Electrical computers and digital processing systems: virtual mac – Virtual machine task or process management
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-31
2004-06-29
Lao, Sue (Department: 2126)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: virtual mac
Virtual machine task or process management
C713S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06757895
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention provides an improved data processing system and in particular an improved method and apparatus for selecting properties for a JVM. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for selecting initializing properties for a Java virtual machine used with a browser.
2. Description of Related Art
Internet, also referred to as an “internetwork”, is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving network (with packets if necessary). When capitalized, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. Many businesses are creating Internet sites as an integral part of their marketing efforts, informing consumers of the products or services offered by the business or providing other information seeking to engender brand loyalty. Many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service and secretaries of state. Operating costs may be reduced by providing informational guides and/or searchable databases of public records online.
Currently, the most commonly employed method of transferring data over the Internet is to employ the World Wide Web environment, also called simply “the web”. Other Internet resources exist for transferring information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the web. In the web environment, servers and clients effect data transaction using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g., text; still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.). Information is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In addition to basic presentation formatting, HTML allows developers to specify “links” to other web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a special syntax identifier defining a communications path to specific information. Each logical block of information accessible to a client, called a “page” or a “web page”, is identified by a URL. The URL provides a universal, consistent method for finding and accessing this information by the web “browser”. A browser is a program capable of submitting a request for information identified by a URL at the client machine. Retrieval of information on the web is generally accomplished with an HTML-compatible browser.
When a user desires to retrieve a page, a request is submitted to a server connected to a client computer at which the user is located and may be handled by a series of servers to effect retrieval of the requested information. The information is provided to the client formatted according to HTML. Typically, personal computers (PCs) along with work stations are typically used to access the Internet.
Often applications or programs may be sent to a computer from a web server across the Internet. Java applications are becoming increasingly more prevalent as the type of application sent between web servers and client computers. Java applications are common on the Internet and becoming more increasingly common in intranets and in other types of networks used in businesses.
Java is an object oriented programming language and environment focusing on defining data as objects and the methods that may be applied to those objects. Java supports only a single inheritance, meaning that each class can inherit from only one other class at any given time. Java also allows for the creation of totally abstract classes known as interfaces, which allow the defining of methods that may be shared with several classes without regard for how other classes are handling the methods.
The Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual computer component that resides only in memory. The JVM allows Java programs to be executed on a different platform as opposed to only the one platform for which the code was compiled. Java programs are compiled for the JVM. In this manner, Java is able to support applications for many types of data processing systems, which may contain a variety of central processing units and operating systems architectures. To enable a Java application to execute on different types of data processing systems, a compiler typically generates an architecture-neutral file format—the compiled code is executable on many processors, given the presence of the Java run-time system. The Java compiler generates bytecode instructions that are non-specific to a particular computer architecture. A bytecode is a machine independent code generated by the Java compiler and executed by a Java interpreter. A Java interpreter is a part in the JVM that alternately decodes and interprets a bytecode or bytecodes. These bytecode instructions are designed to be easy to interpret on any computer and easily translated on the fly into native machine code.
Presently available browsers are designed using a fixed embedded JVM in which the browsers pass fixed options to the JVM. Such a design limits the flexibility of developers and users of Java applets within the browser. “Applets” are mini applications that typically run inside a Java-enabled browser, such as Netscape Communicator. In particular, users cannot change properties, such as, for example, initial heap size and garbage collection from within a browser. Such a situation would prevent running an applet using a browser in which the applet requires a stack size that is larger than one coded for the browser.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method and apparatus for providing users an ability to select and pass options to a JVM used in association with a browser.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method for selecting options for initializing a virtual machine in a data processing system. The browser provides an interface in which the interface allows for selection of options for use by the virtual machine. A selection of an option is received for use by the virtual machine. The selection of the option is stored, wherein the selection of the option is used by the browser when initializing the virtual machine.
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Beadle Bruce Anthony
Brown Michael Wayne
Kaply Michael Aaron
Lawrence Kelvin Roderick
Rothert Douglas Scott
LaBaw Jeffrey S.
Lao Sue
Tkacs Stephen R.
Yee Duke W.
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