Patent ID: 7020874

Claim:
A method of loading a class file into a virtual machine, said class file being associated with a class, and said virtual machine operating in an object- oriented computing system, said method comprising: loading said class file into a memory portion of the computing system, wherein said loading operates to copy said class file in its entirety into said memory portion prior to further processing said class file; selecting information from said class file in said memory portion after said class file has been loaded into said memory portion, wherein said selecting operates to select at least a plurality of selected methods which are to be loaded into said virtual machine; loading said selected information from said class file in said memory portion into said virtual machine and not loading information which has not been selected from said class file into said virtual machine; generating an internal representation for said plurality of selected methods which are to be loaded in the virtual machine, wherein said internal representation includes a method information portion and a method reference portion, said method information portion providing information about said plurality of selected methods and said method reference portion information providing information which can be used to invoke said plurality of selected methods, and wherein said method reference portion comprises a list, representing all of said plurality of selected methods, which is arranged as a sequence of reference cells each representing one of said plurality of selected methods, wherein each of said reference cells includes a method name field, a method signature field, and a method code field respectively providing a name, a signature, and a reference to code of a method, thereby allowing a first selected method of said selected plurality methods to be invoked by accessing said method reference portion and identifying a first reference cell associated with said first selected method.