Patent ID: 7593956
Filing Date: 2009-09-22
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for providing an extended interface to a human interface infrastructure (HII) database in an extensible firmware interface (EFI) environment, the method comprising computer-implemented operations for: receiving, through a HII database driver, a request to store the contents of a package in an HII database maintained in the EFI environment; in response to the request, identifying a HII component stored in the package prior to storing the HII component in the HII database, the HII component comprising a string; extracting the HII component from the package prior to storing the HII component in the HII database; computing extended information regarding the identified HII component prior to storing the HII component in the HII database, the extended information comprising the length of the string in Unicode characters and the number of narrow screen glyphs necessary to display the string on a display screen; upon identifying the HII component stored in the package and computing the extended information regarding the identified HII component, storing the extracted HII component and the extended information regarding the identified HII component in the HII database; exposing, through the HII database driver, a method for enabling calling drivers to retrieve the extended information from the HII database, the method for enabling calling drivers to retrieve the extended information from the HII database comprising a get extended string information method for retrieving the length of the string in Unicode characters and the number of narrow screen glyphs necessary to display the string on a display screen; allocating a memory buffer the size of the length of the string in Unicode characters based on the extended information; and copying the string from the HII database to the allocated memory buffer.