Views for software atomization

• US 20030236794A1
• Filed: 06/21/2002
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SCSK Corp. (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Curl Corp.
• Inventors: Harrison, Benjamin R., Hostetter, Mathew J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,281,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Views for software atomization provide runtime transformations of existing atoms in atom databases to create new or virtual atom databases. Views provide for sharing of code and data atoms that are stored in an atom database, as well as providing sharing of code and data atoms that are loaded into memory. A view is a set of transformation operations, including insert a new atom, modify an existing atom, or delete an existing atom, which can be applied to an atom database. The transformation operations can be applied, either literally, to create a new atom database on disk, or virtually, to create, at runtime, a virtual atom database, without actually having to create an actual atom database on disk. Modifying an existing atom can be done in a variety of ways, including changing the atom bytes, or the atom references, or an attribute of the atom.

Claims

1. A method of creating a view of an atom database, comprising:

defining a set of transformation operations; and

applying the set of transform operations to the atom database, such that when the transformation operations are applied virtually, at runtime, a virtual atom database is created and when the transformation operations are applied literally a new atom database is created, the atom database storing atoms, the atoms comprising;

a permanently assigned atom identifier,

computer code and/or data,

references to other atoms.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the new atom database is stored in a separate file from the atom database.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the new atom database replaces the original atom database.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the transformation operations comprise:

an insert operation to insert a new atom.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the transformation operations comprise:

a modify operation to modify an existing atom.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the transformation operations comprise:

a delete operation to delete an existing atom.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

associating the view and the atom database with a first executable program and a second executable program;

transforming, virtually, the atom database at runtime using the view to create a virtual atom database; and

loading, by the first executable program and the second executable program, an atom from the virtual atom database, thereby sharing the atom between the first executable program and the second executable program.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the atom is loaded into a first memory buffer accessible by the first executable program and the atom is loaded into a second memory buffer accessible by the second executable program.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the atom is loaded into a memory buffer accessible by both the first executable program and the second executable program.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

associating a first view and the atom database with a first executable program and a second view and the atom database with a second executable program;

transforming, virtually, the atom database at runtime using the first view and the second view to create a first virtual atom database and a second virtual atom database; and

loading, by the first executable program using the first view and the second executable program using the second view, an atom from the atom database, thereby sharing the atom between the first executable program and the second executable program.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the atom is loaded into a first memory buffer accessible by the first executable program using the first view and the atom is loaded into a second memory buffer accessible by the second executable program using the second view.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the atom is loaded into a memory buffer accessible by both the first executable program using the first view and the second executable program using the second view.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the transform operations are defined based on an optimization feature of a computer hardware and/or software system on which the atoms will execute.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the transform operations are defined in order to limit access to certain features provided by the atoms.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the atoms further comprise an atom characteristic and the atom transform operations change the atom characteristic.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of transformation operations comprise only modify operations that replace a first atom with a second atom, such that a mapping table is created.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of transform operations is applied to a virtual atom database.

18. A method for creating a set of atom transformation operations for transforming a first atom database to a second atom database, comprising:

a) canonicalizing, using a standard atom sharing algorithm, the first atom database and the second atom database, each of the first atom database and the second atom database storing atoms comprising;

a permanently assigned atom identifier,

computer code and/or data,

references to other atoms.

b) identifying a set of goal merges between atoms of the first atom database and atoms of the second atom database;

c) identifying a set of assist merges between atoms of the first atom database and atoms of the second atom database that assist the goal merges;

d) repeating while the set of goal merges is not empty the steps of;

i) selecting a best merge in the set of assist merges;

ii) committing the selected best merge;

iii) updating the set of goal merges;

iv) updating the set of assist merges;

e) undoing each committed merge that is not a reuse merge or did not assist with a committed reuse merge;

f) determining if uniquely compatible merges were created and adding the uniquely compatible merges to the goal merges, assigning an infinite weight to one of the uniquely compatible merges and goto to step c);

g) applying a modified atom sharing algorithm using the first database and the second database in order to identify remaining isomorphisms;

h) determining if uniquely compatible merges were created and adding the uniquely compatible merges to the goal merges, assigning an infinite weight to one of the uniquely compatible merges and goto to step c); and

i) determining if any compatible merges were created and committing the compatible merge with the largest weigh, assigning an infinite weight to the committed compatible merge, adding the committed compatible merge to the set of goal merges and goto step c).

19. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the committed merges is a replace merge.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the committed merges is an insert merge.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the committed merges is a delete merge.

22. An apparatus for creating a view of an atom database, comprising:

a set of transformation operations; and

a processor applying the set of transform operations to the atom database, such that when the transformation operations are applied virtually, at runtime, a virtual atom database is created and when the transformation operations are applied literally a new atom database is created, the atom database storing atoms, the atoms comprising;

a permanently assigned atom identifier,

computer code and/or data,

references to other atoms.

23. An apparatus for creating a view of an atom database, comprising:

a means for defining a set of transformation operations; and

a means for applying the set of transform operations to the atom database, such that when the transformation operations are applied virtually, at runtime, a virtual atom database is created and when the transformation operations are applied literally a new atom database is created, the atom database storing atoms, the atoms comprising;

a permanently assigned atom identifier,

computer code and/or data,

references to other atoms.

24. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium for creating a view of an atom database;

a set of computer program instructions embodied on the computer usable medium, including instructions to;

define a set of transformation operations; and

apply the set of transform operations to the atom database, such that when the transformation operations are applied virtually, at runtime, a virtual atom database is created and when the transformation operations are applied literally a new atom database is created, the atom database storing atoms, the atoms comprising;

a permanently assigned atom identifier,

computer code and/or data,

references to other atoms.