Method and system for destruction of objects using multiple destructor functions in an object-oriented computer system

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy the object when the class is not a most-derived class for the object.

Claim 4

The method of claim 2 wherein the destructor function to destroy the object performs the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; and invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class that have destructors.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy the object when the class is a most-derived class for the object.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4 wherein the destructor function to destroy the object performs the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; and invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors.

Claim 7

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy the object when the class is a most-derived class for the object and to deallocate memory associated with the object using a memory deallocation function appropriate for the class.

Claim 8

The method of claim 6 wherein the destructor function to destroy the object and to deallocated memory associated with the object performs the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors; and deallocating memory associated with the object.

Claim 9

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy an array of objects.

Claim 10

The method of claim 8 wherein the destructor function to destroy an array of objects performs for each object in the array the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; and invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors.

Claim 11

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy an array of objects and to deallocate memory associated with the array of objects.

Claim 12

The method of claim 10 wherein the destructor function to destroy an array of objects and to deallocate memory associated with the array of objects performs the steps of: for each object in the array, executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; and invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors; and deallocating the memory associated with the array of objects.

Claim 15

The method of claim 12 further including: under control of the destructor function, when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 18

The method of claim 14 further including: under control of the scalar destructor function, performing steps for destroying an occurrence of the class when the class is not a most-derived class; and when the class has a virtual base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function for the virtual base class.

Claim 19

The method of claim 15 wherein the step of performing includes: when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 20

The method of claim 15 wherein the step of performing includes: invoking a destructor function that performs the steps of when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 23

The method of claim 18 further including: under control of the delete scalar destructor function, invoking a scalar destructor function for destroying the object when the class is a most-derived class without deallocating memory for the object; and deallocating memory for the object.

Claim 24

The method of claim 19 further including: under control of the scalar destructor function, performing steps for destroying an occurrence of the class when the class is not a most-derived class; and when the class has a virtual base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function for the virtual base class.

Claim 25

The method of claim 20 wherein the step of performing includes: when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 26

The method of claim 20 wherein the step of performing includes: invoking a destructor function that performs the steps of when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 29

The method of claim 23 wherein the occurrence destructor function executes a programmer-defined destructor for the class, when the class has the programmer-defined destructor; invokes a data member destructor function for a data member of the class, when the data member has the data member destructor function; and invokes a non-virtual direct base class destructor function for a non-virtual direct base class of the class, when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with the non-virtual direct base class destructor function.

Claim 31

The method of claim 25 including the step of: creating a delete scalar destructor function for controlling destruction of an object of the class when the class is a most-derived class and for deallocating memory for the object, wherein the delete scalar destructor function invokes the scalar destructor function and deallocates memory for the object when passed an indication to deallocate memory for the object.

Claim 32

The method of claim 23 including the step of: creating a vector destructor function for controlling destruction of an array of objects of the class when the class is a most-derived class, wherein the vector destructor function invokes the scalar destructor function for each object in the array.

Claim 33

The method of claim 27 including the step of: creating a delete vector destructor function for controlling destruction of an array of objects of the class when the class is a most-derived class and for deallocating memory for the array, wherein the delete vector destructor function invokes the vector destructor function and deallocates memory for the array.

Claim 34

The method of claim 27 including the step of: creating a delete vector destructor function for controlling destruction of an array of objects of the class when the class is a most-derived class and for deallocating memory for the array, wherein the delete vector destructor function invokes the vector destructor function and deallocates memory for the array when passed an indication to deal locate memory for the array.

Claim 35

The method of claim 27 including the step of: creating a delete vector destructor function for controlling destruction of objects of the class when a destructor for the class is specified to be virtual, wherein the delete vector destructor function when passed an indication that an array of objects of the class is to be destroyed, invokes the vector destructor function and deallocates memory for the array; and when passed an indication that a single object of the class is to be destroyed, invokes the scalar destructor function and deallocates memory for the single object when passed an indication to deallocate memory for the single object.

Claim 38

The method of claim 31 wherein the scalar destructor function invokes the occurrence destructor function.

Claim 40

The method of claim 31 including creating a delete scalar function for controlling destruction of an object of the class when the class is a most-derived and for deallocating memory for the object.

