System and method for optimizing template object files
US6041180A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 28, 1997 |
| Grant date | Mar 21, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 28, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F8/54
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention provides a system and method to reuse code, and thus save code space within a program. A compiler and a linker work together to decide which object code to reuse, for implementation of template classes, and other repetitive code segments. The compiler notes in the object file which functions are generated from template code, or other repetitive types of code. An intelligent linker then attempts to match code, and in the cases where the code matches, simply eliminates multiple versions of the same code by aliasing the function names. The compiler can reduce the amount of linker searching by storing a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code with each method. By using the system and method of the present invention, code reuse is made possible without sacrificing program efficiency.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.