UNIQUE IDENTIFIER RESOLUTION INTERFACES FOR LIGHTWEIGHT RUNTIME IDENTITY

The present invention extends the reflection feature found in some virtual machines or code execution managers by providing interface mechanisms that expose unique identifiers, e.g., metadata tokens and runtime handles. These interfaces are further configured to resolve these unique identifiers to their respective member info or data structures, and vise versa. These unique identifiers remove the element of string binding/resolution, giving them more performance oriented approach to such things as the late-bound reflection/invocation found in the heavyweight features of reflection processes. In addition, these lightweight identifiers allow for enhanced performance and work set when used in analyzing the functionality associated with the corresponding member.