Data processing: software development – installation – and managem – Software program development tool – Translation of code
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-17
2001-11-13
Chaki, Kakali (Department: 2122)
Data processing: software development, installation, and managem
Software program development tool
Translation of code
C717S152000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317871
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the translation of computer programs and more specifically to a system that ensures that accurate translation occurs in view of software mechanisms that can cause file incompatibilities or other program structural problems in generating a desired translation.
Computer program, or “code,” translators are useful for translating a computer program written in a first language (the “original,” or “source” language) into a second language (the “target” language). For example, some older languages may become unpopular or outdated making their programs difficult to support because of lack of skilled programmers, lack of compatible computers to execute the code, etc. Or, a company or user of original source code may wish to translate the code to be in the same language as other programs, or to migrate the code to a computer system that doesn't support the original language.
However, the accurate translation of today's computer languages into a target language is made extremely difficult because of “text preprocessor mechanisms.” Such mechanisms, such as “include” statements, macros, and conditional compiles, cause changes to the text of a program so that the ultimate program is not discernable from a simple “face value” parsing of the text of the program. Moreover, the program text can change depending on different conditions existing at the time the program is “built” or compiled.
For example, an “include” statement is a common feature of most of today's popular computer languages. Such a statement, when encountered in a computer program, directs the compiler to fetch the text from another file and insert it into the file currently being compiled. Thus, although the include statement is a single line naming an external file, it effectively inserts any amount of computer program instructions into a computer program.
A “macro” is a similar device that can act as a function call that becomes embedded anywhere in the text of the computer program. A macro can be “defined” to be a complicated function of several lines of text that is invoked whenever a designated symbol is used anywhere within the computer program. Thus, the symbol “ID” can be defined to be a macro such as “average(b+daytime, array[15])” so that whenever the symbol “ID” appears in the program, it will be substituted for its definition (i.e., a “macro expansion”). Macros are even more problematic to code translations because macros can be defined to accept parameters that, in turn, need to be inserted in the definition of the macro when it is expanded.
Finally, conditional compile statements allow any number of lines of code to be “conditional compiles” that are only compiled into the final program if the condition is true. For example, one condition can be if “debug=TRUE” then compile the next 200 lines of code. Otherwise the 200 lines of code will not be present in the compiled program.
Other text preprocessor mechanisms are possible. Any text preprocessor mechanism that can alter the program code from its “face value” listing can pose major problems to a translator because the translator can no longer assume that the original code can map line-for-line, or even routine-for-routine or file-for-file, into a target translation. Although such text preprocessor mechanisms allow efficient and compact writing of code, and provide flexible control to programmers, these mechanisms are a major obstacle to code translators.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a system that efficiently ensures that accurate translation of computer programs can take place even in the face of such text preprocessor mechanisms.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a system for identifying the file structure of a computer program, preserving the file structure of the code after translation of source code from one high-level computer language to another, combining pieces of a source file that were generated in different translation sessions, and ensuring textual consistency of each piece of generated code in the resultant code files.
The invention includes a process that extracts fragment templates and partition templates from a source language text file; checks for textual consistency of the target language code generated for each partition template; pieces together a target language code file from partition templates; and combines pieces of a target language code file that were generated in different translation sessions.
In one embodiment, a method for parsing a source program for translation into a target program of a different language than the source program is provided. The method includes the steps of parsing the program to determine whether a line includes a macro definition; creating a first list having a partition associated with a determined macro definition; and using the partition to generate the target program.
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Andrews Kristy A.
Del Vigna Paul
Molloy Mark E.
Chaki Kakali
Compaq Computer Corporation
Nguyen-Ba Hoang-Vu Antony
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