JPH05100873A - Interface system for software package - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the development of a software package with versatility and to improve processing capacity. CONSTITUTION:In a system where tasks included in the software package 1 are suitably started from application tasks 2, and 2n so as to execute a processing, mail boxes being one of resources managed in an operating system are provided in the stacks 4m and 4n on the application tasks 2m and 2n being request sources, and they are used for returning a termination status from the task of the started software package 1. Namely, the task of the software package 1 transmits the termination status to the mail boxes which the application tasks 2m and 2n provide in the self stacks 4m and 4n by using the system call of the operating system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a software package interface system in a real-time system or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to improve the productivity of software (program), a software group having general-purpose functions is prepared as a software package, an application task issues a processing request as required, and a predetermined processing is performed. Often.

In such a case, it is necessary to perform an interface in order to make a processing request from the application task to the software package and to return an end status from the task of the software package to the requesting application task after the processing is completed. Occurs.

As for the interface when an application task issues a processing request to the software package, the processing is basically performed by the application task, and the function of the operating system is generally used. There is not much problem in terms of design and processing performance. Therefore, there is a problem with the interface for returning the end status from the task of the software package to the requesting application task after the processing is completed.

Conventionally, the following two methods have been mainly used as an interface for returning the end status from the task of the software package to the requesting application task after the completion of such processing.

A method in which various resources (queue, semaphore, event flag, mailbox, etc.) provided by the operating system are generated on the software package side in the system initialization process, and the termination status is returned using this.

A method of returning the end status by using a specific area on the memory in addition to the function of the operating system.

[0008]

Conventionally, the interface between the tasks has been performed as described above, but the following drawbacks have been pointed out.

(1) There is no problem if any of the methods is developed as dedicated software, but it is difficult to develop it if it is general purpose.

That is, in the above method, various resources must be generated in advance in the system initialization process, and therefore when a process request is made irregularly,
It is difficult to handle unless the task composition can be grasped in advance.

Further, in the above method, since communication is performed with an unspecified application task via the memory, the function must be realized in a form unrelated to the data configuration of various application tasks, and Is difficult.
Although it is possible to receive application task information at the time of initialization of the package software and adjust the data configuration based on that information, prepare a data configuration for universally responding to different application tasks. It cannot be adopted because the initialization process of the package software becomes complicated and the efficiency is low.

(2) In the above method, in order to know the timing at which the end status is returned, it is necessary for the application task side to check whether or not the end status is written in a specific area on the memory, and polling is performed. Since it is necessary to incorporate a process that becomes a CPU load to some extent, the processing performance decreases.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to facilitate the development of a versatile software package and to improve the processing performance. To provide the interface method of.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a system in which a task included in a software package is appropriately activated from an application task to perform processing, and a resource managed by an operating system is provided. One mailbox is provided in the stack of the requesting application task and is used to return the exit status from the started task.

[0015]

In the software package interface method of the present invention, a mailbox, which is one of the resources managed by the operating system, is provided in the stack of the request source application task, and the task of the activated software package is installed. It is used to return the exit status. That is, the task of the software package sends the end status using a system call to the mailbox provided in the stack of the application task.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system to which the software package interface system of the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a software package in which a plurality of software having general-purpose functions is collected, and can operate as a plurality of tasks in response to processing requests.

On the other hand, 2m and 2n are application tasks that appropriately use the functions of the software package 1.

On the side of the application tasks 2m and 2n, message blocks 5m and 5n for storing information to be transmitted to the software package 1 are created in the stacks 4m and 4n of their own, and a part of them is provided by the operating system. It is assigned as one mailbox.

Further, in order to make a processing request to the software package 1, a message notification queue 3 which is one of the functions provided by the operating system is generated.

In operation, when the application task 2m, 2n requests the software package 1 for processing, a predetermined message including the address of the mailbox is fetched from the message blocks 5m, 5n of the respective stacks 4m, 4n. A message is sent to the message notification queue 3 using a system call of the operating system.

By receiving this message via the message notification queue 3, the software package 1 recognizes the processing request and operates the task corresponding to the predetermined function.

When the processing is completed, the task of the software package 1 requests using the system call of the operating system to transmit the completion status to the mailbox of the address received at the time of activation in advance.

When the end status arrives at the mailboxes of the stacks 4m and 4n, the mail arrives by the application task 2 by the function of the operating system.
The timing of returning the end status can be known by being notified to m and 2n.

[0026]

As described above, the software package interface method of the present invention has the following effects.

(A) Since a mailbox is provided on the application task side, the software package does not need to generate resources in particular, and it is possible to easily and efficiently deal with processing requests from irregular application tasks. This makes it easy to develop a general-purpose software package.

(B) Since the end status is returned from the task of the software package to the application task of the request source by using the mailbox provided by the operating system, the consistency of the data structure is not considered and the program It is possible to simplify and compact, and it becomes easy to develop a general-purpose software package. Further, since the processing at the time of initializing the software package is not necessary, the program on the application task side can be simplified.

(C) Since the mailbox provided by the operating system is used, in order to know the timing of returning the end status, the load on the CPU need not be increased and the performance can be prevented from degrading.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a system to which a software package interface method of the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ……………… Software package 2m, 2n… Application task 3 …………… Message notification queue 4m, 4n… Stack 5m, 5n… Message block

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a system in which a task included in a software package is appropriately activated from an application task to perform processing, a mailbox, which is one of the resources managed by the operating system, is included in a stack of requesting application tasks. An interface method for software packages characterized by being used to return the end status from the started task.