Attempting runtime retranslation of unresolvable code

• US 20060080647A1
• Filed: 11/18/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dasan, Shajan, Bhansali, Sanjay, Harry, Brian D., Morrison, Vance Palmer
• Granted Patent: US 7,614,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/148
• 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 input stream comprising a second language representation;

while executing the program code, identifying program code in the input stream that has not been translated from a first language representation into the second language representation;

translating the identified program code from the first language representation into the second language representation; and

executing the translated identified program code.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying program code comprises executing second language representation program code comprising handling instructions that request retranslation of the identified program code.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified program code is program code in the first language representation that could not be translated during a prior translation attempt.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified program code is intermediate language code and the second language representation code is object code.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified program code is source code and the second language representation code is intermediate language code.

6. 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 and the translated identified program code comprises translating into a third language representation comprising object code prior to executing.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the identified program code comprises executing handling instructions communicating with a remote server.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein metadata indicates that the remote server is a trusted source.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying program code comprises executing a handler indicated for a thrown exception.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the handler provides an on-screen graphical interface that presents a computer user with alternative ways of continuing.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the on-screen graphical interface presents choices comprising at least:

ending execution and returning control to the executing program code.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the identified program code comprises executing handling instructions communicating with a remote server thereby providing a feedback loop to a developer of the program code.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the identified program code comprises executing instructions accessing a handler data structure, wherein the handler data structure provides access to unresolvable code.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the identified program code comprises executing instructions comprising a retranslation request.

15. In a computer readable medium, computer executable instructions comprising:

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;

the placed code comprising handling instructions indicating at least one instruction of the computer program that was not translated from the intermediate language representation into object code in a previous translation attempt; and

the handling instructions further comprising instructions for invoking the computer language translation program to translate the at least one instruction from an intermediate language representation into object code.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, 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.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein accessing the remote server provides a feedback loop to a developer of the computer language translation program.

18. 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 instructions that could not be translated from the first language representation into the second language representation during a previous translation attempt, and

the placed code comprising one or more instructions for invoking the translation program to translate the untranslated code when control flow directs execution of the computer program to the untranslated code.

19. The computer system of claim 18, 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.

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