Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data routing – Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-03
2001-08-14
Courtenay, III, St. John (Department: 2151)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data routing
Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06275866
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is generally related to object oriented computing, and more particularly to interaction between components in an object oriented computing environment.
As computer technology has matured, a variety of “standard” software applications have been developed to suit specific needs and accomplish specific types of tasks. For example, word processing applications have been developed for generating written documents, spreadsheets have been developed for making arithmetical computations, and databases have been developed for organizing, storing and retrieving information. While these and other standard software applications facilitate the respective tasks for which they were designed, other tasks present requirements which draw upon the capabilities of a plurality of such software applications.
In response to the need for software applications which would benefit from the capabilities of a plurality of standard applications, such as a database and word processor, it is known to develop customized software applications. However, development of such customized software applications is costly and time consuming, and may still fall short of desired objectives in the event further capabilities are needed which are not incorporated. One alternative to developing customized software applications is to export data from various software applications having appropriate features for given sub-tasks into one common application to create a presentation document. For example, arithmetical calculations could be made in a spreadsheet application, data could be sorted in a database application, and the results from both applications exported into a word processing application for inclusion in a word processing document for presentation. However, this solution has drawbacks. Exporting data typically requires tedious data transfer operations to be manually performed by the user. Further, when data is updated in one of the applications, such updates are not automatically provided to the presentation application. Consequently, substantial effort is required to assure that the presentation document is kept up to date.
Another solution to the above-mentioned problems is to embed objects via the Object Linking and Embedding (“OLE”) standard. In order to comply with the OLE standard, objects and containers must implement predefined interfaces. Through such interfaces OLE allows data associated with a first application to appear in a document associated with a second application. However, such data is merely displayed in the document and cannot be employed for computation or similar tasks.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, software components such as objects, containers, applications and computational blocks implement an interface which facilitates performance of computational tasks on shared data. The interface defines a communication protocol for data sharing. Components that comply with the protocol can share data even if such components are associated with unrelated applications. A data flow manager controls data exchange by determining which components are prepared to share data, and prompting prepared components to share data in discrete steps. Following exchange, the shared data can be employed for computational and similar tasks.
Non-compliant objects can be coupled with supporting objects to allow participation in data sharing activities. In particular, a translation object that implements the interface can be associated with a non-compliant object that does not implement the interface to produce a translation component that retains the functional attributes of the non-compliant object but implements the interface required for data sharing. Similarly, a non-compliant object can be associated with a script and a script interface object to produce a scripted component that retains the functional attributes of the non-compliant object but implements the interface required for data sharing.
The present invention may be advantageously employed to link a plurality of objects associated with a plurality of different respective applications and thereby exploit desired features from such applications. For example, a database application and a word processing application may be linked to a spreadsheet application such that data from the database is automatically supplied to the spreadsheet, where arithmetic computations are performed on the data and embedded text from the word processing application describes the computations. By linking applications in this manner, it is possible to take advantage of the divergent capabilities of a plurality of applications and combine such capabilities into a single “document” without the effort associated with the development of customized applications.
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Boulia Donald J.
Greenwood David G.
Courtenay III St. John
MathSoft Engineering & Education, Inc.
Weingarten, Schurgin Gagnebin & Hayes LLP
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