Object-oriented operating system

• US 6,684,261 B1
• Filed: 08/29/1995
• Issued: 01/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Object Technology Licensing Corporation
• Inventors: Bolton, Eugenie Lee, Orton, Debra Lyn, Chernikoff, Daniel F., Moeller, Christopher P., Goldsmith, David Brook
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAVIS, JOHN Q
• Application Number:
  US08/521,085
• Time in Patent Office: 3,073 Days
• Field of Search: 395/682, 395/683, 395/684, 709/302, 709/328, 717/116, 717/136
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4484 Executing subprograms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4492 Inheritance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

An apparatus for enabling an object-oriented application to access in an object-oriented manner a procedural operating system having a native procedural interface is disclosed. The apparatus includes a computer and a memory component in the computer. A code library is stored in the memory component. The code library includes computer program logic implementing an object-oriented class library. The object-oriented class library comprises related object-oriented classes for enabling the application to access in an object-oriented manner services provided by the operating system. The object-oriented classes include methods for accessing the operating system services using procedural function calls compatible with the native procedural interface of the operating system. The computer processes object-oriented statements contained in the application and defined by the class library by executing methods from the class library corresponding to the object-oriented statements.

Claims

1. A method executed by an object-oriented application in a procedural operating system having a native procedural interface, said object-oriented application having program instructions and a memory space, said method providing an object-oriented interface between said object-oriented application and said procedural operating system, comprising:

(a) detecting an object-oriented instruction that requests access to a service, as a requested service, provided by said procedural operating system;

(b) determining whether a set of executable computer program instructions for said requested service is located in said memory space and if not, then retrieving said set of executable computer program instructions associated with an object-oriented class library and loading the retrieved set of executable computer program instructions into said memory; and

(c) executing said set of executable computer programing instructions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said set of executable computer program instructions encodes one or more procedural instructions.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said procedural operating system is the Mach microkernal operating system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said object-oriented instruction is an instruction selected from the C++ language specification.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said object-oriented class library comprises computer executable program instructions selected from the C++ language specification.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said object-oriented class library comprises one or more executable computer program code components selected from the group consisting of thread class, task class, virtual memory class, interprocess communication class, synchronization class, scheduling class, fault class, and processor and processor set class procedural operating system service calls.

7. A program storage device that is readable by the procedural operating system of a specified one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, said program storage device having encoded therein a program of computer executable instructions that includes instructions for executing the operations recited in said specified claim.

8. A method of executing an object-oriented application on a procedural operating system, comprising the steps of:

(a) executing an object-oriented application in memory in a computer, the application including an object-oriented instruction requiring the execution of procedural instructions not included in said object-oriented application;

(b) providing an object-oriented interface between said object-oriented application and said procedural operating system by determining if said procedural instructions are currently loaded in said memory and if not, loading said procedural instructions into said memory; and

(c) executing said procedural instructions on behalf of said object-oriented instruction.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said procedural instructions are not included in said procedural operating system, the method further comprising the step of,

providing said procedural instructions to said procedural operating system.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of providing said procedural instructions further comprises the step of:

providing leadable class libraries including methods containing procedural instructions native to said procedural operating system.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of executing said procedural instructions on behalf of said object-oriented instruction further comprises the step of:

accessing a service of the procedural operating system.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of accessing a service of the procedural operating system further comprises the step of:

making a procedural call on a native procedural interface of said procedural operating system.

13. A computer system, comprising:

computer hardware having executable program memory;

a procedural operating system running in said executable program memory to control the computer hardware to perform native system services;

an object-oriented interface running in said executable memory for encapsulating method-specific data in specific memory locations for exclusive operation thereupon by a selected one of a plurality of object-oriented methods; and

procedural program logic code for adapting native system services, provided in response to an associated object-oriented method invoked on the computer hardware platform, in accordance with the method-specific data encapsulated for that associated object-oriented method.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the procedural program logic code further comprises:

procedural program logic code portions specific to each object-oriented method to control arguments, data values and/or parameters associated with the native system services for adapting and/or monitoring the provided native system services to be compatible with the system services required by the related object-oriented method.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

program code for determining if the method to be invoked is present in the executable program memory during runtime execution; and

a runtime loader for selectively loading the method in the executable program memory during runtime execution before invocation of the method, if not already present.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein computer hardware platform further comprises:

an operating system based on Windows or Unix executing on a Unix or IBM-compatible computer environment.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the procedural program logic code further comprises:

programming code for adapting at least one of the following native system services;

thread services, task services, virtual memory services, inter-process communication (IPC) services, synchronization services, scheduling services, fault services, processor and processor set services, port services, security services, file system services, and/or graphical user interface (GUI) services.

18. A method for operating a computer system, comprising the steps of:

executing a procedural operating system on computer hardware to provide native system services;

executing an object on the procedural operating system to encapsulate data in a specified location in computer memory for exclusive operation thereon by one or more object-oriented methods associated with the object; and

using procedural program logic code to adapt native system services, provided in response to an invocation of a selected one of the methods, in accordance with the related encapsulated data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of using object-specific procedural program logic code to adapt native system services further comprises the step of:

controlling arguments, data values and/or parameters associated with the one or more issued procedural function calls for adapting and/or monitoring the native system services to be compatible with the system services required by the related object-oriented method.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

loading the method during runtime before invocation thereof.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of selectively loading the method further comprises the step of:

also loading related portions of the procedural program logic code, if not yet loaded.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of executing a procedural operating system on computer hardware further comprises the step of:

executing a procedural operating system based on Windows or Unix.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of executing a procedural operating system based on Windows or Unix further comprises the step of:

executing the procedural operating system in a Unix or IBM-compatible computer environment.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of providing procedural program logic code further comprises the step of:

providing one or more of the following native system services;

thread services, task services, virtual memory services, inter-process communication (IPC) services, synchronization services, scheduling services, fault services, processor and processor set services, port services, security services, file system services, and graphical user interface (GUI) service.