Adaptive dispatch table based on templates

• US 7,571,430 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LSI Logic Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Trimbell, Forrest, Moore, Joseph G., Hetrick, William, Sangapu, Satish
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu; Junchun
• Application Number:
  US11/041,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20060164269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,653 Days
• Field of Search: 717/133, 717/140
• US Class Current: 717/140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method of an adaptive procedure table which is capable of providing default behaviors for each procedure if a corresponding procedure is not defined or has been removed from a software build. The default behaviors for each procedure may be defined in a template file provided by a developer before a compile time of software. The present invention may permit a module that defines the implementation of a procedure to be removed from the software build without requiring source code changes. As such, the developer may be allowed to remove or add certain features from a compiled program without introducing compile time or link time errors.

Claims

1. A method for creating an adaptive procedure table based on templates, comprising:

retrieving a list of procedure templates;

building the adaptive procedure table based on the list of procedure templates, the adaptive procedure table including a procedure;

providing a reference in the adaptive procedure table to a default behavior for the procedure, said default behavior being defined in the list of procedure templates;

checking whether the procedure in the adaptive procedure table has a specific definition made by a feature, wherein the feature is built into a compiled program; and

when the feature makes a specific definition for the procedure, updating the reference by associating the feature with the procedure via the updated reference in the adaptive table,

when the procedure is removed from the compiled program, re-updating the updated reference of the procedure in the adaptive procedure table by associating the removed procedure with the default behavior,

wherein the adaptive procedure table is implemented by a compiler and a linker, the adaptive procedure table including a special handling flag for each of the plurality of procedures for indicating whether special handling by a server is required for a corresponding procedure included in the plurality of procedures.

2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the adaptive procedure table is built at a compile time.

3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the linker finds the reference of the procedure from the adaptive procedure table.

4. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the adaptive procedure table is utilized by an objective oriented language.

5. The method as described in claim 4, wherein the objective oriented language is C++ language.

6. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for performing a method for providing an adaptive procedure table based on a templates, said method comprising:

retrieving a list of procedure templates;

building the adaptive procedure table based on the list of procedure templates, the adaptive procedure table including a procedure;

providing a reference in the adaptive procedure table to a default behavior for the procedure, said default behavior being defined in the list of procedure templates;

checking whether the procedure in the adaptive procedure table has a specific definition made by a feature, wherein the feature is built into a compiled program; and

when the feature makes a specific definition for the procedure, updating the reference by associating the feature with the procedure via the updated reference in the adaptive table;

when the procedure is removed from the compiled program, re-updating the updated reference of the removed procedure in the adaptive procedure table by associating the removed procedure with a default behavior definition of a template header file,

wherein the adaptive procedure table is implemented by a compiler and a linker, the adaptive procedure table including a special handling flag for each of the plurality of procedures for indicating whether special handling by a sewer is required for a corresponding procedure included in the plurality of procedures.