Patent ID: 7730211

Claim:
A method in a computer system for identifying a sequence of routines for processing data, the computer system having a plurality of routines, each routine for inputting data of an input type and outputting data of an output type, the method comprising: providing pairs of alias types, each pair having an output type and input type wherein data of the output type can be processed by a routine for inputting data with the input type; receiving data of a source type that is to be converted to a destination type; identifying a sequence of routines such that a first routine in the sequence inputs data of the source type or of an alias type of the source type as indicated by the provided pairs of alias types, such that a last routine in the sequence outputs data of the destination type, and such that each intermediate routine in the sequence inputs data of the output type of the previous routine in the sequence or data of an alias type of the output type of the previous routine in the sequence as indicated by the provide pairs of alias types.