System and method for extending a programming language to include multiple dissimilar object systems

• US 7,849,470 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2006
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Inventors: Jones, Cheryl L., Foti, David A., Nylander, Charles G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Lechi
• Application Number:
  US11/439,331
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,660 Days
• Field of Search: 719/328, 719/330
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/463 Naming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

The illustrative embodiment of the present invention provides a method for extending a programming language to interact with foreign object systems. Through the use of an opaque interface, a requesting unit may interact with multiple foreign object systems. A single set of procedures written into the opaque interface and accessible by the requesting unit enable the requesting unit to interact with the foreign object systems. The foreign object systems register with the opaque interface. The registration process for the object systems includes the creation and registration of a defined set of functions, the format for which is provided by the opaque interface. The defined set of functions are called by the procedures in the opaque interface and execute in the object system. The results of the function execution are returned to the requesting unit thereby extending the foreign object system capabilities to the requesting unit.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of interfacing between an array-oriented system and a non-native object system, said method comprising:

providing, using a computer, an interface between a requesting unit in the array-oriented system and the non-native object system;

specifying a format for at least one procedure for use in the interface;

invoking at least one function for use in the non-native object system corresponding to the at least one specified procedure in the interface;

creating, calling, or destroying the at least one function in the non-native object system;

receiving a request to create an array, the request received at the interface from the array- oriented system;

identifying whether the non-native object system is array-capable;

creating an array using an indexing type of the non-native object system if the non-native object system is array-capable, and using an indexing type of the array-oriented system if the non-native object system is not array capable;

inserting one or more elements associated with the at least one function into the array; and

returning the array to the requesting unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting unit comprises at least one command compatible with a MATLAB programming language.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the non-native object system is a Java system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the requesting unit is written in a subset of MATLAB programming language commands.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-native object system is implemented in at least one or a combination of:

Java and C++.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-native object system is implemented in at least one or a combination of:

.Net, Visual Basic, C, C#, Perl, and Javascript.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

registering with the interface, by the non-native object system, at least one function accessible to the requesting unit in the array-oriented system.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

assigning, by the non-native object system, an identifying handle to the at least one function accessible to the requesting unit; and

returning the identifying handle to the interface.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

calling, by the requesting unit, a first procedure in the interface; and

calling, by the interface, a first function in the non-native object system, wherein the first function is registered as corresponding to the first procedure.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

registering with the interface, by a second non-native object system, at least one function accessible to the requesting unit in the array-oriented system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one function registered by the second non-native object system corresponds to the same procedure in the interface as the at least one function registered by the non-native object system.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

maintaining, at the interface, a table of pointers to registered non-native object systems and associated registered functions in the non-native object systems.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

calling, by the requesting unit, a first procedure in the interface; and

checking, by the interface, whether the first procedure corresponds to a registered function in the non-native object system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

upon determining that the first procedure called by the requesting unit does not correspond to any registered functions in the non-native object system, checking, by the interface, whether the first procedure corresponds to a registered function in the second non- native object system.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting unit is written in at least one of:

an executable code and source code.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the source code is at least one of:

an M-file and a P-file.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the requesting unit is at least one or a combination of:

a script, an applet, and an application.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one function in the non-native object language is at least one or a combination of:

a class, a class method, a constructor, and a function not associated with a class.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one procedure for use in the interface is a set of computer language instructions.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calling, by the requesting unit, an array-creation function in the interface to create the array.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the array holds objects of the non-native object system.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein an object of the non-native system is one or a combination of:

a class, method, and attribute.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the non-native object system is an array-capable system.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

returning, to the requesting unit, the array from the non-native object system.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the at least one function in the non-native object system.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein a programming language of the requesting unit comprises syntax to call one or more procedures of the interface.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting unit uses publicly defined procedure calls to call one or more procedures of the interface.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the interface and the non-native object system is located on a different computer from the requesting unit in the array-oriented system.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

using a class name to create an object of that class in the non-native object system.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein invoking the at least one function further comprises remotely causing the at least one function to be invoked in the non-native object system.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a class name from the non-native object system to identify a function in the non-native object system.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the format for the at least one procedure is an abstract base class.

