Graphical environment for managing and developing applications

• US 20020010713A1
• Filed: 02/13/2001
• Published: 01/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/1995
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Agust Sverrir Egilsson
• Inventors: Egilsson, Agust Sverrir
• Granted Patent: US 6,763,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/504
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A graphical application developing and managing environment is described capable of representing and editing program modules using multiple display formats, which include embedding source code written in a functional language into a spreadsheet-like format. Methods are described for enabling the sharing of program modules by defining standardized interfaces into program modules and existing documents and by centrally locating module definitions. A patchwork mechanism is described requiring only basic spreadsheet editing skills on behalf of the user, enabling a user of the environment to connect external documents and program modules into a new program application. The invention allows complicated programming and simple end-user programming to be achieved within a unified environment and allows the execution of program modules and tracing of variables simultaneously with the writing of a program application. The invention defines methods for representing the various parts of a source code, defining a program application, along with the application icon as determined by a user creating the application and thereby making parts of the source code accessible to end-users for run-time execution.

Claims

1. A method of representing a program specification, of an advanced functional language, and program execution in a cell format, comprising:

communicating with a display device connected to a process device,

accessing a cell frame containing multiple cells displayed on said display device,

displaying text and icons in said cell frame,

associating selected variables and corresponding definitions in said program specification wit cells in said cell format,

determining values of said selected variables by executing said program specification, and

displaying in cells, associated with said selected variables, an indication value determined by an indication function representing values of said selected variables.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a full value of at least some of said selected variables.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating with an input device connected to said process device for controlling editing of said program specification within said cell format.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, on said display device, said selected variables in a text, or equivalent, format and translating said selected variables back and forth from said cell format and said text, or equivalent, format.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating with an input device connected to said process device,

displaying a modular structure diagram on said display device representing a call declarations part of said program specification, organizing the remaining program specification, excluding the call declarations, of said program specification into predetermined smaller parts each containing a selection of variables and corresponding definitions,

displaying at least some of said predetermined smaller parts on said display device, and

editing or creating said program specification by editing at least some of said predetermined smaller parts and/or by editing said modular structure diagram.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said program specification is organized into input declarations, output declarations, call declarations, call definitions and program statements and wherein said input declarations, when assigned values, define values of said output declarations using said output declarations, said call declarations, said call definitions and said program statements and wherein said call definitions define a flow of information through said modular structure diagram.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising attaching at least some of the predetermined smaller parts of said program specification, excluding call declarations, to predefined areas of said modular structure diagram and allowing a user to access and display a specific part by designating, using an input device, an area of said modular structure diagram attached to said specific part.

8. A system for representing a program specification, of an advanced functional language, and program execution in a cell format, the system comprising:

means for communicating with a display device connected to a process device,

means for accessing a cell frame containing multiple cells displayed on said display device,

means for displaying text and icons in said cell frame,

means for associating selected variables and corresponding definitions in said program specification with cells in said cell format,

means for determining values of said selected variables by executing said program specification, and

means for displaying in cells, associated with said selected variables, an indication value determined by an indication function representing values of said selected variables.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising means for displaying a full value of at least some of said selected variables.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising means for communicating with an input device connected to said process device for controlling editing of said program specification within said cell format.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising means for displaying, on said display device, said selected variables in a text format, or equivalent, and means for translating said selected variables back and forth from said cell format and said text, or equivalent, format.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

means for communicating with an input device connected to said process device,

means for displaying a modular structure diagram on said display device representing a call declarations part of said program specification,

means for organizing the remaining program specification, excluding the call declarations, of said program specification into predetermined smaller parts each containing a selection of variables and corresponding definitions,

means for displaying at least some of said predetermined smaller parts on said display device, and

means for editing or creating said program specification by editing at least some of said predetermined smaller parts and/or by editing said modular structure diagram.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said program specification is organized into input declarations, output declarations, call declarations, call definitions and program statements and wherein said input declarations, when assigned values, define values of said output declarations using said output declarations, said call declarations, said call definitions and said program statements and wherein said call definitions define a flow of information through said modular structure diagram.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for attaching at least some of the predetermined smaller parts of said program specification, excluding call declarations, to predefined areas of said modular structure diagram and means for allowing a user to access and display a specific part by designating, using an input device, an area of said modular structure diagram attached to said specific part.

