Patent ID: 7543271

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of generating common intermediate language code for use in a framework, the method comprising: Receiving at a computer a portion of JAVA™ language source code referencing, through a generic class syntax, one or more generic classes unspecified in a formal JAVA™ language specification, wherein: each of the one or more generic classes refers to a first class configured to operate uniformly on instances of a plurality of types associated with the first class; the plurality of types are defined in the first class as an unconstrained type supporting a generic class type; at least one of the one or more generic classes nests a second generic class as one of the plurality of types within the first class by associating declaration of instance of the second generic class with a defined first generic class: and the generic class syntax is not specified in the formal JAVA™ language specification and identifies one instance of the plurality of types by surrounding the one instance with angular brackets following the first class; and generating, through a first compiler different from a formal compiler complying with the formal JAVA™ language specification, language-neutral intermediate language code representing the portion of JAVA™ language source code for execution at the computer and referencing the one or more generic classes.