Cross-process common system resource data sharing

• US 20050149942A1
• Filed: 01/11/2005
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Scott, Phillip Brian, Venkatraman, Suresh, Knudson, Chad N. R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,665,091 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

A system and method is provided for sharing constrained resources between two or more processes running within a common operating environment. The system is implemented by establishing a communications interface to each process sharing the resource data. The method obtains the resource data to be shared from one or more resource sources. In communication with the processes, the communications interface receives resource data requests and processes the requests with the resource data. Finally, the method communicates the processed resource data request, via the communications link, to the requesting process.

Claims

1-32. -32. (canceled)

33. A cross-process resource sharing system, said system comprising:

a central data server;

a central data store, wherein said central data server establishes a communications link between said central data store and a client application;

wherein said central data store contains shared system resource data and is adapted to communicate at least a portion of the system resource data to the client application over the communications link in response to resource data requests from the client application; and

an update communications server connected to said central data server, said update communications server being further connected to a resource source to provide a communications link between said central data server and the resource source.

34. The system as recited in claim 33, wherein said system resource is graphics display interface/font resource data.

35. The system as recited in claim 34, wherein said central data server is a central font cache server.

36. The system as recited in claim 34, wherein said central data store is a font cache store.

37. The system as recited in claim 34, wherein said update communications server is a font cache update window.

38. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

obtaining a copy of resource data from a source of resource data;

receiving data process requests from one or more client applications;

processing the resource data requests by sharing the copy of the resource data; and

communicating the processed resource data requests to the respective applications.

39. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 38, further comprising instructions for creating an instance of a central server and establishing a separate communications interface for each application.

40. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 39, wherein the central server is a central font cache server.

41. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 38, wherein said obtaining step includes creating an instance of a central data store and storing the resource data in the central data store.

42. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 41, wherein the central data store is a font cache store.

43. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 41, wherein said processing step includes transferring the data requests to the data store.

44. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, wherein said communicating step includes transferring at least a portion of the resource data from the data store to the applications.

45. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 44, wherein the resource data transfer utilizes a fast access array.

46. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 54, further comprising instructions for refreshing the resource data.

47. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 46, wherein said refreshing step includes:

creating a resource data update window;

receiving communications from a resource data source; and

obtaining a new copy of the resource data.

48. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 47, wherein said step of receiving communications from the source includes receiving an update resource data message from an operating system.

49. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 48, wherein the update resource data message is an update graphics display interface/font resource data message.

50. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 38, wherein the resource data is graphics display interface font resource data.

51. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 38, wherein the applications are single document interface applications.

52. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 51, wherein each instance of the single document interface applications is selected from a group consisting of a word processing application, a spreadsheet application and a database application.

53. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 52, wherein the single document interface applications are created from a single software platform.

54. A computer system having a memory, an operating system and a central processor, said processor being operable to execute the instructions stored on the computer-readable medium of claim 38.

55. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for performing a method for sharing graphics device interface (GDI)/font resource data between multiple instances of single document interface (SDI) applications, the computer readable medium allowing execution of instructions comprising:

obtaining a single shared copy of the GDI/font resource data from a source of system resources;

creating an instance of a central server and a central font cache store and storing the single shared copy in the central font cache store, the single shared copy being configured to allow concurrent accessing and sharing by the multiple instances of SDI applications;

receiving font data process requests from the SDI applications through communications between a separate communications link associated with each of the multiple instances and the central server, wherein receiving font data process requests further includes establishing a separate communications interface for each SDI application;

processing the font data requests through the central server using the shared copy of the GDI/font resource data and transferring the font data requests to a central font cache store having stored thereto the shared copy of the GDI/font resource data; and

communicating the processed font data to the SDI applications by transferring at least a portion of the GDI/font resource data from the central font cache store to the applications utilizing a fast access array, wherein the GDI/font resource data includes a system handle to a system font and at least one attribute of the system font.