Claim 41

The method of claim 34 wherein the delete scalar function invokes the scalar function.

Claim 44

The method of claim 36 wherein the determined characteristic is whether the object is an automatic object or a dynamically allocated object.

Claim 45

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is an automatic object, and further including: generating the destructor function as a scalar destructor function for controlling destruction of the object and without having computer code for deallocating memory of the object; and when the object goes out of scope, generating the invocation as an invocation of the scalar destructor function wherein the invocation does not include passing an indication that memory for the object is not to be deallocated.

Claim 46

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is an automatic object, and further including: generating the destructor function as a scalar destructor function consisting essentially of the steps of: when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; and when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and when the object goes out of scope, generating the invocation as an invocation of the scalar destructor function.

Claim 48

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is within an array of objects of the class and the array is an automatic array and further including: generating the destructor function as a vector destructor function for controlling destruction of the array and without having computer code for deallocating memory of the array; and when the array goes out of scope, generating the invocation as an invocation of the vector destructor function wherein the invocation does not include passing an indication that memory for the array is not to be deallocated.

Claim 49

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is within an array of objects of the class and the array is an automatic array and further including: generating the destructor function as a vector destructor function consisting essentially of the steps of, for each object in the array, when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; and when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and when the array goes out of scope, generating the invocation as an invocation of the vector destructor function.

Claim 51

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object and further including: generating the destructor function as a scalar destructor function for controlling destruction of the object and without having computer code for deallocating memory of the object; and when a destructor for the class is explicitly invoked and the invocation explicitly indicates to resolve the destructor to the destructor for the class, generating the invocation as an invocation of the scalar destructor function object wherein the invocation does not include passing an indication that memory for the object is not to be deallocated.

Claim 52

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object and further including: generating the destructor function as a scalar destructor function consisting essentially of the steps of when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; and when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and when a destructor for the class is explicitly invoked and the invocation explicitly indicates to resolve the destructor to the destructor for the class, generating the invocation as an invocation of the scalar destructor function.

Claim 54

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete scalar destructor function for controlling destruction of the object and having computer code for deallocating memory for the object; setting a virtual function table for the class to contain a reference to the delete scalar destructor function; and when the object is destroyed using a non-global operator delete, generating the invocation as an indirect invocation of the delete scalar destructor function through the virtual function table wherein the invocation includes passing an indication that memory for the object is to be deallocated.

Claim 55

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete scalar destructor function consisting essentially of the steps of: when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and deallocating memory for the object; setting a virtual function table for the class to contain a reference to the delete scalar destructor function; and when the object is destroyed using a non-global operator delete, generating the invocation as an indirect invocation of the delete scalar destructor function through the virtual function table.

Claim 56

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete vector destructor function for controlling destruction of the object, the delete vector destructor function having computer code for destroying and deallocating an array of objects of the class when the object is within an array of objects of the class and for destroying and deallocating the object when the object is not within an array of objects of the class.

Claim 57

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete vector destructor function that is passed an indication whether an array of objects is being destroyed and an indication whether to deallocate memory for an object that is not within an array, the delete vector destructor function consisting essentially of the steps of: when the object that is not within an array is being destroyed, when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and when memory for the object is to be deallocated, deallocating memory for the object; and when an array objects is being destroyed, for each object in the array, when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; and when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and deallocating memory for the array.

Claim 60

The method of claim 52 wherein the array is destroyed using a global operator delete.

Claim 61

The method of claim 52 wherein the array is destroyed using a non-global operator delete.

Claim 64

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete scalar destructor function for controlling the destruction and deallocation of the object.

Claim 65

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete scalar destructor function that is passed an indication whether to deallocate memory for the object, the delete scalar destruction function consisting essentially of the steps of: when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function; and when the indication indicates that memory for the object is to be deallocated, deallocating memory for the object.

Claim 69

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a delete scalar destructor function for controlling destruction of the object, the delete scalar destructor function having computer code for deallocating memory of the object; setting a virtual function table for the class to contain a reference to the delete scalar destructor function; and when the object is destroyed using a global operator delete, generating the invocation as an indirect invocation of the delete scalar destructor function through the virtual function table passing an indication that memory for the object is not to be deallocated; and generating an invocation of the global delete function to deallocate memory for the object.

