The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 28, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 26, 1997
Scott Elliott, Beaverton, OR (US);
Symantec Corporation, Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
StackTrace refers generally here to an apparatus and computer method for use with multitasking operating systems (OS's) such as WINDOWS.RTM.95. StackTrace allows a program to again become responsive to OS messages after the program freezes. A user can then save work which was not yet saved at the time the program froze. In one mode, StackTrace identifies a special signature that appears in the virtual stacks of certain kinds of programs. This special signature is a consistently-used return address to a standard-for-type calling function of the OS. StackTrace locates the special signature in the virtual stack of the frozen program and then changes values stored in context registers of the frozen program to cause a return through the in-stack signature location as would have happened if the halted program function had successfully completed. StackTrace then initiates multitasked processing of the program so that the program will return by using the in-stack signature location. This enables the program to become responsive to messages from the OS.