Patent ID: 7788657

Claim:
A method for processing a p-code file, comprising: analyzing p-code methods within said p-code file by a computer to determine a resource utilization for the p-code methods; identifying one or more analyzed p-code methods that have a resource utilization parameter above a threshold level; annotating said identified p-code methods to be compiled, said annotating comprising inserting an in-line priority level hint for each annotated p-code method, said priority level hints being hierarchically-related and collectively representing a hierarchical order, said priority level hints enabling preferential processing of said annotated p-code methods in a hierarchical manner corresponding to said hierarchical order of said priority level hints, wherein said annotating comprises selectively setting each of a plurality of normally unused bits within a method access flag field of an identified class file, wherein said unused bits are selectively set to define thereby said priority level hint of a respective annotated method; replacing one or more lines of instructions in the p-code file with compiled code for the annotated p-code methods; communicating the p-code file including complied code for the annotated p-code methods via a network to a target environment for execution of the compiled code for the annotated p-code methods and interpretation of uncompiled instructions in the communicated p-code file; and managing storage of the annotated p-code methods in a cache memory according to usage statistics, code size, and frequency of execution of the annotated p-code methods.