Incremental compiler

Patent 5204960 Issued on April 20, 1993. Estimated Expiration Date:

April 20, 2010. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

Multi-pass system and method for source to source code translation
Patent #: 4374408
Issued on: 02/15/1983
Inventor: Bowles , et al.

Software version management system
Patent #: 4558413
Issued on: 12/10/1985
Inventor: Schmidt , et al.

Software/hardware integration control system
Patent #: 4672532
Issued on: 06/09/1987
Inventor: JongeVos

System for generating software source code components
Patent #: 4734854
Issued on: 03/29/1988
Inventor: Afshar

Modular complier with a class independent parser and a plurality of class dependent parsers Patent #: 4914585
Issued on: 04/03/1990
Inventor: Packard, et al.

Inventors

Assignee

Microsoft Corporation

Application

No. 462502 filed on 01/08/1990

US Classes:

717/145, Including recompilation717/111Dynamic

Examiners

Primary: Heckler, Thomas M.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Seed and Berry

International Class

G06F 009/06

Abstract

A system and method of incrementally coupling a high level language into an object file is disclosed. A source file and an object file are organized into logical blocks. An intermediate file, termed an .mdt file, is generated and stores information about the logical blocks in both the source file and the object file and their relationship to each other. Boundaries are established in the source program to define logical blocks within it, each block being termed a function. Each function is further divided into a global region and a local region. If a change has been made in a particular local region in the source file, only that region is recompiled. The recompiled portion of the .obj file is patched into the .obj file to replace the previous material corresponding to that region. Significant time savings is realized by incrementally compiling the source program because only those local regions which have been changed are recompiled and they are patched into the existing .obj file.