Apple Inc.

Mark Andrew Piccirelli

Ali T Ozer

Andreas W Wendker

Ronald Dennis Lue-Sang

Curtis Rothert

David Alexander Zarzycki

An application programming interface is provided in an object-oriented programming platform for developing applications. A method comprises, in response to a first message received at a first object that contains one or more properties, creating a second object that responds to a second message sent thereto responsive to sending of the first message to the first object and returning the second object. By returning, for example, key-value collection proxies by specific key-value coding methods a read-only or a read-write access may be allowed to a collection of a container object's related objects. A specific implementation of one object's class may change over time without requiring changes in another object's implementation.

Creating an object in an object-oriented programming platform

An efficient mechanism for terminating applications of a data processing system is described herein. In one embodiment, in response to a request for exiting from an operating environment of a data processing system, an operating system examines an operating state associated with an application running within the operating environment, where the operating state is stored at a predetermined memory location shared between the operating system and the application. The operating system immediately terminates the application if the operating state associated with the application indicates that the application is safe for a sudden termination. Otherwise, the operating system defers terminating the application if the operating state associated with the application indicates that the application is unsafe for the sudden termination.

Efficient mechanism for terminating applications

An apparatus and method are described for performing file coordination operations on a computer system. For example, one embodiment of a system for performing file coordination comprises: a file coordination service having arbitration logic for arbitrating among different read and write processes attempting to perform file read and write operations, respectively; and a file presenter representing a file opened by a file editing application and registering the opened file with the file coordination service; wherein prior to permitting a read/write process to perform its designated read/write operation, the file coordination service notifies the file presenter and waits for a response from the file presenter indicating that the read/write operation may proceed.

System and method for file coordination

An application programming interface is provided in an object-oriented programming platform for developing applications. A method comprises registering a first object with a second object to observe one or more properties associated with the second object, the second object having a set of methods associated therewith and replacing a first implementation of a method in the set of methods associated with the second object with a second implementation of the method that automatically sends a notification to the first object. The observable objects need not explicitly invoke the observer notifications, avoiding writing of a large amount of code. These observer notifications need only be sent for objects that are actually being observed but are related objects, substantially reducing the performance overhead of needless invocations of the observer notifications without limiting binding between objects.

Growing community of inventors

Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Mark Andrew Piccirelli