Claim 70

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a scalar destructor function for controlling destruction of the object and without having computer code for deallocating memory for the object.

Claim 71

The method of claim 37 wherein the object is a dynamically allocated object of the class and further including: generating the destructor function as a scalar destructor function consisting essentially of the steps of: when the class has a programmer-defined destructor, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when a data member of the class has a data member destructor function, invoking the data member destructor function; when a non-virtual direct base class of the class has a non-virtual direct base class destructor function, invoking the non-virtual direct base class destructor function; and when a virtual base class of the class has a virtual base class destructor function, invoking the virtual base class destructor function.

Claim 74

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method in a computer compiler for generating code to destroy an object, the object having a class, the class having a destructor to destroy objects of the class, the method comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of destructor functions for the class wherein each destructor function executes a subset of the destruction process; and generating code to invoke one of the plurality of destructor functions when an object of the class is to be destroyed.

Claim 75

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method in a computer compiler for generating code to destroy an object, the object having a class, the class having a destructor to destroy objects of the class, the method comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of destructor functions for the class wherein each destructor function executes a subset of the destruction process; and generating code to invoke one of the plurality of destructor functions when an object of the class is to be destroyed.

Claim 76

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 67 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy the object when the class is not a most-derived class for the object.

Claim 77

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 68 wherein the destructor function to destroy the object performs the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; and invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class that have destructors.

Claim 78

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 67 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy the object when the class is a most-derived class for the object.

Claim 79

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 70 wherein the destructor function to destroy the object performs the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; and invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors.

Claim 80

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 67 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy the object when the class is a most-derived class for the object and to deallocate memory associated with the object using a memory deallocation function appropriate for the class.

Claim 81

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 72 wherein the destructor function to destroy the object and to deallocated memory associated with the object performs the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors; and deallocating memory associated with the object.

Claim 82

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 67 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy an array of objects.

Claim 83

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 74 wherein the destructor function to destroy an array of objects performs for each object in the array the steps of: executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; and invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors.

Claim 84

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 67 wherein the step of generating a plurality of destructor functions generates a destructor function to destroy an array of objects and to deallocate memory associated with the array of objects.

Claim 85

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 76 wherein the destructor function to destroy an array of objects and to deallocate memory associated with the array of objects performs the steps of: for each object in the array, executing programmer-specified destruction processing, when specified by a programmer; invoking destructors for data members of the class, when the data members have destructors; invoking destructors for direct base classes of the class, when the direct base classes have destructors; and invoking destructors for virtual base classes of the class, when the virtual base classes have destructors; and deallocating the memory associated with the array of objects.

Claim 86

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method in a computer system for destroying an occurrence of a base class within a derived class, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: invoking a destructor function of the base class without passing an indication that the occurrence of the base class is within the derived class; and under control of the destructor function, controlling destruction of the occurrence of the base class.

Claim 87

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method in a computer system for destroying an occurrence of a base class within a derived class, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: invoking a destructor function of the base class without passing an indication that the occurrence of the base class is within the derived class; and under control of the destructor function, controlling destruction of the occurrence of the base class.

Claim 88

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 78 further including: under control of the destructor function, when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a nonvirtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 89

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method in a computer system for destroying an object of a class when the class is a most-derived class, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: invoking a scalar destructor function of the class without passing an indication that the class is a most-derived class; and under control of the scalar destructor function, controlling destruction of the object of the class.

Claim 90

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method in a computer system for destroying an object of a class when the class is a most-derived class, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: invoking a scalar destructor function of the class without passing an indication that the class is a most-derived class; and under control of the scalar destructor function, controlling destruction of the object of the class.

Claim 91

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 80 further including: under control of the scalar destructor function, performing steps for destroying an occurrence of the class when the class is not a most-derived class; and when the class has a virtual base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function for the virtual base class.

Claim 92

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 81 wherein the step of performing includes: when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the dam member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.

Claim 93

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the method of claim 81 wherein the step of performing includes: invoking a destructor function that performs the steps of when a programmer-defined destructor is specified for the class, executing the programmer-defined destructor; when the class has a data member with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the data member; and when the class has a non-virtual direct base class with a destructor function, invoking the destructor function of the non-virtual base class.