Delayed loading and instantiation of resources defined in markup

• US 20070169011A1
• Filed: 11/15/2005
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ramani, Sundaram, Carter, Benjamin, Ostertag, Peter, Ostertag, Patricia
• Granted Patent: US 7,823,063 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading

Abstract

Techniques for delayed loading and instantiation of resources in a resource dictionary are provided. These techniques can be used to delay or defer the loading of values (or “value records”) into the resource dictionary until the values are actually needed or requested by an application.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating a binary representation of markup language information comprising key records, value records corresponding to each of the key records, and offsets from each key record to each corresponding value record;

instantiating the key records as key objects at a first time;

locating a specific value record using a specific offset at a second time occurring after the first time; and

instantiating the specific value record as a value object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first time is load-time, and wherein the second time is run-time.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing the binary representation of the markup language information at compile-time; and

loading the key records and offsets into a memory at load-time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the binary representation of the markup language information, comprises:

receiving a plurality of keys and corresponding values for each key;

buffering the plurality of keys in a first buffer;

buffering the corresponding values for each key in a second buffer; and

arranging the plurality of keys and corresponding values for each key into a format.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the binary representation of the markup language information is generated based on the markup language information comprising the plurality of keys and the corresponding values for each key.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the markup language information comprises Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) information, wherein the format comprises a binary record format, wherein each key record comprises a binary key record, wherein each value record comprises a binary value record, and wherein generating the binary representation of the markup language information, comprises:

buffering the plurality of binary key records in the first buffer;

buffering the corresponding binary value records for each binary key record in the second buffer;

generating offsets from each binary key record to each corresponding binary value record for a location of each binary value record; and

arranging the plurality of binary key records and corresponding binary value records into the binary record format comprising binary key records, binary value records, and offsets from each binary key record to each corresponding binary value record.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein loading the key records and offsets into the memory, comprises:

interpreting and loading the binary key records and offsets into a memory at run-time; and

instantiating the binary key records in the memory as key objects.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein locating a specific value record in response to a request from an application at run-time, comprises:

locating a specific binary value record in response to a request from an application at run-time, wherein the specific binary value record is located using a specific offset corresponding to a specific binary key record associated with the specific binary value. record; and

wherein instantiating the specific value record as a value object, comprises;

instantiating the specific binary value record in the memory as the value object.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the binary record format comprises:

a first portion comprising a first binary key record, a first offset to a first binary value record, a second binary key record, and a second offset to a second binary value record; and

a second portion comprising the first binary value record and the second binary value record.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first offset and the second offset are interposed between the first binary key record and the second binary key record.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second portion is arranged such that the first portion precedes the second portion.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second portion is instantiated in a resource dictionary after the first portion.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein locating a specific binary value record in response to a request from an application at run-time, wherein the specific binary value record is located using a specific offset corresponding to a specific binary key record associated with the specific binary value record, comprises:

locating the first binary value record in response to the request from the application at run-time, wherein the first binary value record is located using the first offset corresponding to the first binary key record associated with the first binary value record; and

loading and interpreting the first binary value record, and

wherein instantiating the specific binary value record in the memory as the value object comprises;

instantiating the first binary value record as a first value object in a resource dictionary stored in the memory.

14. A system, comprising:

a parser module configured to generate a binary representation of markup language information comprising key records, value records corresponding to each of the key records, and offsets from each key record to each corresponding value record;

a memory configured to store key objects corresponding to the key records and offset information corresponding to the offsets, wherein the key objects are instantiated in memory at a first time; and

a run-time engine configured to locate a specific value record using a specific offset and to instantiate the specific value record in the memory as a value object at a second time occurring after the first time.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first time is load-time, and wherein the second time is run-time, wherein the run-time engine is configured to load the key records and offsets into the memory at run-time, and to instantiate the key records in the memory as key objects.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a disk configured to store the binary representation of the markup language information; and

an application module configured to request the specific value record corresponding to the specific key record.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a compiler module configured to receive markup language information having a first format, the markup language information comprising a plurality of keys and corresponding values for each key,

wherein the parser module is configured to receive the markup language information from the compiler module and to generate the binary representation of the markup language information by performing processing to;

convert the keys into key records and buffer the plurality of key records in a first buffer,

convert the values into value records and buffer the corresponding value records for each key record in a second buffer, and

arrange the plurality of key records and corresponding value records for each key into a second format different than the first format.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the markup language information comprises XAML information.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the second format comprises a binary record format, wherein each key record comprises a binary key record, and wherein each value record comprises a binary value record, and

wherein the parser module is configured to generate the binary representation of the markup language information by converting the keys into binary key records and buffering the plurality of binary key records in the first buffer, converting the values into binary value records and buffering the binary value records in the second buffer, generating offsets from each binary key record to each corresponding binary value record for locating each binary value record, and arranging the binary key records and corresponding binary value records for each binary key record into the binary record format, the binary record format comprising binary key records, binary value records, and offsets from each binary key record to each corresponding binary value record.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the run-time engine is configured to interpret and load the binary key records and offsets into the memory at run-time, and to instantiate the binary key records in the memory as key objects, wherein the application module is configured to request a specific binary value record corresponding to a specific binary key record at run-time, and

wherein the run-time engine is configured to locate the specific binary value record at run-time using the offset corresponding to the specific binary key record and to instantiate a value object corresponding to the specific binary value record in the memory.