Method and apparatus for passing null references between software components through legacy framework

摘要

Intermediary frameworks allow software components to agree on sentinel values. When a software component attempts to pass a null value to a software component that does not support null values, an intermediate framework replaces the null value with a corresponding sentinel value. When a software component that is not null-capable attempts to pass a sentinel value to a null-capable software component, the intermediate framework replaces the sentinel with a null value. The sentinel values may be randomly generated or assigned by a user. A sentinel value is a valid data value that is never used during program execution. A user may designate the sentinel values based on the data models of the software components.