Computer system having source code re-creation capability

Claim 2

1 . A method for compiling source code statements of a programming language, comprising the steps of: (a) translating a source code statement into an object code block; (b) appending to the object code block information sufficient to recreate the source code statement: (c) linking the object code block and appended information into a list with object code and appended information for any related source code statements; and (d) repeating steps (a) through (c) for each of the source code statements.

Claim 3

The method of Claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises: (c.1) creating a procedure execution frame for each procedure defined by the source code statements, each procedure execution frame having a plurality of pointers. wherein each pointer points to a list of object code blocks having a common property; (c.2) determining which procedure execution frame corresponds to the procedure in which the source code statement belongs: (c.3) selecting a list of object code blocks pointed to by a pointer in the determined procedure execution frame which have a common property with the source code statement: and (c.4) inserting the object code block into the selected list.

Claim 6

4 . A method for compiling a procedure having a plurality of clauses, comprising the steps of: (a) creating a procedure execution frame having a plurality of pointers, each pointer corresponding to a preselected subset of clauses of the procedure having similar characteristics; (b) separately compiling each clause into an object code block; (c) attaching to each object code block information sufficient to recreate the clause from which that object code block was compiled, to create a clause execution frame; and (d) inserting each clause execution frame into a data structure which is pointed to by one of the procedure execution frame pointers.

Claim 7

4 . A method for compiling a procedure having a plurality of clauses, comprising the steps of: (a) creating a procedure execution frame having a plurality of pointers, each pointer corresponding to a preselected subset of clauses of the procedure having similar characteristics; (b) separately compiling each clause into an object code block; (c) attaching to each object code block information sufficient to recreate the clause from which that object code block was compiled, to create a clause execution frame; and (d) inserting each clause execution frame into a data structure which is pointed to by one of the procedure execution frame pointers.

Claim 8

The method of Claim 4, wherein the data structure is a linked list.

Claim 9

The method of Claim 4. wherein the procedure execution frame pointers correspond to subsets of clauses which are to be executed depending on the type of argument passed to the procedure.

Claim 12

The method of Claim 7, wherein step (c) comprises: (c.l) creating a procedure execution frame for each procedure defined by the source code statements, each procedure execution frame having a plurality of pointers, wherein each pointer points to a list of object code blocks having a common property: (c.2) determining which procedure execution frame corresponds to the procedure in which the source code statement belongs; (c.3) selecting a list of object code blocks pointed to by a pointer in the determined procedure execution frame which have a common property with the source code statement: and (c.4) inserting the object code block into the selected list.

Claim 13

The method of Claim 8. wherein the common property of steps (c.1) and (c.3) comprises the type of an argument passed to the-procedure.

Claim 14

10 . In a computer system for executing programs and having executable memory, the improvement comprising: a plurality of procedure execution frames having pointers and located within the executable memory; and a plurality of clause execution frames located within the executable memory and associated with said procedure execution frames, wherein each of said clause execution frames has pointers capable of pointing to other clause execution frames, and wherein each of said clause execution frames can be reached by following pointers starting from a procedure execution frame, wherein each of said clause execution frames contains machine executable code, and further wherein each of said clause execution frames contains code sufficient to enable reconstruction of source code from which the machine executable code was derived.

Claim 15

10 . In a computer system for executing programs and having executable memory, the improvement comprising: a plurality of procedure execution frames having pointers and located within the executable memory; and a plurality of clause execution frames located within the executable memory and associated with said procedure execution frames, wherein each of said clause execution frames has pointers capable of pointing to other clause execution frames, and wherein each of said clause execution frames can be reached by following pointers starting from a procedure execution frame, wherein each of said clause execution frames contains machine executable code, and further wherein each of said clause execution frames contains code sufficient to enable reconstruction of source code from which the machine executable code was derived.

Claim 16

The system of Claim 10. further comprising a mode of execution within said system for executing the source code reconstruction statements and placing a copy of recreated source code into a preselected data structure.