JPH06202872A - Object direction system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate maintenance or design development of a method to be activated while depending on time. CONSTITUTION:When activating a specified method by an object according to a message in this system, a method designating means called as a method dictionary is previosuly referred to. In this means, a method record 23A is provided for selecting the method to be activated corresponding to time shown by a clock 13 as a time monitoring menas. Thus, since the method corresponding to time is selectively designated and activated by the method dictionary, such description as to branch a processing sequence corresponding to time is unnecessitated for the method as the object of maintenance or design development. Thus, the maintenance and management design of the system is facilitated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an object-oriented system which facilitates maintenance and management of methods which execute different processes depending on time in an object-oriented system which executes a predetermined method by sending and receiving messages.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An object-oriented system introduces the concept of a software module called an object and constructs software by combining a plurality of objects. FIG. 2 shows a conceptual diagram of a general object-oriented system. In this system, object 1 is defined as a combination of method 3 and data 4 structures. The program is constructed by combining such objects 1, but each object 1
Respectively receives the message 2A and executes a certain process, or sends the message 2B to another object.
Is output.

When the object 1 receives the message 2A, the object 1 activates the procedure according to the content of the message 2A. The procedure activated in this way is called method 3. In each object 1, for each of the plurality of methods 3, "method name, type of value returned as execution result, number of arguments, type of each argument,
"Processing procedure" is defined. This defines the content of the message 2A that can be accepted and the operation when the message is received.

When the message 2A is sent to the object 1 by designating the "method name to be activated by the object and the value of each argument", the language processing system on the receiving side determines that the format of the message specified on the transmitting side is the receiving side. Check whether the message definition defined in step 4 is satisfied. If this check is satisfied, the object is activated. That is, the language processing system on the receiving side checks whether the “method name, type of value returned as a result of execution, number of arguments, type of each argument” match. If the definition of the receiving side that satisfies the format of the transmitting side does not exist, the user is notified of the error without performing the predetermined operation. As described above, in the object-oriented system, software having a predetermined function is realized by the method 3 defined by the object 1 and the method activation mechanism based on the transmission / reception mechanism of the messages 2A and 2B.

[0005]

By the way, in software used for schedule management, a method whose processing contents depend on time is required.
FIG. 3 shows a configuration explanatory diagram of a conventional method for showing such an example. In order to realize a method whose processing contents depend on time, it is necessary to have a structure that checks the time in one method and branches the procedure according to the value, such as processing steps 4A, 4B, and 4C. .

[0006] Here, in a system adopting such a method, there may be a request for changing only the process executed at a certain time in accordance with the change of the usage environment. In this case, the programmer has to take out the method and modify the specific process so as not to affect the process executed at other times. The programmer usually puts together the processes started at a specific time, but it may take a lot of time and effort to verify that the change does not affect other processes. If such changes are troublesome, it may cause delays in designing, improving, and developing software. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an object-oriented system that facilitates maintenance, design development, and the like of methods that are activated depending on time.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object-oriented system of the present invention is an object-oriented system comprising a combination of objects that execute predetermined methods by sending and receiving messages, and a plurality of methods that execute different processes depending on time. And a time monitoring means for monitoring the processing start time of each method, and a method specifying means for selecting and specifying a method to be started according to the time indicated by the time monitoring means. Is.

[0008]

In this system, when an object activates a specific method according to a message, a method specifying means called a method dictionary is referred to in advance. here,
A method record is provided for selecting a method to be activated according to the time indicated by a clock, which is a time monitoring means. In this way, since the method according to the time is selected and designated by the method dictionary and activated, the description for branching the processing procedure to the method targeted for maintenance or design and development is not necessary. Therefore, this facilitates maintenance design of the system.

[0009]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an object oriented system embodiment of the present invention. This system comprises an execution system 10 and a runtime data storage unit 20. The execution system 10 includes a translation system 11 and a procedure determination mechanism 12. In the procedure determining mechanism 12, there is provided a clock 13 called a time monitoring means in the present invention. Translation system 11
Reads the program sequentially according to the execution code and executes the program. When a message is transmitted to the object, the process request 14 requests the procedure determining mechanism 12 to perform the process. Then, the constant processing result 15 by the object is configured to be returned from the procedure determining mechanism 12 to the translation system 11.

The runtime data storage unit 20 is composed of a storage device or the like for storing data used by the active system 10 when the program is executed. The runtime data storage unit 20 is provided with an execution code 21, an object table 22, a method dictionary 23, and a method code 24. The execution code 21 is a part in which the execution procedure of the process is described. The object table 22 is a part that stores objects generated at the time of execution. Also, the method dictionary 23
Is a part that stores the method entry and the order relation between the methods. The method code 24 is a portion that stores the execution code of the method.

In the execution code 21, there is a part for referring to the object 21A, and its entry 21B.
Indicates one object in the object table 22. This is the object record 22A. The object table 22 is a table having the object record 22A as an element. Each object record 22A has an entry 22B in the corresponding method dictionary 23. In an object-oriented system, generally an object can have more than one method. Therefore, there may be an entry from one object record 22A to one or more method dictionaries 23.

The method dictionary 23 stores the method record 2
3 is a table having 3A as an element. Each method record 23A
Has an entry 23B to the corresponding method code 24 in order to sequentially select and specify the method to be activated. The method code 24 stores the execution code of the method described above, and is collected for each fixed series of procedures.

