TYPE INFERENCE AND LATE BINDING

• US 20080320453A1
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vick, Paul A., Meijer, Henricus Johannes Maria, Silver, Amanda, Rivard, John J., Ng, Timothy Yat Tim, Aneja, Jonathan Paul
• Application Number:
  US11/766,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20080320453A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/423 Preprocessors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/437 Type checking

Abstract

A type inference option is available for a computer programming language. The option acts as a switch to specify whether or not type inference is applicable (e.g., on or off). Type inference can be employed in conjunction with late binding or options therefor. In this manner, a computer program can be developed with the convenience of type inference and the flexibility of late binding while still maintaining at a degree of type safety.

Claims

1. A program compilation system, comprising:

an identifier component that identifies compiler options including an inference option associated with a computer program; and

an inference component that infers types as a function of the inference option.

2. The system of claim 1, the inference option is associated with a project and/or file.

3. The system of claim 1, the inference option identifies one or more applicable syntactic and/or semantic constructs on which the option applies.

4. The system of claim 3, the syntactic and/or semantic constructs are local variables, fields, or properties, result types and/or method parameters.

5. The system of claim 1, the inference option identifies one or more syntactic and/or semantic constructs on which the option is does not apply.

6. The system of claim 1, the identifier component identifies a binding option.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a binding component that binds types to objects in accordance with the binding option.

8. The system of claim 7, the inference option and binding option are dependent upon one another.

9. The system of claim 7, the binding component performs late binding when a language root type or special static type is explicitly specified.

10. The system of claim 1, the options are specified in a compiler command line statement.

11. A method of program translation, comprising:

identifying inference and binding options for a program;

inferring types for programmatic constructs that omit a type if the inference option is on; and

delaying binding of types to objects until runtime for programmatic constructs annotated with a root type if the binding option is on.

12. The method of claim 11, identifying the options from within the program and/or at compiler command line.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising producing an error if a type is omitted for a programmatic construct and the inference option is off.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising inferring types for a local variable, field or property, return value and/or a method parameter.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising binding types to objects at compile time if the binding option is off.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying the inference option as a function of the binding option or identifying the binding option as a function of the inference option.

17. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising:

a plurality of computer programming code; and

an option statement within the code that indicates whether or not type inference is to be performed with respect to the code.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, the option statement identifies syntactic constructs on which type inference is on or off.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, the option statement identifies local variables, fields, or properties, return types and/or method parameters.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising an option statement identifies whether or not late binding is applicable.