Apparatus which allows data sharing amongst computer programs from different program environments

US6055370A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Marsha Ann Brown · Manassas, US
• Richard A. Demers · Rochester, US
• James Alan Diephuis · Rochester, US
• Lorenzo Falcon, Jr. · San Jose, US
• Thomas E. Frayne · San Jose, US
• Sunil S. Gaitonde · Burr Ridge, US
• Elaine Szafir Patry · Warrenton, US
• William Remay · Warrenton, US
• Kenneth Mark Sissors · Centreville, US
• Ejuana D. Vasquez · Raleigh, US
• David J. Weber · Palo Alto, US
• Koichi Yamaguchi · Takasaki, JP

Key dates

• Filing date: May 24, 1996
• Grant date: Apr 25, 2000
• Expiry date: May 24, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F8/47
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The ADL system provides a way in which computer programs written in different programming languages can share data. The ADL system comprises the ADL language and the facilities necessary to perform the data sharing function. The ADL language uses the concept of a data description and conversion module. A data description and conversion module, or more simply, an ADL module, is composed of declarations and plans. Each declaration is an ADL description of how a particular program environment represents data. The plan portion of the ADL module contains ADL statements that instruct the computer system to convert the data representations of the source program environment into the data representations of the target program environment.