Electrical computers and digital processing systems: interprogra – Interprogram communication using message – Object oriented message
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-29
2004-11-16
Courtenay, III, St. John (Department: 2126)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: interprogra
Interprogram communication using message
Object oriented message
C345S215000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06820268
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of object oriented programming languages.
2. Background Art
Object oriented programming languages are programming languages in which program elements are viewed as objects that can pass messages to each other. An object includes its own data and programming code and is internally self-reliant. The programming code of an object includes procedures or methods. The methods of an object are invoked by messages received from another object. Each object is an instance of an object class. The properties of the objects in a class are defined by a class definition. A class definition may utilize a hierarchical class structure in which objects in the class inherit properties of a parent class in addition to properties explicitly defined for the class. This inheritance property allows objects from to be reused from one program to another, facilitating the sharing of programming code between different programs.
To write an application program in an object oriented programming language, a programmer identifies the real-world objects of a problem, the data and processing requirements of those objects, and the communications needed between the objects, and encapsulates these in class definitions. This process is simplified by taking advantage of the inheritance property of object classes by basing the class definitions to the extent possible on preexisting object classes.
Objects are assembled in a modular fashion to create applications. Objects communicate with one another by means of messages. In order for meaningful communications to occur, the message sent from a sending object to a receiving object must be a message to which the receiving object can respond. The sending object must therefore know the type of message to which the receiving object will respond. Similarly, if the message is one that invokes a response from the receiving object, the sending object must be prepared to accept the response.
Although objects are generally internally self-reliant, and can therefore be viewed as modules that can be assembled with other objects into a variety of application programs, the simple assembling of objects does not create a functional program. The objects must also be able to intercommunicate with each other. Although objects represent reusable code, additional code must be written to provide for the required communication between objects. For an object to communicate with a number of different objects, each of which send and receive different messages, the object must be provided with appropriate code for each of the different objects.
An example is a controlling object that bears data and/or manages a number of data bearing objects and communicates with a number of user interface objects that display data provided by the controlling object to a user and accept input from a user.
FIG. 1
shows an example of the interactions between a prior art controller object
100
managing data bearing objects
105
a
to
105
f
and a graphical user interface
110
. Graphical user interface
110
includes three kinds of user interface objects: a table object
120
, two text field objects
130
and
140
, respectively, and two check box objects
150
and
160
, respectively. Each of these three kinds of user interface objects operates differently and responds to and generates different messages. Controller
100
therefore contains separate interface code for interfacing with each kind of object. Accordingly, controller
100
contains table object interface code
170
, text field object interface code
180
, and check box object interface code
190
.
Certain prior art object oriented programming environments provide user interfaces with a predefined structure. These predefined structures do not allow developers the freedom to easily assemble custom user interfaces.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention comprises a method for allowing a controlling object to interface with any number of user interface objects without requiring separate interface code for each user interface object and without restricting the user interface to certain predetermined designs. The present method provides objects called association objects that are interposed between a controlling object and each user interface object. Each kind of user interface object has a corresponding association object. The association object for a particular kind of user interface object contains code that allows the association object to interact with the specific kind of user interface object with which it is associated. Each association object also presents a standard interface to a controlling object, regardless of the kind of user interface object with which the association object is associated. The association object takes care of any conversion or translation that must be performed to convert a data value sent by the controlling object into an appropriate value that can be displayed by the user interface object. Accordingly, instead of requiring different interface code for each kind of user interface object used, a controlling object requires only a single block of interface code for communicating with all association objects, which in turn provide the user interface specific code needed for each kind of user interface object.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4835685 (1989-05-01), Kun
patent: 5119475 (1992-06-01), Smith et al.
patent: 5163130 (1992-11-01), Hullot
patent: 5276816 (1994-01-01), Cavendish et al.
patent: 5280610 (1994-01-01), Travis, Jr. et al.
patent: 5327529 (1994-07-01), Fults et al.
patent: 5485617 (1996-01-01), Stutz et al.
patent: 5551035 (1996-08-01), Arnold et al.
patent: 5553223 (1996-09-01), Greenlee et al.
patent: 5574918 (1996-11-01), Hurley et al.
“Enterprise Object Framework: Building Reusable Business Objects,” NeXT Computer Publication, Jul. 1994, Redwood City, California, U.S.A., pp. 1-13.*
Steve Holzner, Burkard “C++ Programming”, 2nd Edition, 1992, Brady Publishing.
Greenfield Jack
Upson Linus
Willhite Daniel
Williamson Richard
Courtenay III St. John
NeXT Computer, Inc.
The Hecker Law Group, PLC
LandOfFree
Method for associating data bearing objects with user... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method for associating data bearing objects with user..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for associating data bearing objects with user... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3344176