instruments for the Tools' configuration, control, and state monitoring before, during, and after runtime. A Tool is a software function which may be used to modify an existing object or to create a new object. Tools with related functionality are grouped by their containment within appropriately named, static classes, or object references, their grouping which represents a Toolbox. Each Tool accepts one or more input (operand) objects to be changed or zero operands if a new object will be created, and each Tool also a Configuration Instrument, a State monitoring instrument, and optional Control Instrument. Alternatively, the Control and State Instrument's functionality can be consolidated into a single Instrument, or the Control and Configuration Instrument's functionality can be consolidated into a single Instrument.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system that facilitates development and operation of software running on a computer, comprising:

multiple static classes or class references, stored in a computer readable storage media and executed on a processor, that each represent a virtual Toolbox, and said classes having a name which describes said Toolbox's predominant object type or process type compatibility;
and;
said classes contain one or more functions representing Tools, said Tools having the ability to create new objects or to modify objects which are input to said Tool, and each of said Tools have names which correspondingly describe said Tool's specific object type or process type compatibility, wherein the improvement is that said functions must also accept as inputs;
a) one or more Configuration Instruments (configuration class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to understand for the purpose of defining the behavior of said Tool before execution;
and
b) one or more State Instruments (state class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to modify during execution, said values will be used to store one or more of the Tool's internal states (values), and the State Instrument will make said values readable by one or more external threads or processes, during and after execution of the Tool;
and said State Instrument may additionally contain values that the Tool has been designed to understand for the purpose of controlling the behavior of said Tool before and during execution;
c) one or more operand objects to be retrieved or modified or used to affect the creation of new objects by said Tool, or zero or more operands when a tool is designed to create an object.

5 more elements

A system that facilitates development and operation of software running on a computer, comprising:

multiple static classes or class references, stored in a computer readable storage media and executed on a processor, that each represent a virtual Toolbox, and said classes having a name which describes said Toolbox's predominant object type or process type compatibility;
and;
said classes contain one or more functions representing Tools, said Tools having the ability to create new objects or to modify objects which are input to said Tool, and each of said Tools have names which correspondingly describe said Tool's specific object type or process type compatibility, wherein the improvement is that said functions must also accept as inputs;
a) a Control Instrument (control class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to understand for the purpose of defining the behavior of said Tool before and during execution;
and
b) one or more State Instruments (state class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to modify during execution, said values will be used to store one or more of the Tool's internal states (values), and the State Instrument will make said values readable by one or more external threads or processes, during and after execution of the Tool;
and
c) one or more operand objects to be retrieved or modified or used to affect the creation of new objects by said Tool, or zero or more operands when a tool is designed to create a object.

5 more elements

A system that facilitates development and operation of software running on a computer, comprising:

multiple static classes or class references, stored in a computer readable storage media and executed on a processor, that each represent a virtual Toolbox, and said classes having a name which describes said Toolbox's predominant object type or process type compatibility;
and;
said classes contain one or more functions representing Tools, said Tools having the ability to create new objects or to modify objects which are input to said Tool, and each of said Tools have names which correspondingly describe said Tool's specific object type or process type compatibility, wherein the improvement is that said functions must also accept as inputs;
a) a Control Instrument (control class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to understand for the purpose of defining the behavior of said Tool during execution;
and
b) one or more Configuration Instruments (configuration class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to understand for the purpose of controlling the behavior of said Tool before execution;
and
c) one or more State Instruments (state class) which contains values that the Tool has been designed to modify during execution, said values will be used to store one or more of the Tool's internal states (values), and the State Instrument will make said values readable by one or more external threads or processes, during and after execution of the Tool;
and
d) one or more operand objects to be retrieved or modified or used to affect the creation of new objects by said Tool, or zero or more operands when a tool is designed to create a object.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.