Dynamic expression editor

Details Dynamic expression editor Dynamic expression editor

1998-07-31

2001-05-08

Alam, Hosain T. (Department: 2172)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

Reexamination Certificate

active

06230161

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to the following co-pending and commonly assigned application, which application is hereby incorporated by reference herein:
application Ser. No. 09/127,467, filed on same date herewith, now pending by Philip T. Berkland, Howard J. Glaser, David J. Kuettel, Stewart E. Nickolas, and John C. Sanchez, entitled “Method for Defining Composed Object Methods and Attributes by Dynamically Presenting Composite Values and Options”.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods of object-oriented programming, and in particular to a method and system for creating new object methods and object attributes and for editing existing methods and attributes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Object oriented programming has become increasingly popular among software developers, because it offers the benefits of increased application portability, interoperability, and interchangeability. Object-oriented programming techniques also reduce development risk and software development costs, and can extend the life cycle of the final product to prevent premature obsolescence.
An industry consensus standard interface definition for interoperable software, known as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (COBRA) has been defined. COBRA simplifies the development and deployment of distributed systems software in several ways. First, COBRA defines a distributed environment using an object-oriented paradigm, which hides differences between programming languages, operating systems, and object locations. Second, COBRA's object oriented approach allows diverse types of implementations to inter-operate at the same level, hiding idiosyncrasies and supporting reuse.
A central component of COBRA is an Object Request Broker (ORB), which functions as a communications infrastructure, transparently transceiving object requests across distributed heterogeneous computing environments. This is accomplished through a well-defined interface called the Interface Definition Language (IDL). Further details regarding COBRA are set forth in “The Essential Cobra, Systems Integration Using Distributed Objects,” by Thomas W. Mobray and Ron Zahavi, 1995, which publication is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Toolkits are available to support the COBRA programming model and allow users to use visual tools to generate applications by creating new objects, edit existing objects, generate dynamic link libraries (DLLs), and package applications so they can be published to a server.
However, although existing tools allow new objects to be defined and edited, these tools do not allow the user to create composite objects by combining user-selectable elements of existing objects under user-definable rules. What is needed is a system and method which allow the user to create new objects by combining elements of existing objects and which provides a simple and intuitive interface for doing so. The present invention satisfies that need.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address the requirements described above, the present invention discloses a system, method, and article of manufacture for intuitively defining new attributes and methods as a function of existing attributes and methods.
The method comprises the steps of creating a composite object having object elements including methods and attributes combined according to a composition rule, displaying a view of expression elements comprising the attributes and methods of the composite object, defining an object element expression combining at least two of the expression elements, and forming the hybrid object element from the selected expression elements. In one embodiment, a drop-down list is used to select a series of attributes, methods and operators that comprise the expression defining the hybrid element.
The apparatus comprises means for performing the operations above, including a computer with a processor and memory coupled to a data storage device and a display. The article of manufacture comprises a tangible embodiment of instructions for performing the foregoing operations.


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Ossher et al., “Subject-oriented composition rules”, OOPSLA 95, pp. 235-250, Oct. 1995.*
Kung et al., “Object-oriented real time systems modeling and verification”, Proceedings: Third international workshop on object-oriented real time dependable systems, pp. 224-231, Feb. 1997.*
Kentaro Shimizu et al., “Hierarchical Object Groups in Distributed Operating Systems”, Proceedings of the International Conferecne on Distributed Computing Systems, U.S., Washington, IEEE Comp. Soc. Press, 1998, pp. 18-24.

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