Patent US7725878 - Property bundles on a per instance basis

US007725878Bl

<12) United States Patent <10) Patent No.: US 7,725,878 B1 Long et al. (45) Date of Patent: May 25, 2010 (54) PROPERTY BUNDLES ON A PER INSTANCE 5,956,506 A 9/ 1999 Cobb et al. BASIS 6,014,733 A 1/2000 Bennett (75) Inventors: David J. Long, Walnut Creek, CA (U S); i gildlfr et alI' David B. Pitfield, San Jose, CA (US) ’ ’ la et a ' 6,073,129 A 6/2000 Levine et al. (73) Assignee: Oracle International Corporation, 6,073,926 A 6/2000 Jensen er a1, Redwood Shores, CA (U S) ( * ) Notice: Subject. to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or 2ld]I.1SI€d under 35 (Continued) U.S.C. 154(b) by 793 days. OTHER PUBLICATIONS (21) Appl. No.: 10/040,578 _ _ _ _ _ The JavaVirtual Machine Specification, The class File Format (http:// (22) Filed; ])ec_ 28, 2001 java.srn.com/docs/books/vmspec/htrnl/ClassFile.d0c.htmI), pp. 1-46. Related U.S. Application Data _ _ _ _ _ _ (Continued) (63) Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/853,823, _ _ filed on May 11, 2()()1_ Primary Examiner—Tuan Q Dam (60) Provisional a lication No 60/204 196 filed on Ma Assmam Exammer*Thuy Dao pp ' ’ ’ y (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Hickman Palenno Truong & 12’ 2000' Becker LLP (51) Int. Cl. G06F 9/44 (2006.01) (57) ABSTRACT (52) U.S. Cl. ...................... .. 717/116; 717/108; 717/165 (58) Field of Classification Search """""" 67/Z3);/111063; A method and apparatus for associating methods or attributes . . . ’ on a per-instance basis is provided. One technique for proSee application file for complete search history. . . “ . . ,,. . viding per-instance attributes involves properties and prop(56) References Cited eity bundles. A second technique for providing “per-instance

5,222,242 A 6/1993 Choi et al. 395/800 technique for providing “per-instance methods” involves 5,313,629 A 5/ 1994 Abraham et fl1~ 395/600 policies. In any of these techniques, providing per-instance 57327556 A 7/1994 Mohan et 31' 395/600 properties may be used in any of the following ways: (1) 5,388,257 A 2/1995 Bauer ........... .. 395/600 d.fi. t . t fth 1 . t d .th d.f 5,457,793 A 10/1995 E11<<> etal. ................ .. 395/600 1 ere“ ms a_“°es ° e Same ° 3“ are aSS°_°‘a e W‘ _ 1 ' 5,544,345 A 8/1996 Carpenter et al‘ ferent properties where the properties are not in the class, and 5,701,435 A 12/1997 Guillen et 31, (2) two instances of two different classes are associated with 5,778,179 A 7/1998 Kanai et al. the same property where the property is not in either of the 5,799,305 A 8/1998 Bortvedt et al. ............. .. 707/10 W0 C1aSSes_

5,870,757 A 2/1999 Fuller ....................... .. 707/201

5,913,063 A 6/1999 McGurrin et al. ......... .. 717/109

5,937,406 A 8/1999 Balabine et al. ........... .. 707/100 26 Claims, 19 Drawing Sheets

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