Computer program product having preloaded software module

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In summary, this disclosure pertains to an offline class loader that is used to produce an executable module whose classes are preloaded into memory without requiring runtime dynamic loading.
The executable module, nevertheless, contains a class structure that is tailored for runtime dynamic loading.
Thus, the offline class loader modifies the existing class structures to accommodate static loading.
However, the class structure allows for varying data and methods that contain unresolved references.
The offline class loader tags these methods and data specifying that they are to be stored in a random access memory.
All other data is stored in a read-only memory.
At the completion of the static loading process, a preloadable executable module is generated that contains two addresses spaces.
A first address space that contains methods having unresolved references and data that varies during the execution of the module is loaded in a random access memory.
The second address space contains methods having static loaded classes and constant data which is loaded into a read-only memory.
A preloadable executable module of this fashion is advantageous in a distributed computer system having client computers with little or no secondary storage.
Such client computers require applications to run entirely in random access memory which quickly turns into a limited resource.
By utilizing the offline class loader to partition an application into two address spaces, the amount of RAM utilized by the preloadable module is minimized.
In an embodiment, a client computer having minimal secondary storage utilizes an offline class loader to preload a browser in the client's read-only memory.
The browser is partitioned into the aforementioned two address spaces.
At system initialization or power up, the random access memory portion of the browser is loaded from read-only memory into the random access memory.
By executing a large portion of the browser from read-only memory, the browser has additional RAM storage to store information-content and executable modules that it can obtain from other server computers that the client is in communication with