METHOD FOR MODIFYING DATA AND/OR CODE REPRESENTED IN ONE LANGUAGE BY A COMPUTER PROGRAM WRITTEN IN A SECOND LANGUAGE

摘要

A method for operating a data processing system to generate an output. A source file containing a plurality of instructions is stored on the data processing system (12). The source file includes instructions of two types, external instructions and internal instructions. The data processing system (12) also provides one or more external processing programs that process the external instruction at run time. A source file processor processes the source file. The source file processor recognize the external instruction (14) although it can not execute the instructions. The source file processor includes a mapping that assigns one of the external processing program to each of the external instructions. When the source file processor recognize one of the external instructions the source file processor, (a) determines which of the external processing program processes that instruction, (b) transfer that instructions to that external processing program and (c) receives back from the external processing progam one or more instructions that are inserted into the source file in place of that instruction (15). The ouptut is generated from the internal instructions that where originally present in the source file and those generated in response to the external instructions (17). The external instructions may also include one or more variable to be filled in by the external processing program corresponding to that external instruction. One class of external instructions generates multiple records. Each record provides a different value for one of the variables. In this case the instructions that are inserted into the source file in place of the external instruction comprise N instruction, wherein each instruction includes a different one of the variable values.