System and method for dynamically invoking object methods from an application designed for static method invocation

摘要

A method, system and program for allowing an application designed to use static method calls to manipulate objects whose methods are only available through dynamic calls without modifying the binary image of the application. A SOM compiler generates class definitions and generates a redispatch stub for each method defined in a class. A redispatch stub is a short sequence of instructions with an identical calling sequence as its corresponding method. This gives the class' dispatch enough information to determine the correct method procedure in a dynamic manner. The dispatch function employs the redispatch stub to call the appropriate method procedure and return any return value to the calling application via the redispatch stub. Redispatch stubs allows a class with a definition that can vary at runtime to be used by an application that was designed for statically defined classes.