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:
Jun. 08, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 29, 2000
Todd A. Proebsting, Redmond, WA (US);
Benjamin G. Zorn, Woodinville, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Programming language constructs called pronouns and referents, and a method, system, and apparatus for translating computer source code that contains the pronouns and referents. A referent is any semantic or syntactic construct in the source code (e.g., a statement, a portion of a statement, an expression, or a value) to which a pronoun refers. A pronoun is a programming-language defined source-code symbol or a sequence of symbols that refers to the referent. As a result, pronouns eliminate the need to define new names or macros for repeated program segments. When a translator encounters the pronoun in the source code, the translator searches the source code for the referent and substitutes the referent for the pronoun. Thus, by using pronouns and referents, the programmer can write programs faster and easier and eliminate program redundancy without losing readability.