UNIFIED EXPRESSION AND LOCATION FRAMEWORK

• US 20090222794A1
• Filed: 02/29/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kizer, Geoffrey M., Wolf, Kenneth David, Pinto, Edmund Samuel Victor, Talbert, Nathan C., Schmidt, Robert Brian
• Granted Patent: US 8,181,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/116
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented

Abstract

Allowing a continuation based runtime to resolve different types of location expressions, value expressions, and/or locations. This may be accomplished using a different class for each particular type. The location expression classes may each have a common method used for all of the location expression classes. The value expression classes may each have a common method, and the locations may also each have a common method. This allows the resolution of such location and value expressions to be treated in a unified fashion regardless of the type of location expression, or the type of value expression. Also, the location may be treated in a unified manner regardless of the type of location.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one of more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing system capable of running a continuation based runtime, causes the computing system to perform a method for allowing the continuation based runtime to resolve location expressions of multiple location expression classes, the method comprising:

an act of providing multiple location expression classes, each location expression class used to resolve a respective distinct category of location expressions into a location in a continuation based runtime, at least some of the multiple location expression classes having a common method that may be used to cause instances of the respective location expression class to resolve location expressions to a location;

an act of accessing a location expression of a particular type;

an act of identifying a location expression class of the multiple location expression classes that is used for resolving location expressions of the particular type;

an act of using the location expression to identify one or more input parameters representing an environment for the location expression to provide to an object instance of the identified location expression class;

an act of requesting a resolved location of the location expression using the common method of the object instance of the identified location expression class; and

an act of receiving the resolved location of the location expression in response to the act of requesting.

2. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the particular type of location expression comprises a variable location expression, wherein the multiple location expression classes include at least one other location expression class that is for location expression types that are not variable location expressions.

3. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the particular type of location expression comprises a lambda location expression, wherein the multiple location expression classes include at least one other location expression class that is for location expression types that are not lambda location expressions.

4. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the requested resolution occurs asynchronously in a continuation-based fashion.

5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the location expression is a first location expression of a first particular type, the location expression class is a first location expression class, the one or more input parameters are first one or more input parameters, the object instance is a first object instance, and the function call is a first function call, the method further comprising:

an act of accessing a second location expression of a second type;

an act of identifying a second location expression class of the multiple location expression classes that is used for resolving location expressions of the second type;

an act of using the second location expression to identify second one or more input parameters representing an environment for the second location expression to provide to a second object instance of the second location expression class;

an act of requesting a resolved location of the second location expression using the common method of the second object instance of the second identified location expression class; and

an act of receiving the resolved location of the second location expression in response to the act of requesting a resolved location of the second location expression.

6. A computer program product in accordance with claim 5, wherein the first location expression comprises a variable location expression, and the second location expression comprises a lambda location expression.

7. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the at least some of the multiple location expression classes that have the common method are compiled from descendant classes having a common ancestor class also having the common method.

8. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

adding an additional location expression class to the multiple location expression classes, the additional location expression class also inheriting from the common ancestor class.

9. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, the method further comprising:

an act of providing multiple value expression classes, each value expression class used to resolve a respective distinct category of value expressions into a value in the continuation based runtime, at least some of the multiple value classes having a common method that may be used to cause instances of the respective value expression class to resolve expressions to a value;

an act of accessing a value expression of a particular type;

an act of identifying a value expression class of the multiple value expression classes that is used for resolving value expressions of the particular type;

an act of using the value expression to identify one or more input parameters to representing an environment of the value expression to provide to an object instance of the identified value expression class;

an act of requesting a resolved value of the value expression using the common method of the object instance of the identified value expression class; and

an act of receiving the resolved value of the value expression in response to the act of requesting.

10. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical storage and/or memory media.

11. A computer program product comprising one of more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing system capable of running a continuation based runtime, causes the computing system to perform a method for allowing the continuation based runtime to resolve value expressions of multiple value expression classes, the method comprising:

an act of providing multiple value expression classes, each value expression class used to resolve a respective distinct category of value expressions into a value in the continuation based runtime, at least some of the multiple value classes having a common method that may be used to cause instances of the respective value expression class to resolve expressions to a value;

an act of an object instance receiving a request to resolve a value expression of a particular type using the common method; and

an act of the object instance responding to the request by returning a resolved value of the value expression.

12. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the particular type of value expression comprises a literal value expression.

13. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the particular type of value expression comprises a string format value expression.

14. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the expression represents a property of an activity.

15. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the expression binds an activity parameter to an environment.

16. The computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical memory and/or storage media.

17. A computer program product comprising one of more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing system capable of running a continuation based runtime, causes the computing system to perform a method for allowing the continuation based runtime to resolve multiple location classes, the method comprising:

an act of providing multiple location classes, each location class used as a proxy of a distinct type for accessing underlying data in a continuation based runtime;

an act of responding to a first request to a first object of a first location class using a first data access mechanism to return first data that is stored in a first manner in a first storage environment; and

an act of responding to a second request to a second object of a second location class using a second data access mechanism to return second data that is stored in a second manner in a second storage environment, wherein at least one of the following pairs of items is different;

1) the first and second data access mechanism,

2) the first and second storage manner, and

3) the first and second storage environment.

18. A computer program product in accordance with claim 17, wherein the first location class is a variable location class.

19. A computer program product in accordance with claim 18, wherein the second location class is a data source location class.

20. The computer program product in accordance with claim 17, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical memory and/or storage media.