Object-oriented communications framework system with support for multiple remote machine types

• US 5,832,264 A
• Filed: 07/19/1995
• Issued: 11/03/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Savitzky, Stephen R., Hart, Peter E., Golding, Richard, Roth, Rithy K., Jeng, Tina L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Butler, Dennis M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chavis, John Q.
• Application Number:
  US08/504,039
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• Field of Search: 395/683
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

A system enabling an application programmer to construct a plurality of application programs for communicating with a plurality of remote machines of a plurality of machine types, each of the plurality of remote machines having remotely accessible data and remotely performable operations includes a computer system with a memory, a processor, and a mass storage device, the computer system for storing programs, class declarations, and class libraries in an object-oriented programming language, means for compiling files containing source-code representations of application programs in the object-oriented programming language, implementations of a hierarchy of data description classes, each implementation for describing a set of data and for describing methods for manipulating the set of data, implementations of a hierarchy of remote data description classes, each implementation for describing data items contained in one of the plurality of remote machines and for describing methods for accessing the data items, and source code files for a plurality of sample application programs, each sample application program for communicating with at least one of the plurality of remote machines.

Claims

1. A system enabling an application programmer to construct a plurality of application programs for communicating with a plurality of remote machines of a plurality of machine types, each of the remote machines having remotely accessible data and remotely performable operations, the system comprising:

a computer system with a memory, a processor, and a mass storage device, the computer system for storing programs, class declarations, and class libraries in an object-oriented programming language;

a compiler for compiling files containing source-code representations of application programs in the object-oriented programming language;

implementations of a hierarchy of data description classes, each implementation for describing a set of data and for describing methods for manipulating the set of data;

implementations of a hierarchy of remote data description classes, each implementation for describing data items contained in one of the plurality of remote machines and for describing methods for accessing the data items; and

source code files for a plurality of sample application programs, each sample application program for communicating with at least one of the plurality of remote machines, the source code files including source code to be edited by the application programmer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data description classes further includes data types, data sizes, and permissible values for the set of data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote data description classes further includes data types, data sizes, permissible values and location information for the data items.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising implementations of application state classes, each implementation for describing application items for the plurality of remote machines.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the application items includes pointers to the implementations of the hierarchy of remote data description classes.

6. The system of claim 4 further comprising implementations of a graphical user interface class, each implementation for maintaining a link to the implementations of the application state classes.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising implementations of operation request queue classes, each implementation for storing requests for operations to be performed on the plurality of remote machines.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising implementations of operation request queue classes, each implementation for storing requests for items of data to be transferred to the plurality of remote machines.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising implementations of a parser class, each implementation for retrieving during runtime a representation of a plurality of object instances contained in a data file and for enabling the application programs to create in the memory a plurality of object instances from the representation of the plurality of object instances.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the representation of the plurality of object instances includes a textual representation of the object instances to be created in the memory.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the textual representation of the of the object instances to be created includes names of classes of the objects to be created and textual representations of the values of their instance variables.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising implementations of a base class in a data file, each implementation for describing methods for creating representations of object instances of a subclass of the base class.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the data file includes textual data.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the sample application programs is adapted to run on a computer system which is external to the at least one remote machine being communicated with.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote machines include office machines.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote machines include off-site office machines.

17. A computer program product, for computer systems each including a processor and a memory, the computer program product for enabling an application programmer to construct a plurality of application programs for communicating with a plurality of remote machines of a plurality of remote machine types, each of the remote machines having remotely accessible data and remotely performable operations, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium comprising;

code implementing a hierarchy of data description classes, which code is configured to describe a set of data and to direct the processor to manipulate the set of data;

code implementing a hierarchy of remote data description classes, which code is configured to describe data items contained in the plurality of remote machines and to direct the processor to access the data items; and

source code files for a plurality of sample application programs, the source code files being configured to reveal source code for text-editing by the application programmer using a computer, the source code for each sample application program configured to, after compilation, direct the processor to communicate with at least one of the plurality of remote machines, the at least one remote machine being external to a run-time computer system on which the application program is running.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the remote machines include office machines.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising a processor and a memory.