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:
Mar. 14, 2006
Filed:
Sep. 09, 2002
Joshua J. Bloch, San Jose, CA (US);
Graham Hamilton, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Joshua J. Bloch, San Jose, CA (US);
Graham Hamilton, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for associating metadata attributes with program elements. During operation, the system receives source code containing syntactic elements that specify metadata attributes for program elements, wherein the metadata attributes do not affect program execution. The system then parses the source code to obtain the metadata attributes. Next, the system associates the metadata attributes with corresponding program elements and determines values associated with the metadata attributes. Finally, the system incorporates the metadata attributes, including identifiers for the associated values and the associated program elements, into object code for the program, thereby allowing the metadata attributes to be accessed from the object code. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a system for accessing metadata attributes for program elements from object code through an application programming interface (API).