Object based system comprising weak links
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An object based computer system, comprising:
- a plurality of objects;
graphics display means for displaying representations of said objects; and
linking means for sustaining containership links between a first semantic object in a storage domain and other semantic objects that are in the same storage domain and are contained in said first semantic object wherein the system is configured so that said first semantic object cannot be deleted without also deleting said other semantic objects having a containership link with said first object; and
for sustaining weak links between said first semantic object and said other semantic objects in different storage domains, wherein said storage domain is associated with a first computer and said different storage domains are associated with at least one other computer, and wherein the system is configured so that either said first semantic object or said one of said other semantic objects to which it is weakly linked can be deleted without deleting the other weakly linked object and wherein said weak links cause selected items associated with said first semantic object to be inserted automatically into said other semantic object(s).
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Abstract
A distributed object based system (10) comprising primary (P) and secondary (S) objects with provision for containership links between primary objects and objects which they contain and for weak links between objects. A weak link enables a user indirectly to insert an object (or other item, e.g., text) into a target object via an intermediate object weakly linked to the target object.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. An object based computer system, comprising:
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a plurality of objects; graphics display means for displaying representations of said objects; and linking means for sustaining containership links between a first semantic object in a storage domain and other semantic objects that are in the same storage domain and are contained in said first semantic object wherein the system is configured so that said first semantic object cannot be deleted without also deleting said other semantic objects having a containership link with said first object; and
for sustaining weak links between said first semantic object and said other semantic objects in different storage domains, wherein said storage domain is associated with a first computer and said different storage domains are associated with at least one other computer, and wherein the system is configured so that either said first semantic object or said one of said other semantic objects to which it is weakly linked can be deleted without deleting the other weakly linked object and wherein said weak links cause selected items associated with said first semantic object to be inserted automatically into said other semantic object(s). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An object based computer system comprising a plurality of system objects, means for activating objects and graphics display means for displaying representations of the objects to users, characterized in that a container object in a storage domain can sustain containership links to other semantic objects in the same storage domain wherein the system is configured so that said container object cannot be deleted without also deleting other semantic objects;
- and can sustain weak links to second semantic objects in a different storage domain, wherein said storage domain is associated with a first computer and said different storage domains are associated with at least one other computer, and wherein the existence of a weak link between a first and a second semantic object allows the deletion of the first semantic object or the second semantic object without deleting the other weakly linked semantic object, said weak link causes items associated with the first semantic object to be indirectly inserted into the second semantic object via the first object.
- View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
- 25. A method for operating a computer system comprising a plurality of software components, or objects, characterized by the steps of sustaining containership links between a first semantic object in a storage domain and other semantic objects in the same storage domain, sustaining weak links between said first semantic object and other semantic objects in different storage domains wherein said storage domain is associated with a first computer and said different storage domains are associated with at least one other computer, and indirectly inserting an item into a second semantic object via the first semantic object when there is a weak link between the first semantic object and the second semantic object.
Specification