Asynchronous transport optimizing observer-pattern-like system supporting several modes for an interface definition language-less communication subsystem

• US 6,275,871 B1
• Filed: 07/03/1996
• Issued: 08/14/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Dorn, Karlheinz, Becker, Detlef, Reinfelder, Hans-Erich, Quehl, Dietrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Banankhah, Majid
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAO, SUE X
• Application Number:
  US08/676,859
• Time in Patent Office: 1,868 Days
• Field of Search: 395/680, 395/682, 395/683, 395/200-1-2, 395/200-7-2, 709/328, 709/318, 709/310, 709/315, 709/201, 709/217, 709/245
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

An object oriented communication system supporting external data representation without an interface definition language, propagating events in both push and pull communication modes, fully distributing events, client/server-RPC-like mode and server processing pattern management. An applications program interface for the communication system having two macro routines for building classes which make the classes transferrable by the communication system.

Claims

1. An object oriented communication system on a computer platform, comprising, within a single homogenous computer program package:

means for supporting full asynchronous, multithreaded and multithread safe external data representation without invoking an interface definition language, said means for supporting external data representation without invoking an interface definition language comprising computer code which implicitly encodes and decodes transferred data;

means for propagating events in both push and pull communication modes with uniform functions and enabling an application programmer to select which mode is used for a given logical connection within a single application program interface and even during said connection;

means for distributing events; and

means for managing logical connections based on patterns,

wherein data is transferred from peer to peer without an intermediary.

2. The object oriented communication system of claim 1, wherein the means for supporting external data representation without an interface definition language comprises means for implicitly coding and decoding transferred data.

3. The object oriented communication system of claim 1 or 2, wherein all communication end points that use the same address are logically connected.

4. The object oriented communication system of claim 1, wherein there is provided a hook routine which is called at the supplier side before data is sent and a hook routine which is called before data is stored in a target object, both hook routines being called with an environment string as an argument, both hook routines influencing data transfer.

5. The object oriented computing system programmer interface of claim 1, further comprising means for performing XDR encoding and decoding.

6. The object oriented communication system of claim 1, further comprising a macro routine which makes a class accessible to a communication endpoint.

7. The object oriented communication system of claim 6, wherein the macro routine makes the class accessible via the communication end point by declaring inserter and extractor operators of the communication systems internal encoder/decoder class as friends, and implementing short member functions and one member function pointer into the class.

8. The object oriented communication system of claim 1, further comprising a macro routine which defines a subset of data members that are to be transferred and informs the underlying system as to how to handle pointers and vectors.

9. The object oriented communication system of claim 8, wherein the macro routine has two arguments, a class name and a list of white space separated macro routines, one such macro routine for each transferrable data member.

10. The object oriented communication system of claim 1, comprising a supplier class associated with a pattern string in order to transfer component classes to consumers associated with the same pattern string residing on a host.

11. The object oriented communication system of claim 10, wherein the supplier class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

12. The object oriented communication system of claim 1, further comprising a consumer class associated with a pattern string in order to receive component classes in PUSH mode or PULL mode from suppliers associated with the same pattern string residing on hosts.

13. The object oriented communication system of claim 12, wherein the consumer class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

14. An object oriented communication system on a computer platform comprising, within a single homogenous computer program package:

means for supporting full asynchronous, multithreaded, and multithread safe external data representation without any interface definition language, said means for supporting external data representation without invoking an interface definition language comprising computer code which implicitly encodes and decodes transfer data;

means for propagating events in both push and pull communication modes with like arguments and enabling an application programmer to select which mode is used for a given logical connection within a single application program interface and even during said connection, including a hook routine called at the supplier side before data is sent and a hook routine called before data is stored in a target object, both hook routines being called with an environment string as an argument;

means for distributing events; and

means for managing logical connections based on patterns,

wherein all communication endpoints that use the same pattern are logically connected,

wherein only a single application programmer interface is required for a programmer to interface with the system.

15. An object oriented communication system programmer interface on a computer platform, comprising:

a first macro routine which makes a class accessible to a communication endpoint by declaring inserter and extractor operators of a communication system'"'"'s internal encoder/decoder class as friends and implementing short member functions and one member function pointer into the class; and

a second macro routine which defines a subset of data members that are to be transferred and informs the underlying system as to how to handle pointers and vectors, said second macro routine having two arguments, a class name and a list of white space separated macro routines, one such white space separated macro routine for each transferrable data member.

