Patent ID: 7496892
Filing Date: 2009-02-24
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method of encapsulating regular expressions as polymorphic, virtual members of a programmer defined struct/class, the method comprising the steps of: defining a grammar for creating object-oriented style structs similar to the grammar of C++; defining a grammar for the algebraic composition of regular expressions in the grammar; defining a grammar for creating side-effects of regular expressions such as capture, called CapturePatterns, and the more general statement embedding side-effects, called DoPatterns; defining a grammar for the encapsulation rules of regular expressions in such a way that they are reusable based on their rule names and parameters; instantiating the encapsulation as a regular expression that binds to the struct instance; and declaring the encapsulation as virtual members and therefore subclassable members of a struct such that the regular expression encapsulation has access to all of the data members and virtual members of the struct instance for both composition and side-effects.