Patent ID: 8423963

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of predicting problems with a versioning change to an operating system, the method comprising: tracking a plurality of application program interface (API) functions in a first version of an operating system currently installed; recording a called subset of the plurality of API functions, wherein the called subset comprises API functions that are called by a software application during operation of the first version of the operating system; recording a changed subset of the plurality of API functions, wherein the changed subset comprises API functions that have changed between a second version of the operating system and the first version of the operating system; generating a result from a comparison between the called subset and the changed subset; providing a user with a plurality of options for selectively displaying the result of the comparison including selectively displaying the result to the user in the form of a Venn diagram, a bar graph, and a sortable list; and selectively displaying the result of the comparison to the user in the form of an API comparison report that includes at least one of the Venn diagram, the bar graph, and the sortable list; wherein the Venn diagram, if included in the API comparison report, comprises a first set representing the called subset, a second set representing the changed subset, and an intersection of the first set and the second set representing an APIs impacted subset, wherein the APIs impacted subset comprises API functions that overlap between the called subset and the changed subset; wherein the bar graph, if included in the API comparison report, comprises a first bar graph representing the called subset as a percentage of a total number of API functions in the first version of the operating system, a second bar graph representing the changed subset as a percentage of a total number of API functions in the second version of the operating system, and a third bar graph representing an overlap subset as a percentage of a total number of API functions of the called subset, wherein the overlap subset comprises a subset of API functions that overlap between the called subset and the changed subset; wherein the sortable list, if included in the API comparison report, comprises (i) a name of each API function in an API overlap subset, wherein the API overlap subset comprises a subset of API functions that overlap between the called subset and the changed subset and (ii) a name of each software application calling one or more API functions of the API overlap subset, and wherein the sortable list is sortable by (i) the name of the API function and (ii) the name of the software application.