Irreducible modules

• US 9,569,187 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lewis, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): MITCHELL, JASON D
• Application Number:
  US14/048,876
• Publication Number:
  US 20150100948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/10 Selecting, i.e. obtaining data of one kind from those record carriers which are identifiable by data of a second kind from a mass of ordered or randomly- distributed record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/44 Encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/4434 Reducing the memory space required by the program code

Abstract

An approach to generating irreducible modules. The approach includes a method that includes receiving, by at least one computing device, data associated with a specification. The method includes defining, by the at least one computing device, a pattern on the received data. The pattern reduces a set of rules into a single condition. The method includes generating, by the at least one computing device, an irreducible module based on the pattern. The irreducible module has one output dependent variable and is associated with a data flow application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by at least one computing device, a data driven application engineering (DDAE) specification defining a calculation and comprising a plurality of condition tests that are required for assigning a correct value to an output variable;

determining, by the at least one computing device, a metamodel that defines relationships between tokens, lines, and statements found in the DDAE specification, wherein each of the tokens includes a foreign key indicating a relationship with one of the statements;

defining, by the at least one computing device, a plurality of connector patterns based on the received DDAE specification and the metamodel, wherein the connector patterns modularize the condition tests as comparisons and gates; and

generating, using a compiler executing on the at least one computing device, a plurality of irreducible modules in a perl programming language based on the plurality of connector patterns, wherein the plurality of irreducible modules perform the calculation according to the plurality of condition tests to produce the output variable, and,

wherein the irreducible modules further include a calculation connector and a comparison connector, and wherein

the calculation connector includes at least one of a numeric function, a string function, and an aggregate function defined in the DDAE specification, and

the comparison connector includes a comparison of two independent variables and outputs TRUE if values of the two independent variables comply with the comparison in accordance with the condition tests.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the connector patterns define a set of modules that can be created and combined in any application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the irreducible modules are independent of each other and a data flow associated with the irreducible module is identified by the output variable.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the output variable is identified by a primary key value and is related to other variables by foreign key references.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the irreducible modules are associated with a parallel computing application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the irreducible modules do not require any particular hardware or software infrastructure.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the plurality of irreducible modules includes generating a two dimensional matrix, wherein each entry within the two dimensional matrix is associated with a token within a particular line sequence that is within a statement.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of irreducible modules includes a gate connector.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the calculation connector connects two or three independent variables with a dependent variable by combining the two or three independent variables to assign a value to the dependent variable.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the gate connector comprises at least one of an AND gate, an OR gate, a NAND gate, and NOR gate and connects two independent variables with a dependent variable.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the comparison connector compares the two independent variables and then assigns a value to a dependent variable.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the irreducible models are generated in the perl programming language using a SQL query.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the DDAE specification is received via a graphical user interface.

14. A computer program product for providing a plurality of irreducible modules, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable hardware storage device having program code stored on the non-transitory computer readable hardware storage device, the program comprising:

program code to receive a data driven application engineering (DDAE) specification defining a calculation and comprising a plurality of condition tests that are required for assigning a correct value to an output variable;

program code to determine a metamodel that defines relationships between tokens, lines, and statements found in the DDAE specification, wherein each of the tokens includes a foreign key indicating a relationship with one or the statements;

program code to determine a plurality of connector patterns based on the received DDAE specification and the metamodel, wherein the connector patterns modularize the condition tests as comparisons and gates;

program code to generate, using a compiler, the plurality of irreducible modules in a perl programming language based on the connector pattern, the irreducible models which are independent of each other,

wherein the irreducible module further includes a calculation connector and a comparison connector and wherein,

the calculation connector includes at least one of a numeric function, a string function, and an aggregate function defined in the DDAE specification, and

the comparison connector includes a comparison of two independent variables and outputs TRUE if values of the two independent variables comply with the comparison in accordance with the condition tests.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the generating the plurality of irreducible modules includes determining a calculation, the comparison, and a gate.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the gate connects two Boolean independent variables with one Boolean dependent variable by assigning a result of a Boolean operation to the one Boolean dependent variable.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the connector patterns reduce an infinite number of tests and related variables, associated with the specification, to a finite number.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the irreducible modules do not require any particular hardware or software infrastructure.

19. A system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage medium;

program instructions to receive a data driven application engineering (DDAE) specification defining a calculation and comprising a plurality of condition tests that are required for assigning a correct value to an output variable;

program instructions to determine a metamodel and a matrix that defines a relationship between tokens, lines, and statements found in the DDAE specification, wherein each of the tokens includes a foreign key indicating a relationship with one of the statements;

program instructions to define a plurality of connector patterns, based on receiving the DDAE specification and the metamodel, wherein the connector patterns modularize the condition tests as comparisons and gates,

program instructions to create a set of irreducible modules in a programming language based on the connector pattern using a compiler and combining the set of irreducible modules into any application that includes parallel computing or data flow applications;

program instructions to generate the set of irreducible modules based on the connector pattern, wherein an irreducible module within the set of irreducible modules is independent of other irreducible modules within the set of irreducible modules,

wherein the program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage medium for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory, and

the irreducible module further includes a calculation connector and a comparison connector, wherein

the calculation connector includes at least one of a numeric function, a string function, and an aggregate function defined in the DDAE specification, and

the comparison connector includes a comparison of two independent variables and outputs TRUE if values of the two independent variables comply with the comparison in accordance with the condition tests.