Converting a windowing operating system messaging interface to application programming interfaces

• US 5,623,663 A
• Filed: 11/14/1994
• Issued: 04/22/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Karl D., Lewis, Judith H., Morgan, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue, Larry D.
• Application Number:
  US08/337,705
• Time in Patent Office: 890 Days
• Field of Search: 395/156, 395/200.01, 395/500, 395/700, 395/650, 395/800, 395/13, 395/575, 395/725, 395/200.2
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A message-driven application is converted to an Application Programming Interface-driven application while retaining the same functionality in a windowing graphical user interface that is inherently message-driven. At minimal application coding expense, an application that send messages to control its windows can be converted such that APIs are called instead to perform the exact same result.

Claims

1. A method for an application program to avoid using a messaging interface to a windowing operating system comprising the steps of:

converting a message-driven application program to an application programming interface driven application by inserting code in the application program such that the inserted code intercepts a send message call to the windowing operating system; and

when a thread of the application program having a low priority sends a message to the windowing operating system, intercepting and converting the message to an application programming interface function call and returning the converted message to the application program so that the operating system never sees the message sent by the thread of the application program and the low priority of the thread is maintained.

2. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

declaring a two-dimensional array, a first dimension of which is for message numbers supported by the application programming interface and a second dimension of which is for class names of windows that are supported; and

accessing the two-dimensional array when a message is sent to the operating system to determine if the message is supported.

3. The method recited in claim 2 wherein if the message is not supported, then processing the message by the operating system.

4. A method for porting an existing message-driven application program to a procedural operating system comprising the steps of:

converting a message-driven application program to an application programming interface driven application by inserting code in the application program such that the code intercepts a send message call to the procedural operating system; and

when the application program sends a message to the operating system, intercepting and converting the message to an application programming interface function call and returning the converted message to the application program so that the procedural operating system never sees the message sent by the application program thereby simulating the messaging interface of the operating system.

5. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for a message-driven application program to avoid using a messaging interface to a windowing operating system, the computer program product comprising:

conversion means for converting the message-driven application program to an application programming interface driven application, said conversion means including code inserted in the application program such that the code intercepts a send message call to the windowing operating system;

means for intercepting and converting the message to an application programming interface function call when a thread of the application program having a low priority sends a message to the windowing operating system; and

means for returning the converted message to the application program so that the windowing operating system never sees the message sent by the thread of the application program and the low priority of the thread is maintained.

6. An computer system comprising:

a windowing operating system on which a message-driven application program is run;

means for converting the message-driven application program to an application programming interface driven application by inserting code in the application program such that the code intercepts a send message call to the windowing operating system;

means for intercepting and converting the message to an application programming interface function call when a thread of the application program having a low priority sends a message to the windowing operating system; and

means for returning the converted message to the application program so that the windowing operating system never sees the message sent by the thread of the application program and the low priority of the thread is maintained.

7. The computer system recited in claim 6 further comprising:

a two-dimensional array, a first dimension of which is for message numbers supported by the application programming interface and a second dimension of which is for class names of windows that are supported; and

means for accessing the two-dimensional array when a message is sent to the operating system to determine if the message is supported.

8. The computer system recited in claim 7 wherein if the message is not supported, then said windowing operating system processing the message.

9. A method for avoiding using a messaging interface to a windowing operating system by an application program comprising the steps of:

registering by the application program its window classes, messages that its window classes support, and functions that should be called for each supported message for each supported class, said step of registering including creating an input hook to intercept window message calls;

when a thread of the application program having a low priority sends a message to the windowing operating system, intercepting the message using the input hook and converting the message by parsing an array to find a function corresponding to the message to call and calling the function directly without processing the message.