16. The object oriented communication system programmer interface of claim 15, comprising a supplier class associated with a pattern string in order to transfer component classes to consumers associated with the same pattern string residing on a host.

17. The object oriented communication system programmer interface of claim 15, wherein the supplier class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

18. The object oriented communication system programmer interface of claim 15, further comprising a consumer class associated with a pattern string in order to receive component classes in PUSH mode or PULL mode from suppliers associated with the same pattern string residing on hosts.

19. The object oriented communication system programmer interface of claim 15, wherein the consumer class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

20. A storage medium including object oriented code for an object oriented communication system on a computer platform, comprising within a single homogenous computer program package:

means for supporting full asynchronous, multithreaded, and multithread safe external data representation without invoking an interface definition language, said means for supporting external data representation without invoking an interface definition language comprising computer codes which implicitly encodes and decodes transferred data;

means for propagating events in both push and pull communication modes and enabling an application programmer to select which mode is used for a given logical connection within a single application program interface and even during said connection;

means for distributing events; and

means for managing logical connections based on patterns,

wherein only a single application programmer interface is required for a programmer to interface with the system.

21. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein the means for supporting external data representation without an interface definition language comprises means for implicitly coding and decoding transferred data.

22. The storage medium of claim 20 or 21, wherein all communication end points that use the same address are logically connected.

23. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein there is provided a hook routine which is called at the supplier side before data is sent and a hook routine which is called before data is stored in a target object, both hook routines being called with an environment string as an argument, both hook routines influencing data transfer.

24. The storage medium of claim 20, further comprising means for performing XDR encoding and decoding.

25. The storage medium of claim 20, further comprising a macro routine which makes a class accessible to a communication endpoint.

26. The storage medium of claim 25, wherein the macro routine makes the class accessible via the communication end point by declaring inserter and extractor operators of the communication systems internal encoder/decoder class as friends, and implementing short member functions and one member function pointer into the class.

27. The storage medium of claim 20, further comprising a macro routine which defines a subset of data members that are to be transferred and informs the underlying system as to how to deal with pointers and vectors.

28. The storage medium of claim 27, wherein the macro routine has two arguments, a class name and a list of white space separated macro routines, one such macro routine for each transferrable data member.

29. The storage medium of claim 20, comprising a supplier class associated with a pattern string in order to transfer component classes to consumers associated with the same pattern string residing on a host.

30. The storage medium of claim 29, wherein the supplier class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

31. The storage medium of claim 20, further comprising a consumer class associated with a pattern string in order to receive component classes in PUSH mode or PULL mode from suppliers associated with the same pattern string residing on hosts.

32. The storage medium of claim 31, wherein the consumer class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

33. A storage medium including object oriented code for an object oriented communication system on a computer platform, comprising within a single homogenous computer program package;

means for supporting full asynchronous, multithreaded, and multithread safe external data representation without invoking any interface definition language, said means for supporting external data representation without an interface definition language comprising computer code which implicitly encodes and decodes transfer data;

means for propagating events in both push and pull communication modes and enabling an application programmer to select which mode is used for a given logical connection within a single application program interface and even during said connection, including a hook routine called at the supplier side before data is sent and a hook routine called before data is stored in a target object, both hook routines called with an environment string as an argument;

means for distributing events; and

means for managing logical connections based on patterns,

wherein all communication endpoints that use the same address are logically connected,

wherein only a single application programmer interface is required for a programmer to interface with the system.

34. A storage medium including object oriented code for an object oriented communication system on a computer platform, comprising:

a first macro routine which makes a class accessible to a communication endpoint by declaring inserter and extractor operators of a communication system'"'"'s internal encoder/decoder class as friends and implementing short member functions and one member function pointer into the class; and

a second macro routine which defines a subset of data members that are to be transferred and informs the underlying system as to how to handle pointers and vectors, said second macro routine having two arguments, a class name and a list of white space separated macro routines, one such white space separated macro routine for each transferrable data member.

35. The object oriented communication system programmer interface of claim 34, comprising a supplier class associated with a pattern string in order to transfer component classes to consumers associated with the same pattern string residing on a host.

36. The storage medium of claim 35, wherein the supplier class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.

37. The storage medium of claim 35, further comprising a consumer class associated with a pattern string in order to receive component classes in PUSH mode or PULL mode from suppliers associated with the same pattern string residing on hosts.

38. The storage medium of claim 37, wherein the consumer class is a template class and can only exist in conjunction with a concrete component class.