Attempting runtime retranslation of unresolvable code

• US 7,614,044 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2005
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Morrison, Vance Palmer, Dasan, Shajan, Bhansali, Sanjay, Harry, Brian D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Coyer; Ryan D
• Application Number:
  US11/282,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080647A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,446 Days
• Field of Search: 717136-148, 717/124, 717/126, 717130-131
• US Class Current: 717/145
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/44 Encoding

Abstract

A compiler that completes compilation upon identifying unresolvable input during compilation instead of aborting compilation. This can be accomplished by inserting an exception-throwing instruction, and/or handlers in place of the unresolvable input in the compiled code output. If the section of the compiled code containing the inserted exception throwing instruction is later executed, an exception is thrown and/or handled. Compilation of code from a trusted source can be completed without inserting an exception throwing instruction when the code has only suspected but unverifiable problems.

Claims

1. A method of executing computer program code, the method comprising:

executing program code received in an input stream, the program code comprising translated code, untranslated code, and placed code, wherein the translated code comprises portions of the computer program translated from a first language representation into a second language representation, wherein the untranslated code comprises one or more unresolvable instructions that could not be translated from the first language representation into the second language representation during a first translation attempt, wherein the placed code comprises handling instructions located in the program code where the unresolvable code would have been placed in the translated code and which when executed will request a second translation of the untranslated code;

while executing the program code, requesting by executing the handling instructions a re-translation of the untranslated code in the input stream from the first language representation into the second language representation; and

executing the second language representation of the previously un-translated code.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first language representation is intermediate language code and the second language representation is object code.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first language representation is source code and the second language representation is intermediate language code.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the second language representation comprises intermediate language code, the first language representation comprises source code, and wherein executing the second language representation comprises translating into a third language representation comprising object code prior to executing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said requesting the re-translation of the untranslated code by executing the handling instructions comprises communicating with a remote server.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein metadata indicates that the remote server is a trusted source.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the handling instructions comprises executing a handler indicated for a thrown exception.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the handler provides an on-screen graphical interface that presents a computer user with alternative ways of continuing.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the on-screen graphical interface presents choices comprising at least:

ending execution and returning control to the executing program code.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said requesting the re-translation of the un-translated code comprises executing handling instructions communicating with a remote server thereby providing a feedback loop to a developer of the program code.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said requesting the re-translation of the un-translated code comprises executing instructions accessing a handler data structure, wherein the handler data structure provides access to unresolvable code.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said requesting the re-translation of the un-translated code comprises executing instructions comprising a retranslation request.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions which, when executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to perform the actions of:

a computer language translation program;

a computer program comprising placed code and translated code, the translated code comprising portions of the computer program translated into object code from an intermediate language representation;

wherein;

the placed code is located where the unresolvable code would have been placed in the translated code and comprises handling instructions indicating at least one unresolvable instruction of the computer program that could not be translated from the intermediate language representation into object code in a first translation attempt; and

the handling instructions further comprise instructions for invoking the computer language translation program to attempt a second translation of the at least one unresolvable instruction out of the computer program from an intermediate language representation into object code, and further for causing the object code of the re-translated program code to be executed.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the computer program was received via a network connection, and the computer language translation program accesses a remote server to obtain information used to translated the at least one instruction.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein accessing the remote server provides a feedback loop to a developer of the computer language translation program.

16. In a computer system:

a digital processor coupled to computer memory; and

the computer memory comprising;

a translation program and a computer program,

the computer program comprising translated code, untranslated code, and placed code,

the translated code comprising portions of the computer program translated from a first language representation into a second language representation,

the untranslated code comprising one or more unresolvable instructions that could not be translated from the first language representation into the second language representation during a first translation attempt, and

the placed code being located where the untranslated code would have been placed in the second language representation of the translated code and comprising one or more handling instructions, which, when invoked during execution of the computer program, cause the translation program to attempt a second translation of the untranslated code when control flow directs execution of the computer program to the untranslated code, and to cause execution of re-translated code produced by the second translation.

17. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising:

a network connection coupled to the digital processor; and

the translation program further comprises instructions for accessing a remote server over the network connection to facilitate translation of the untranslated code.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the first language representation is intermediate language code, and the second language representation is object code.