System and method for support of legacy communications protocols in a smart card

1. A program development system for developing client and server programs, for a client computer and a server computer, respectively, wherein the client-program is configured to issue method invoking instructions for the server program, the program development system comprising:

a program development computer programmed to provide support for legacy protocol method invocation, the program development computer programmed to include a converter having instructions to cause the program development computer to construct a server program and a client program wherein the instruction to construct the server program comprises instructions to cause the program development computer to:

read a source program;

recognize in the source program annotations that provide a mapping between method names for methods invoked using messages in a legacy protocol and a native protocol;

create a mapping data structure using the annotations that provide a mapping between method invoking instructions in the legacy protocol and method invoking instructions in the native protocol;

append the mapping data structure to an executable server program produced by a compiler and the converter;

include in the executable server program a legacy-protocol-message-to-native-protocol-message transformation mechanism;

create a client-program-interface for a client;

wherein the instructions to create a client-program comprises instructions to cause the program development computer to:

compile a client-program source program against the client-program-interface by including in the compiled client-program instructions;

include instructions to transmit a select-a-server-program instance message in the client-program; and

include a legacy-protocol method invocation in the client-program;

wherein the server computer comprises a mechanism to receive a select-a-server-program-instance message and to save an instance identifier in response thereto;

wherein the instructions to create a server-program further includes instructions to cause the program development computer to:

include in the server-program a mechanism to save an instance identifier in response to receiving a select-server-program-instance message;

wherein the legacy-protocol-message-to-native-protocol-message transformation mechanism comprises instructions to cause the server program to build a native protocol method invocation message using the saved instance identifier and the mapping between method invoking instructions in the legacy protocol and method invoking instructions in the native protocol.

2. The program development system of claim 1 wherein the compiler including instructions to cause computer to ignore the annotations while compiling a source program.

3. The converter of claim 1 , wherein the native protocol is a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) method invocation.

4. A smart card programmed to provide support for legacy protocol method invocation, the smart card programmed to include a converter having instructions to cause a processor of the smart card to:

receive a compiled source program;

read the compiled source program;

recognize in the source program annotations that provide a mapping between method names for methods invoked using messages in a legacy protocol and a native protocol;

create a mapping data structure using the annotations to provide a mapping between method invoking instructions in the legacy protocol and method invoking instructions in the native protocol;

append the mapping data structure to an executable program produced by a compiler and the converter;

receive a select-a-server-program-instance message and to save an instance identifier in response thereto; and

receive a method invocation in the legacy protocol and to build a method invocation in the native protocol using the saved instance identifier and the mapping between method names for methods invoked using messages in a legacy protocol and a native protocol.

5. A system comprising:

a hardware device programmed to execute instructions of a converter configured to cause the hardware device to produce an executable program from a source program, the converter comprising:

instructions to cause the hardware device to produce a mapping data structure from annotations embedded in the source program wherein the annotations provide a mapping between method invocations in a legacy protocol and corresponding method names in a native protocol and instructions to append the mapping data structure to an executable program produced by a compiler and the converter;

a smart card programmed with the instructions directing the smart card to receive a select-a-server-instance message and to save an instance identifier identifying a selected instance in response thereto and to use the instance identifier and the mapping data structure to translate messages received in the legacy protocol into messages in the native protocol.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the executable program is loaded onto a smart card.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the native protocol is a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) method invocation.