Patent ID: 7290243

Claim:
A method of building a software product by using a plurality of build styles and a target for building a plurality of software products, the method comprising: to build a particular software product from the plurality of software products, defining an order of precedence for said build styles, wherein each of said build styles comprises a dictionary of build settings and wherein said order of precedence determines which build style will provide a value of a particular build setting for said particular software product when two build styles have conflicting values for said particular build setting; and building the particular software product by applying at least one of a plurality of build styles to said target based upon said order of precedence; wherein building the software product includes: identifying actions to be performed; searching for a definition of each build setting, said search beginning with dictionaries having a highest order of precedence proceeding in order with dictionaries having a lower order of precedence, said definition comprising a key, an operator and a mapping for said key, said key indicating the name of the build setting, said mapping indicating the value of the build setting; expanding the mapping of the key for said each build setting; assigning said expanded mapping to said key, said assignment finalizing said setting; and performing said actions in accordance with said finalized settings.