Programming model for modular development

• US 20080295066A1
• Filed: 05/24/2007
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kimmerly, Randy, Dengler, Patrick, Lvovitch, Oleg
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,629 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4486 Formation of subprogram jump address

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for providing a programming model for modular development. A definition feature is provided that allows a definition to be specified for a particular method that is part of an application. A production feature allows a functionality implementation to be specified for the particular method separately from the definition. A consumption feature allows a method call to be made indirectly to the functionality implementation of the particular method by referencing the definition of the particular method from a consuming method. The consuming method has no awareness of the functionality implementation for the particular method. An analysis process inspects components containing indirect associations between these consumers and producers of application functionality to generate a graph of direct associations between the consumers and producers without having to actually load the components. A loader process uses the graph of direct associations to run the application.

Claims

1. A method for providing a programming model for modular development comprising the steps of:

providing a definition feature that allows a definition to be specified for a particular method that is part of an application;

providing a production feature that allows a functionality implementation to be specified for the particular method separately from the definition; and

providing a consumption feature that allows a method call to be made indirectly to the functionality implementation of the particular method by referencing the definition of the particular method from a consuming method, the consuming method having no awareness of the functionality implementation for the particular method.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing an analysis process prior to runtime to generate a graph of direct associations from indirect references, including a direct association between the consuming method and the functionality implementation of the particular method.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the analysis process ensures that all required service dependencies for indirect associations are satisfied so that binding can be achieved properly before allowing the application to be run by a loader.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the loader is responsible for just-in-time loading and activating components that are used in the application.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the loader uses the graph of direct associations to properly transfer the method call from the consuming method to the functionality implementation of the particular method.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein multiple productions can be specified for the particular method using the definition feature, wherein multiple functionality implementations can be specified for the particular method using the production feature, and wherein metadata can be specified for each of the multiple definitions to allow the consumer through the loader to determine when to call a particular one of the multiple functionality implementations for a given scenario.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the definition is provided by a public interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the definition feature allows the interface to be decorated with a pre-defined definition attribute to designate the interface as the definition for the particular method.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the production feature allows the functionality implementation of the particular method to be decorated with a pre-defined production attribute to designate that the functionality implementation of the particular method is present.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the consumption feature allows the consuming method to be decorated with a pre-defined consumption attribute to designate that the consuming method contains the method call that references the definition of the particular method.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the production feature prohibits the functionality implementation from being declared as a public method to ensure that no method calls can be made directly to the functionality implementation.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 1.

13. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

provide an analysis process that is operable to inspect components containing a plurality of indirect associations between consumers and producers of application functionality for an application to generate a graph of direct associations between the consumers and producers without having to actually load the components; and

provide a loader process that is operable to use the graph of direct associations to run the application.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the analysis process is operable to output the direct associations in an intermediate language.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the intermediate language is later converted to a machine language using a just-in-time compilation technique.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the analysis process serves as a final compile step to ensure that binding can be achieved between the consumers and producers.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the loader process will not run the application if the analysis process reveals that binding cannot be achieved between the consumers and producers.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the consumers are connected to the producers indirectly through references to interfaces that define the producers.

19. A method for replacing an original functionality implementation of a method with a different functionality implementation comprising the steps of:

providing a definition for a particular method that is part of an application;

providing an original functionality implementation for the particular method separately from the definition;

providing a consuming method that indirectly calls the original functionality implementation of the particular method by referencing the definition of the particular method, the consuming method having no awareness of the original functionality implementation for the particular method;

providing a different functionality implementation of the particular method to be used in a current configuration of the application instead of the original functionality implementation; and

recompiling an intermediate language version of a graph of direct associations to point to the different functionality implementation.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 19.