Using logical names as a string to distinguish logical controls

• US 20050076160A1
• Filed: 10/06/2003
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Beliaev, Vladimir K., McWalter, William F.
• Application Number:
  US10/680,736
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076160A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06

Abstract

An invention is provided abstracting device names in a system. The invention includes receiving a logical name indicating a device type of physical device present in a system. A physical device in the system then is selected, which has a device type indicated by the logical name. Next, a physical device name is determined for a software component representing the selected physical device. In one aspect, the physical device name can be provided to a requesting application program. In this case, the physical device name can be a character string. Optionally, a handle to the software component can be provided to the requesting application program. The logical name can be a generic character string indicating a device type of a physical device present in a system.

Claims

1. A method for abstracting device names in a system, comprising the operations of:

receiving a logical name indicating a device type of physical device present in a system;

selecting a physical device in the system, the physical device having a device type indicated by the logical name; and

determining a physical device name for a software component representing the selected physical device.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the operation of providing the physical device name to a requesting application program, wherein the physical device name is a character string.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the operation of providing a handle to the software component to a requesting application program.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the logical name is a generic character string indicating a device type of physical device present in a system.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the software component is a logical device object, the logical device object including a physical device implementation code segment capable receiving device data from a physical device, the logical device object further including an application programming interface (API) in communication with a physical device implementation code segment, wherein the API is capable of receiving the device data from the physical device code segment.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein an application program can communicate with the API to access the device data.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the operation of registering software components representing physical devices in the system with a logical device manager, the logical device manager capable of receiving the logical name from an application program.

8. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program capable of abstracting device names in a system:

computer program instructions that receive a logical name indicating a device type of physical device present in a system;

computer program instructions that select a physical device in the system, the physical device having a device type indicated by the logical name; and

computer program instructions that determine a physical device name for a software component representing the selected physical device.

9. A computer program as recited in claim 8, further comprising computer program instructions that provide the physical device name to a requesting application program, wherein the physical device name is a character string.

10. A computer program as recited in claim 8, further comprising computer program instructions that provide a handle to the software component to a requesting application program.

11. A computer program as recited in claim 8, wherein the logical name is a generic character string indicating a device type of physical device present in a system.

12. A computer program as recited in claim 8, wherein the software component is a logical device object, the logical device object including a physical device implementation code segment capable receiving device data from a physical device, the logical device object further including an application programming interface (API) in communication with a physical device implementation code segment, wherein the API is capable of receiving the device data from the physical device code segment.

13. A computer program as recited in claim 12, wherein an application program can communicate with the API to access the device data.

14. A computer program as recited in claim 8, further comprising computer program instructions that register software components representing physical devices in the system with a logical device manager, the logical device manager capable of receiving the logical name from an application program.

15. A system for abstracting device names in a system, comprising:

an application program;

a logical device manager capable of providing access to a particular software component in response to receiving a software component type request from the application program; and

a software component capable of performing a particular function, the software component having a software component type, the software component further having a software component name,

wherein the application program provides a logical name indicating a software component type present in the system, and wherein the logical device manager determines the software component name based on the software component type.

16. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the logical device manager provides the software component name to the application program, wherein the physical device name is a character string.

17. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the logical device manager provides a handle to the software component to the application program.

18. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the software component type request is a generic character string indicating a type of software component present in a system.

19. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the software component is a logical device object, the logical device object including a physical device implementation code segment capable receiving device data from a physical device, the logical device object further including an API in communication with a physical device implementation code segment, wherein the API is capable of receiving the device data from the physical device code segment.

20. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein the application program can communicate with one of the API and logical device to access the device data.