Patent ID: 6668257
Filing Date: 2003-12-23
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
In an object oriented computer program product recorded on a recording medium, software for performing a method comprising the steps of:storing in permanent storage a persistent class description including a unique class identifier of a class of objects and an initial set of one or more fields each field for a superclass from which the class of objects inherits attributes; preparing for an object which is an instance of said class a nonpersistent version of said class description; providing for said object a modified set of fields containing at least one modification to said initial set of fields such modification for a field for one of the superclasses from which the object inherits so that the object with the modified set of fields having the at least one modification is not an instance of said class; and migrating the object to the modified set of fields in a persistent version by automatically storing in permanent storage with the migrated object the initial set of fields unchanged by the at least one modification along with any action necessary to change the initial set of fields to the modified set of fields to provide for any difference in the migrated objects inheritance pattern from that in the persistent class description so that the migrated object can be thereafter reproduced in temporary memory using the initial set of fields of the class stored with the migrated object.