Patent ID: 6526457
Filing Date: 2003-02-25
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method of providing an operating system utility for use by an applications program for a number of different operating systems, comprising:creating a base class for said utility, said base class declaring a static member function for creating said utility as an object and declaring at least one virtual member function for using said object, and said base class being defined in a base class header file; defying a derived class for each of said operating systems to create a plurality of derived classes, wherein each of the derived classes includes said base class, defines said virtual member function to create a derived class implementation, and defines said static member function such that said static member function creates an instance of said derived class to create a static member function implementation; and building linkable objects from said derived class implementation and said static member function implementation, such that said applications program may include said base class header file and link with at least one of said linkable objects to create and use said operating system utility, wherein building said linkable objects comprises compiling at least one of said derived classes with flags and settings for a particular operating system.