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:
Jul. 30, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 22, 1998
Curtis Howard Brobst, Rochester, MN (US);
James Edward Carey, Rochester, MN (US);
Bradley William Fawcett, Byron, MN (US);
Siegfried Wiesenhofer, Wien, AT;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
In an object oriented computer system, an object oriented mechanism and method defines a common interface to maintain elements on a collection while providing the capability of using virtually any suitable object as a key to the collection. A programmer defines an interface on a collection that includes suitable object methods for adding, removing, and replacing elements of the collection. The constraints that determine whether elements may be added, removed, or replaced is encapsulated in a policy that is defined by the programmer. The programmer identifies one or more keys, which may include any suitable object in the object oriented system. A maintainer class provides a client interface for maintaining elements on the collection according to the defined policy and according to the keys defined by the programmer. The present invention recognizes the common characteristics that exist in maintaining elements on a keyed collection, and provide predetermined classes and class relationships that provide support for maintaining any collection using any key that a programmer may define.