33. A non-transitory computer-readable medium holding instructions for interfacing from an array-oriented system to a non-native object system, said instructions comprising instructions for:

providing an interface between a requesting unit in the array-oriented system and the non-native object system;

specifying a format for at least one procedure for use in the interface;

invoking at least one function for use in the non-native object system corresponding to the at least one specified procedure in the interface;

creating, calling, or destroying the at least one function in the non-native object system;

receiving a request to create an array, the request received at the interface from the array- oriented system;

identifying whether the non-native object system is array-capable;

creating an array using an indexing type of the non-native object system if the non-native object system is array-capable, and using an indexing type of the array-oriented system if the non-native object system is not array capable;

inserting one or more elements associated with the at least one function into the array; and

returning the array to the requesting unit.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein at least a portion of the requesting unit is written in a subset of MATLAB programming language.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 34, wherein the non-native object system is a Java system.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the non-native object system is implemented in at least one or a combination of:

Java and C++.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, further comprising instructions for:

registering with the interface, by the non-native object system, at least one function accessible to the requesting unit in the array-oriented system.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions for:

assigning, by the non-native object system, an identifying handle to the at least one function accessible to the requesting unit; and

returning the identifying handle to the interface.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions for:

calling, by the requesting unit, a first procedure in the interface; and

calling, by the interface, a first function in the non-native object system, wherein the first function is registered as corresponding to the first procedure.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions for:

registering with the interface, by a second non-native object system, at least one function accessible to the requesting unit in the array-oriented system.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the at least one function in the non-native object language is at least one or a combination of:

a class, a class method, and a function not associated with a class.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions for:

executing the at least one function in the non-native object system.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the requesting unit is at least one of:

an executable code, source code, an M-file, a P-file, a script, an applet, and an application.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, further comprising instructions for:

calling, by the requesting unit, an array-creation function in the interface to create the array.

45. A system for providing an interface between an array-oriented system and a non-native object system, said system comprising:

a processor for providing a requesting unit in the array-oriented system, the requesting unit provided by the processor, the requesting unit requesting that the interface create an array, the array created using an indexing type of the non-native object system if the non-native object system is array-capable, and using an indexing type of the array-oriented system if the non-native object system is not array capable;

a specified format for at least one procedure for use in the interface; and

at least one function created, using a computer, for use in the non-native object system corresponding to the at least one specified procedure in the interface,

wherein the function is invoked in the interface, the function is created, called, or destroyed in the non-native object system, and

one or more elements associated with the at least one function are inserted into the array before the array is returned to the requesting unit.

46. The computer-implemented interface of claim 45, wherein at least a portion of the requesting unit further comprises a subset of MATLAB programming language commands.

47. The computer-implemented interface of claim 46, wherein the non-native object system is at least one or a combination of:

a Java and a C++system.

48. The computer-implemented interface of claim 46, wherein the requesting unit is at least one or a combination of:

source code, executable code, an M-file, a P-file, a script, an applet, and an application.

49. The computer-implemented interface of claim 45, further comprising a record of non-native object systems registered with the interface.

50. The computer-implemented interface of claim 49, further comprising an identifying handle assigned to the non-native interface.

51. The computer-implemented interface of claim 45, wherein the at least one function in the non-native object language is at least one or a combination of:

a class, a class method, and a function not associated with a class.

52. The computer-implemented interface of claim 45, further comprising an array holding objects of the non-native object system.

53. A computer-implemented system for interfacing from an array-oriented system to a non-native object system, said computer-implemented system comprising:

a processor for providing an interface between an array-oriented system and a non-native object system; and

a requesting unit in the array-oriented system using the interface to execute at least one object in the non-native object system, the requesting unit requesting that the interface create an array, the array created using an indexing type of the non-native object system if the non-native object system is array-capable, and

using an indexing type of the array-oriented system if the non-native object system is not array capable, wherein;

the object is executed using the interface according to a format specified in the interface, the object is created, called, or destroyed in the non-native object system, and

one or more elements associated with the object are inserted into the array before the array is returned to the requesting unit.

54. The computer-implemented system of claim 53, wherein at least a portion of the requesting unit further comprises a subset of MATLAB programming language commands.

55. The computer-implemented system of claim 54, wherein the non-native object system is at least one or a combination of:

a Java and a C++system.