(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,654,954 Bi
Hicks (45) Date of Patent: Nov. 25,2003
(54) COMPUTER SYSTEM, PROGRAM
PRODUCT AND METHOD UTILIZING
EXECUTABLE FILE WITH ALTERNATE
PROGRAM CODE ATTACHED AS A FILE
ATTRIBUTE
(75) Inventor: Daniel Rodman Hicks, Byron, MN
(US)
(73) Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term ol this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 780 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/024,111
(22) Filed: Feb. 17, 1998
(51) Int. C I. G06F 9/45
(52) U.S. CI 717/162; 707/203
(58) Field of Search 395/709; 717/9,
717/162, 203
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,047,918 A * 9/1991 Schwartz et al 707/203
5,590,331 A * 12/1996 Lewis et al 395/708
5,768,593 A * 6/1998 Walters et al 395/705
5,819,275 A * 10/1998 Badger et al 707/100
5,854,932 A * 12/1998 Mariani et al 395/709
5,878,262 A * 3/1999 Shoumura et al 375/710
5,905,895 A * 5/1999 Halter 395/709
5,966,539 A * 10/1999 Srivastava 395/709
A computer system, program product, and method utilize alternate program code associated with an executable file using a file attribute so that the alternate program code may be retrieved and executed in lieu ol the primary program code stored in the file. As one example, lor a platformindependent executable file such as a Java class file, a file attribute ol the file may be analyzed to determine il native program code for a particular platform is associated with the file. II so, the native program code may be retrieved and executed directly without the additional overhead associated with interpreting the platform-independent program code in the file. II, on the other hand, the native program code is not detected, the native program code may be generated and associated with the file using a file attribute such that the native program code is detected in subsequent attempts to retrieve and execute the file.
69 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets
