Method and apparatus for a fully inherited object-oriented computer system for generating source code from user-entered specifications

• US 5,699,310 A
• Filed: 01/26/1994
• Issued: 12/16/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dynasty Technologies, Inc. (European Technology & Finance Investments NV)
• Original Assignee: Dynasty Technologies, Inc. (European Technology & Finance Investments NV)
• Inventors: Garloff, Gary W., Coats, S. Mark, McKee, Kevin S., Poock, Ted C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Heckler, Thomas M.
• Application Number:
  US08/187,345
• Time in Patent Office: 1,420 Days
• Field of Search: 395/700
• US Class Current: 717/108
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented

Abstract

A computer system wherein object-oriented management techniques are used with a new means for generating code to provide for the automatic generation of source code. The invention includes three executable components: an inheritance engine that provides a detailed, fully inherited view of individual objects; an Operator Interface that allows a software Developer to provide a program specification; and a generator for generating source code for a computer system. The inheritance engine obtains objects from Design Knowledge Bases, Specification Knowledge Bases and Generation Knowledge Bases for the Generator. The Generator then operates on the objects to produce source code.

Claims

1. A computer system for generating source code comprising:

(a) means for storing objects, wherein each of said objects comprises at least one method;

(b) means for entering developer specifications by selecting an object, adding methods to the object, modifying methods within the object and deleting methods from the object;

(c) means for storing the developer specifications as new objects;

(d) means for entering code generation directions;

(e) means for storing said code generation directions within objects;

(f) obtaining means for obtaining code generation rules appropriate to a specific target environment through inheritance;

(g) means for storing said code generation rules obtained by said obtaining means within objects; and

(h) means for generating source code from the objects and said code generation rules.

2. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising sub-objects, each sub-object being an object wholly-owned by another object.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein sub-objects are accessed by specifying the direct path of objects to the sub-objects.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein each object comprises attribute sets.

5. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising means for more than one object to inherit from a same first object.

6. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising means for one object to inherit methods from more than one other object.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein instance identifications are used to uniquely identify each inheritance.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one object comprises a function.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one method comprises embedded source code.

10. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising means for checking the integrity of the developer'"'"'s specifications.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein each object is characterized as belonging to a class, further comprising means for changing the class of objects based upon the specific application for the source code to be generated.

12. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising list process models, and means for objects to inherit from process models.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein a single object can inherit from more than one process model.

14. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the means for generating source code comprises means for invoking methods connected to a target method.

15. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising means for sending a message to a receiving object, such that the message is only sent if the receiving object is capable of responding to the message.

16. A method for generating source code using a computer system having means for storing objects, methods and generation rules, and means for generating source code comprising:

(a) entering developer specifications by selecting an object, adding methods to the object, modifying methods within the object and deleting methods from the object;

(b) storing the developer specifications as new objects;

(c) entering code generation directions;

(d) storing the code generation directions within objects; and

(e) generating source code from the objects and the generation rules.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the computer system further comprises process models, and wherein developer specifications are entered by adding process models to the object, as well as by adding methods to the object, modifying methods within the object and deleting methods from the object.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein each object is characterized as belonging to a class, further comprising changing the class of objects based upon the specific application for the source code to be generated.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising creating objects having a fully inherited view.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising inheriting generation rules appropriate to a target environment.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein step (f) comprises creating intermediate modules comprising source code and collating instructions.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein step (f) further comprises creating a source code module from at least one intermediate module.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of checking the integrity of the developer specifications.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one object comprises sub-objects.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein each object comprises attribute sets, and step (b) further comprises filling in attribute value sets corresponding to the attribute sets.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein more than one new object is created from a first object.

27. The method of claim 16, further comprising inheriting methods from more than one other object.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising using instance identifications to uniquely identify each inheritance.

29. The method of claim 16, further comprising sending a message to a receiving object only if the receiving object is capable of responding to the message.

30. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one method comprises methods.

31. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating program documentation describing the objects used and classes inherited from each object, and listing methods added to each object.

32. The method of claim 16, wherein step (f) comprises generating source code by invoking methods connected to a target method.

33. A method for generating source code using a computer system having means for storing objects, methods and generation rules, and means for generating source code comprising:

(a) entering developer specifications in a developer'"'"'s language and storing the developer specifications in objects;

(b) entering code generation directions in a modeler'"'"'s language and storing the code generation directions in objects;

(c) creating objects having a fully inherited view; and

(d) generating source code for a specific application, using objects containing the entered developer specifications and code generation directions, and using the generation rules.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising creating sub-objects within objects.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the computer system also comprises means for storing objects as classes, further comprising the step of creating a new object, said new object having inherited the characteristics of a class.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of changing the class of an object according to the specific application.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of changing the class of an object according to a target code.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein more than one new object is created from a first object.

39. The method of claim 35, further comprising inheriting methods from more than one other object.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising using instance identifications to uniquely identify each inheritance.

41. The method of claim 35, further comprising sending a message to a receiving object only if the receiving object is capable of responding to the message.

42. The method of claim 35, wherein each object comprises at least one method.

43. The method of claim 35, wherein at least one method comprises embedded source code.

44. The method of claim 35, wherein each object comprises attribute sets, further comprising the step of filling in attribute value sets corresponding to the attribute sets.

45. The method of claim 35, wherein at least one method comprises a function.

46. The method of claim 35, wherein the computer system also comprises means for checking the integrity of the developer specifications, further comprising the step of checking the integrity of the developer specifications.

47. The method of claim 35, wherein each object comprises a developer-controlled flag, that indicates whether the object is to be used as a class.

48. The method of claim 35, wherein the computer system also comprises process models, and wherein each object comprises a list of process models that are appropriate for that object to use.

49. The method of claim 35, wherein methods that are not relevant to an application are not visible.

50. The method of claim 33, wherein step (c) comprises creating an inverted tree structure having nodes, the first node of the inverted tree structure being the object of which the fully inherited view is being constructed.

51. The method of claim 33, wherein step (d) comprises generating source code by invoking methods connected to a target method.

52. A method for generating source code using a computer system having means for storing classes, objects, methods, process models, functions and generation rules, and means for generating source code comprising:

(a) selecting a class;

(b) creating a new object from the selected class, said new object inheriting the characteristics of the class;

(c) editing the new object by adding and deleting components of the object, said components being selected from sub-objects, methods, functions and process models;

(d) repeating steps (a)-(c) to create additional new objects, as required by a specific application;

(e) generating source code for the specific application, using the new objects and the generation rules.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the new object has an attribute set, and step (c) comprises filling in an attribute value set corresponding to the attribute set.

54. The method of claim 52, wherein objects have integrity, further comprising the step of checking the integrity of the new objects.

55. The method of claim 52, further comprising the step of creating a fully inherited view of at least one new object.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein each object comprises at least one method.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein at least one method comprises a function.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein at least one method comprises embedded source code.

59. The method of claim 55, wherein at least one object comprises sub-objects.

60. The method of claim 55, further comprising changing the class of the object according to the specific application.

61. The method of claim 60, further comprising the step of creating a new object from a previously-created first object.

62. The method of claim 61, further comprising the steps of creating more than one new object from a previously created first object.

63. The method of claim 55, further comprising inheriting methods from more than one other object.

64. The method of claim 63, further comprising using instance identifications to uniquely identify each inheritance.

65. The method of claim 55, further comprising sending a message to a receiving object only if the receiving object is capable of responding to the message.

66. The method of claim 55, wherein step (e) comprises storing generated source code in intermediate modules.

67. The method of claim 66, further comprising converting an intermediate module into a source code module by assigning a file name to the intermediate module.

68. The method of claim 66, further comprising the process of including at least one intermediate module within another intermediate module.

69. The method of claim 55, wherein step (c) comprises selecting methods from more than one process model.