System and method for storing persistent data objects

Abstract

A system and method for providing seamless communication with threads executing on an embedded computer. Using a DAT system, a programmer can test the communication interfaces of a thread via either a scripting program, any COM-compliant program, or a graphical test utility. The DAT system automatically formats a block of data that is transmitted between the embedded computer and a host computer and accounts for machine specific enumeration sizes, machine specific pointer sizes, machine specific structure alignment boundaries, machine specific integer sizes, and machine specific byte ordering.

1 . A method of transmitting data, the method comprising:
 executing a first application on a host computer;   executing a second application on an embedded computer;   providing interface information describing characteristics of a plurality of communication interfaces of the first application and the second application;   receiving machine characteristic information for the embedded computer by the host computer;   monitoring a communication transmitted to a function of the second application;   storing the communication transmitted to the second application in one of a plurality of persistent data objects using the host computer;   retransmitting, by the first application, communications retrieved from a plurality of persistent data objects to the function of the second application; and   modifying the retransmission based, at least in part, upon the machine characteristic information and the interface information.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising selecting and retrieving the contents of the stored data and using the data for testing. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the machine characteristic information includes at least one of an enumeration size, a long size, a float size, a pointer size, a structure alignment boundary, an integer size, and a byte ordering. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein modifying comprises reversing a byte order of at least one element of data in the communication. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the machine characteristic information is stored by the host computer. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the embedded computer transmits to the host computer a communication that includes machine characteristic information for the embedded computer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein monitoring a communication comprises:
 providing a communication database identifying the plurality of communication interfaces of the first application and the second application, wherein the communication database is automatically generated, at least in part, from information comprising:
 an interface description file that defines the communication interfaces; 
 machine characteristics of the embedded computer; and 
 machine characteristics of the host computer; and 
   providing a communication module for an application programming interface for a COM-compliant application to access the communication interface;   wherein the COM-compliant application identifies at least one of the communication interfaces in the communication database and invokes a function with respect to at least one data field in the identified communication interface via the application programming interface, wherein the function includes at least one of:
 storing data in one of the data fields; 
 reading data from one of the data fields; and 
 testing a data field. 
   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a script engine for executing script instructions and communicating with the embedded computer. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein retransmitting a communication comprises:
 executing a plurality of threads that provide a communication interface on the embedded computer, each communication interface having a plurality of fields;   providing a communication database identifying each of the communication interfaces;   providing a communication module for an application programming interface for script instructions to access the communication interface, wherein the communication module is automatically generated based in part from information that is maintained in the communication database; and   wherein the script instructions identify at least one of the communication interfaces in the communication database and invoke a function with respect to at least one field in the identified communication interfaces via the application programming interface.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the function comprises at least one of setting a field, reading a field, and testing a field. 
     
     
         11 . A computer system for transmitting data, the system comprising:
 means for executing a first application on a host computer;   means for executing a second application on an embedded computer;   means for providing interface information describing characteristics of a plurality of communication interfaces of the first application and the second application;   means for receiving machine characteristic information for the embedded computer by the host computer;   means for monitoring a communication transmitted to a function of the second application;   means for storing the communication transmitted to the second application in one of a plurality of persistent data objects using the host computer;   means for retransmitting, by the first application, communications retrieved from a plurality of persistent data objects to the function of the second application; and   means for modifying the retransmission based, at least in part, upon the machine characteristic information and the interface information.