Supercede, Inc.

Instantations, Inc.

John Hamby

Niklas Gustafsson

Patrick Lau

Method for enabling the simultaneous use of a first and a second programming language within a computer program, and apparatus to practice the method. To enable this sharing of languages, the present invention first provides for a common runtime representation of the data between the several languages in a program as a shared object model. The shared object model includes the layout of complex data structures (e.g., classes), the creation of data, the calling conventions, the destruction of data, the runtime representation of type information, dynamic function call dispatch, and dynamic type conversions. The use of a shared object model enables the sharing of the several compilers' internal representation of data between the different languages as a persistent shared symbol table. This shared internal data representation enables the several compilers to define their respective internal data representations in terms common to each of the compilers.

Data representation for mixed-language program development

An incremental byte code compiler which provides a high-performance execution environment for dynamically linked languages and for distributed target-independent applications. The execution environment provided by the present invention includes an incremental byte code compiler for generating IL symbols and code objects from a byte code source file, a persistent symbol table for storing the IL symbols and code objects, and an incremental imager for dynamically forming the image of the program from the code objects. The present invention further provides an extremely efficient methodology for dynamically adding program elements to a program under execution.

Incremental byte code compilation system

An interactive program development system which replaces compilers, linkers and debuggers required for conventional software development. The present invention comprises a new program compilation system for producing a novel type of translated structure called a code object, and an Incremental Image which forms the program image from code objects and their respective intermediate language symbols stored in a persistent symbol table. The new program compilation system operates on conventional computers having a CPU, monitor, memory system and input devices. The present invention obviates the need to halt execution of a program under development or during maintenance update to correct programming errors.

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Issaquah, WA, United States of America

John Hamby