FIG. 4 shows a more detailed explanation of the contents of the method specifying means. As shown in the figure, this method dictionary 23, which is a method specifying means, has one or more method records 23A1-23A specified by the entry 22B of the object record 22A shown in FIG.
It is equipped with 5. In this method dictionary 23, a method and a time during which the method is valid are paired, and methods having the same name but different in processing content depending on the activation time are linked by a pointer to form one list.

Each method record 23A1-23A5
Is composed of a link pointer 31 for establishing a link between method records, a start time entry field 32, an end time entry field 33, a method name entry field 34, and a code pointer 35. The start time entry column 32 and the end time entry column 33 are for designating a plurality of methods that execute different processes depending on the time. The code pointer 35 is for giving the entries 23B1 to 23B5 for a specific method for each method record. The method record in which the time is not described in the start time description field 32 and the end time description field 33 is the default method, and the method is activated at a time other than the time specified in the other method records 23A2 to 23A5. This is the part that specifies the method that should be invoked when the error occurs.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a method selection and designation method according to time by the object oriented system of the present invention. As shown in the figure, in the method dictionary 23 of FIG. 4, for example, five types of methods P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5 are selected according to time. The method P1 is the default method described above, and the procedure 4-1 until the time 4:00 and the procedure 4-5 after the time 22:15.
Also, the procedure 4-2 at time 7:30 to 10:00, the procedure 4-3 at time 11:00 to 15:00, and the time 1
The configuration includes the procedure 4-4 from 7:00 to 22:00.

The method record 23A shown in FIG.
According to the entry 23B2 indicated by 2, the method P2 shown in FIG. 5 is selected and designated. This is 10:00 to 11:
This is a procedure 42 that is activated when 00 is activated. Also, the entries 23B3 and 23B of the method record 23A3 and method record 23A4 shown in FIG.
4 selects and designates the methods P3 and P4 shown in FIG. 5, respectively. The methods P3 and P4 are methods having the same content, and the method record 23A has a value of 4:00 to 7:
The method record 23A4 corresponds to the activation request of the procedure 44 during 30 and the activation request of the procedure 43 from 15:00 to 17:00. The method record 23A5 shown in FIG. 4 specifies the method P5 shown in FIG. 5 by the entry 23B5. This is 10: 0
This is a method corresponding to a request to activate the procedure 45 between 0 and 10:15. As described above, the method dictionary 23 of FIG. 4 constitutes a method specifying means for selecting and specifying any one of the four types of methods according to the time when activation is started.

The operation of the object-oriented system of the present invention will be described below with reference to flowcharts. FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the object-oriented system of the present invention. First, when the program is started up, the translation system 11 shown in FIG.
The execution code 21 is read. Then, in step S2, the read execution code is translated. Here, in step S3, it is determined whether the execution code is an object reference. If it is not a reference to an object, the process moves to another process other than the present invention. In the case of referring to an object, the process proceeds to step S4, and the object record 22A of the object table 22 is read by tracing the entry 21B shown in FIG.

When the object is specified in this manner, a message is sent to the object in step S5. After that, the translation system 11 passes the processing to the procedure determining mechanism 12 based on the processing request 14 (step S6). Next, the procedure determining mechanism 12 selects the entry 22 from the object record 22A of the object table 22.
Follow B, method record 23 of method dictionary 23
Reference A (step S7).

Here, the list of the method dictionary 23 shown in FIG. 4 is searched, the clock 13 provided in the procedure determining mechanism 12 shown in FIG. 1 is referred to (step S8), and the current time is stored in the method dictionary 23. Check if any of the method records are between the start and end times. If there is a corresponding method record, the entry 23B of the method record is followed to activate the selected method. If not, the default method is invoked. For example, if the current time is 10:33,
Method P2 entered by method record 23A2
Will be started. By the above operation, the method to be activated is determined (step S9), and the execution code 21
Above, a time-dependent process is selected by sending a start message of anyMethod to an object and using the method name anyMethod as an argument.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. The present invention is characterized by providing method specifying means such as a method dictionary for selecting and specifying a specific method according to the time as described above, and for specifying a specific method dictionary for this purpose, The relations such as the object table and the method code may be freely modified as long as the same purpose is not impaired. Further, it is possible to freely change the specific contents of each record, the format of the entry, and the like. Further, the configuration of the translation system and the procedure determining mechanism in the execution system may be integrated or separated. In addition, if necessary, a part of the data stored in the runtime data storage unit may be used to copy a part of the data.
There is no problem even if they are held by others.

[0021]

The object-oriented system of the present invention described above can be described as separate program modules without grouping together methods that execute different processes according to time. Therefore, if some of the procedures in it are requested to change, it is sufficient to focus on only some of the specific methods and make the change.
The range of corrections and examinations can be narrowed sufficiently. As a result, it is possible to suppress the increase of redundant objects and methods, reduce the occurrence of errors, and facilitate software development, design, and maintenance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an object-oriented system embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a general object-oriented system.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a conventional method.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of contents of a method specifying unit.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a method selection specifying method according to time.

FIG. 6 is a system operation flowchart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 execution system 11 translation system 12 procedure determination mechanism 13 clock (time monitoring means) 20 runtime data storage 21 execution code 22 object table 23 method dictionary (method designating means) 24 method code

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An object-oriented system comprising a combination of objects that execute predetermined methods by sending and receiving messages, and monitors a plurality of methods that execute different processing depending on time and the processing start time of each method. An object-oriented system comprising: time monitoring means; and method designating means for selecting and designating a method to be activated according to the time indicated by the time monitoring means.