Patent ID: 6922834

Claim:
A data processing apparatus for executing an object-oriented operating system made up of a plurality of objects among which messages are communicated, said data processing apparatus comprising: means for rendering an object, which has received a combining request message requesting addition of a predetermined object, to create a table data structure used for referencing to said predetermined object as a component object, and to initialize said table data structure with data of said component object, thereby constituting a composite object; means for creating a data structure of at least one said component object, registering the data structure in said table data structure, and registering a relationship between at least one message processing function possessed by said component object and a message interface for requesting the message processing function in the data structure of said component object; means for checking, when a predetermined object is added to said composite object, whether a sequential execution relation exists between said predetermined object and all of component objects making up said composite object; and means for adding said predetermined object after the sequential execution relation has been confirmed such that said predetermined object is not added to said composite object if said sequential execution relation does not exist between said predetermined object and all of component objects making up said composite object; wherein said composite object has a thread and each component object of said composite object uses that thread for communicating with one another; wherein said composite object has a specific execution thread and executes message processing issued to said component object with said specific execution thread; and wherein upon receiving a request for adding a predetermined component object, said composite object additionally registers a data structure of said predetermined component object in said table data structure.