INCREMENTALLY COMPILING SOFTWARE ARTIFACTS FROM AN INTERACTIVE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

• US 20150113513A1
• Filed: 10/18/2013
• Published: 04/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Aggag, Khalid, Narayanan, Suriya
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/48 Incremental compilation software reuse G06F8/36

Abstract

An interactive development environment receives developer inputs to develop or customize modeled types. A compilation agent receives a request from the IDE to compile the modeled types that the developer is developing or customizing. The compilation agent accesses a cache of previously compiled types and determines which of the individually loadable types are to be re-compiled based upon the changes made by the developer, and compiles only those identified types. The re-compiled types are also stored in cache.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of developing a computer system that models types, comprising:

receiving a request to have types compiled;

identifying the types to compile, as a subset of types in the computer system, based on changes to the computer system made in a development environment and based on types already compiled and stored in a compilation cache; and

compiling the identified types to obtain recently compiled types.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 and further comprising:

storing the recently compiled types in the compilation cache.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 and further comprising:

sending the recently compiled types to a runtime environment to be run.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 and further comprising:

repeating the steps of receiving a request, identifying the types, compiling the identified types, and storing the recently compiled types.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 and further comprising:

intermittently determining whether a memory usage of the compilation cache meets a threshold value and, if so, releasing at least a portion of the compilation cache.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the steps of receiving a compilation request, identifying the types and compiling are performed by a compilation agent, and further comprising:

intermittently determining whether any instances of the development environment are running and, if not, shutting down the compilation agent.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the steps of receiving a compilation request, identifying the types and compiling are performed by a compilation agent, and further comprising:

intermittently determining whether the compilation agent has been idle for a threshold time period and, if so, shutting down the compilation agent.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 and further comprising:

receiving development inputs at the development environment developing the types.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein receiving the development inputs comprises:

creating models of compilable types.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein receiving the development inputs comprises:

customizing models of compilable types.

11. A compilation system for compiling types modeled in a computer system, comprising:

a compilation cache storing previously-compiled types;

an incremental compilation component that receives compilation requests from a development environment, the incremental compilation component identifying types to be compiled based on changes made to the computer system in the development environment and by searching the compilation cache to identify whether any types to be compiled are stored as previously compiled types, the incremental compilation component compiling the identified types and making them accessible to a runtime environment; and

a computer processor being a functional part of the compilation system and activated by the incremental compilation component to facilitate identifying the types to be compiled, searching the compilation cache and compiling the identified types.

12. The compilation system of claim 11 and further comprising:

a management component that manages memory usage and operation of the compilation system.

13. The compilation system of claim of claim 12 wherein the incremental compilation component compiles the identified types to obtain recently compiled types and stores the recently compiled types in the compilation cache.

14. The compilation system of claim 13 wherein the management component intermittently determines whether a memory usage from the compilation system meets a threshold level and, if so, invalidates at least a part of the compilation cache.

15. The compilation system of claim 13 wherein the management system intermittently determines whether any development environment instances are running and, if not, shuts down the compilation system.

16. The compilation system of claim 13 wherein the management system intermittently determines whether the compilation system has been idle for a predetermined threshold time and, if so, shuts down the compilation system.

17. The compilation system of claim 12 wherein the compilation cache, the incremental compilation component and the computer processor are part of an integrated development environment (IDE).

18. A computer readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, comprising:

receiving a request to have types modeled in a computer system compiled;

identifying the types to compile, as a subset of types in a computer system, based on changes to the computer system made in a development environment and based on types already compiled and stored in a compilation cache;

compiling the identified types to obtain recently compiled types;

storing the recently compiled types in the compilation cache;

sending the recently compiled types to a runtime environment to be run; and

repeating the steps of receiving a request, identifying the types, compiling the identified types, and storing the recently compiled types.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 and further comprising:

intermittently determining whether a memory usage of the compilation cache meets a threshold value and, if so, releasing at least a portion of the compilation cache.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the steps of receiving a request, identifying the types and compiling are performed by a compilation agent, and further comprising:

intermittently determining whether any instances of the development environment are running and, if not, shutting down the compilation agent; and

intermittently determining whether the compilation agent has been idle for a threshold time period and, if so, shutting down the compilation agent.