Appeal No. 2001-2581
Application No. 08/847,124
a class. When an object of the class is instantiated within an
enclosing object, the system sets a data member of the
instantiated object to indicate an offset between the start of
the instantiated object to the start of a nearest enclosing
object. When an object of a class is not instantiated within an
enclosing object, the system sets the data member of the
instantiated object to indicate a zero offset. When the system
receives a reference to an instantiated object, the system
repeats the following until the reference points to a most-
enclosing object. The system retrieves the offset from the
object referenced by the current value of the reference. The
system combines the retrieved offset with the current value of
the reference to generate a new reference that references the
nearest enclosing object of the previously referenced object.
When the offset is zero, then the reference points to the most-
enclosing object.
Representative independent claim 12 is reproduced as
follows:
12. A method in a computer system for generating a
reference to an enclosing object from a reference to an embedded
object that is embedded within the enclosing object, the
enclosing object having an enclosing class, the embedded object
having an embedded class, the embedded class having an offset
-2–
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