Importance

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Abstract

When an interpreter on a client computer encounters a symbolic reference to a remotely stored method while interpreting a locally stored method, and the object class for the remotely stored method has not previously been loaded, the client computer, the client computer creates an application specific loader that is then used to load the remotely stored method into the client computer. The application specific class loader contains location information associated with the server computer on which the remotely stored method is stored, and also contains methods for loading onto the client computer the object class for the remotely stored method as well as the object classes for any additional methods referenced by that method. The application specific class loader preferably also includes symbol table for storing information about method references that have been resolved by the application specific class loader. Each method in the object classes loaded by the application specific class loader is modified when it is loaded to reference the application specific class loader, thereby linking the loaded method to the application specific class loader. The reference to the application specific class loader in the loaded method is used by the interpreter to determine which class loader to use when resolving symbolic references in the loaded method to other methods. The methods of the application specific class loader may incorporate load policies associated with the server location and different from the load policies used by the client computer's bootstrap class loader.

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First Claim