International Business Machines Corporation

Stephen Sherman Miller

Tsuneo Horiguchi

Alfred William Shannon

William David Wallace

Michael Thomas Wheatley

Robert Milton Smith

Timothy William Osborn

A method and system for managing computer program execution is implemented in a set of callable run-time support services which allow processes written in single or multiple languages to cooperate and behave in a predictable and orderly manner. Three key program execution constructs are defined: process, enclave, and thread. The process is the highest level construct of the program execution. It consists of one or more enclaves. The enclave defines the scope of execution semantics defined by the high level languages. This includes the scope of application termination and the scope of name resolution for shared data, files and procedures. The enclave consists of one or more threads. The thread is the basic program execution unit with its own state of execution. A thread may execute concurrently with other threads. A thread may consist of a series of call invocations of procedures. These procedures may be written in different high level languages. The callable services provide means for creating and terminating these constructs. A request to terminate a process results in termination of all the enclaves (including threads) in the process. Terminating an enclave terminates all threads in the enclave. The termination request may be combined with signaling a termination condition allowing execution of registered condition handling exit routines.

Program execution in a software run-time environment

Processing an event signifying a condition in a computer system is described. The computer system maintains an invocation stack which includes a plurality of stack frames. Such event processing operates by selecting a stack frame from the invocation stack, and then determining whether a user specified event processing procedure capable of processing the event has been registered with the selected stack frame. If a user specified event processing procedure has been so registered, then the event is processed using the user specified event processing procedure as specified by a set of rules and options defined for the disposition and/or processing of the specific event. Optionally, it is then determined whether a language specific event processing procedure capable of processing the event has been registered with the selected stack frame. If a language specific event processing procedure has been so registered, then the event is processed using the language specific event processing procedure as specified by a set of rules and options defined for the disposition and/or processing of the specific event. If an user specified event processing procedure capable of processing the event or a language specific event processing procedure capable of processing the event has not been registered with any stack frame of the invocation stack or have chosen not to terminate the event processing, then the event is processed using an applicable default event processing procedure.

System and method for managing control flow of computer programs

A method and system for managing computer program execution is implemented in a set of callable run-time support services which allow processes written in single or multiple languages to cooperate and behave in a predictable and orderly manner. Three key program execution constructs are defined: process, enclave, and thread. The process is the highest level construct of the program execution. It consists of one or more enclaves. The enclave defines the scope of execution semantics defined by the high level languages. This includes the scope of application termination and the scope of name resolution for shared data, files and procedures. The enclave consists of one or more threads. The thread is the basic program execution unit with its own state of execution. A thread may execute concurrently with other threads. A thread may consist of a series of call invocations of procedures. These procedures may be written in different high level languages. The callable services provide means For creating and terminating these constructs. A request to terminate a process results in termination of all the enclaves (including threads) in the process. Terminating an enclave terminates all threads in the enclave. The termination request may be combined with signaling a termination condition allowing execution of registered condition handling exit routines.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Stephen Sherman Miller