Patent ID: 6886159
Filing Date: 2005-04-26
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer system that implements an object-oriented programming language, comprising: an object, a type information block, and a class structure as runtime representation for an object in the object-oriented programming language; the object having a header including a pointer to the type information block and data itself, the type information block having a class pointer pointing to the class structure and a virtual method table, a plurality of class pointers are provided depending on the number of states of the object to be represented and individual class pointers are associated with individual states of the object, wherein the pointer included in the header of the object uses lower bits of the pointer to point to the class pointers individually in order to represent the Mates of the object, said computer system changing a value of said pointer so that an efficient runtime representation of an object's state using one of said plurality of class pointers in said type information block is available when executing in said computer system.