Patent ID: 8655857

Claim:
A method of integrating a new class into a class hierarchy, comprising: receiving a new class having an insertion point within a class hierarchy, wherein the insertion point is associated with a parent class and a child class between which the new class is to be inserted in the class hierarchy; receiving metadata, associated with the new class, that includes the insertion point of the new class in the class hierarchy; and using a processor to insert the new class into the class hierarchy at the insertion point without recompiling the child class, including by: loading hierarchy data, which is associated with a previously compiled class and which does not include the new class in the class hierarchy, as an array; locating a portion of the loaded array that is associated with identifying the parent class as the parent of the child class; and generating modified hierarchy data that integrates the new class into the class hierarchy at the insertion point, including by modifying the located portion of the loaded array such that the new class is identified as the parent of the child class and the parent class is no longer identified as the parent of the child class.