System and method for extending capabilities and execution efficiency of script based applications

Abstract

Scripting Language based applications can be limited in their ability to supply and execute sophisticated logic and complex processing. More traditional programming languages contain explicit function and / or procedure calls to implement more complex functionality, however, these languages use more complicated syntax and traditionally require mosophisticated programming knowledge to use. There are provided systems and methods for extending the capabilities of an application program for execution by a terminal. The application includes a script based workflow and non-executable content. One such method comprises loading the workflow for interpretation by a script interpreter, such that the workflow is configured for having a plurality of executable elements. This method also provides a global symbol structure for reference by the executable elements, the global symbol structure including addressing for coupling selected ones of the executable elements to corresponding external components. The external components are provided by a native runtime environment of the terminal for performing the action specified by the selected executable elements. This method also executes the executable elements in sequence such that execution of the selected ones of the execution elements are redirected to the respective external components through the corresponding global symbols of the global symbol structure. Predefined knowledge of the contents of the global symbol structure is shared by the runtime environment and the workflow of the application.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to the execution of script-based applications. Background technique [0002] Today, more and more terminal devices are used, such as mobile phones, PDAs with wireless communication capabilities, personal computers, self-service kiosks and two-way pagers. The software applications that run on these devices add to their usefulness. For example, a mobile phone may include an application that retrieves the weather for a city range, or a PDA may include an application that allows the user to shop for groceries. These software applications utilize connections to the Internet to provide timely and useful services to users. However, developing software applications for multiple devices remains a difficult and time-consuming endeavor due to the limited resources of some devices. [0003] Scripting language-based applications are limited in their ability to provide and execute complex logic and complex processing. Most tradition...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, these languages ​​use more complex syntax and generally require more sophisticated programming knowledge

[0004] Another disadvantage of traditional programming languages ​​is that these languages ​​are not completely neutral to the platform used to execute the application

Another disadvantage of current scripting languages ​​(such as JavaScript) and traditional programming languages ​​(such as C++) is that the programming capabilities of the languages ​​​​are not scalable

Images