15. An application building and sharing environment, comprising:

a collection of program modules stored on one or more storage devices,

display means capable of defining a work area on a display device,

module organizing means for organizing a program module from the collection of program modules into predefined parts including an interface part a parent-child module relationships declaring part and parts for defining parent-child module relationships data flow within said program module,

icon representation means capable of assigning icons to at least some of the program modules from said collection and capable of displaying said icons on said work area,

interface representation means capable of displaying, on said work area, said interface part of a program module from said collection using a cell format,

data flow representation means capable of displaying, on said work area, using a cell format, the call definition part of a parent-child module relationship within a program module from said collection, structure means capable of displaying on said work area, a modular structure diagram for a program module from said collection graphically representing said parent-child module relationships declaration part within said program module, sharing means capable of allowing a user to select program modules from said collection and represent a selected program module by its icon on said work area,

program module editing means capable of allowing the user to edit and add program modules to said collection by editing at least some of said predefined parts of a program module from said collection, and

program module execution means capable of determining and displaying, using the interface cell format of a program module from said collection, indication values representing results of executing said program module definitions.

16. The application building and sharing environment of claim 15, wherein said program module editing means allows the user of the application building and sharing environment to edit graphically said modular structure diagram to create and delete parent-child relationships within the program module, wherein data flow definitions through said parent-child relationships are edited within the data flow cell format, and wherein said interface part is edited within the interface cell format, thereby allowing the user to define program and flow variables and view their values simultaneously using a patchwork mechanism.

17. The application building and sharing environment of claim 16, wherein said module organizing means defines a program statements part within a program module from said collection and said program module editing means allows the user to use a cell format for editing said program statements part.

18. The application building and sharing environment of claim 16, further comprising means for defining and controlling user access to various parts of a program module from said collection.

19. The application building and sharing environment of claim 16, further comprising means for exporting program module specifications for a program module in said collection to formats accessible by a predefined set of application environments.

20. The application building and sharing environment of claim 16, further comprising means for creating user interfaces, for a predefined list of application environments, capable of accessing program module interfaces from said collection.

21. The application building and sharing environment of claim 16, further comprising means for associating to and displaying with the module icon of a program module from said collection, icons representing user selected variables within the program module specification and means for allowing a user to access the full value of any of the variables associated with the icons by designating the appropriate icon using a pointing device.

22. A method of representing, with an application icon, executable parts within an application, comprising:

defining an application with a program module, specified using an advanced functional language,

representing said application with an icon,

displaying one or more icons on a display device,

allowing a user to select variables within said program module and represent at least some of the selected variables with icons,

allowing the user to define relative display positions of the variable icons relative to the application icon,

displaying the application icon and the variable icons on a display device in a configuration determined by the user,

communicating with an input device and displaying a full value of at least some of the variables selected when the associated variable icon is designated by said input device,

thereby allowing the user of the application to execute at run-time at least some of the selected variables from within the application and to access external documents used in the program module displayed individually with the application icon.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising storing multiple versions of said program module and displaying, with the application icon, a time axis and time icons, associating with at least some of the time icons, versions of said program module, and displaying an icon configuration according to the specific version of said program module associated with a time icon when designated by said input device.

24. A system for representing, with an application icon, executable parts within an application, comprising:

a program module, defining an application, specified using an

advanced functional language,

an icon representing said application,

means for displaying icons on a display device,

means for allowing a user to select variables within said program

module and represent at least some of the selected variables with an icon,

means for allowing the user to define display positions of the variable icons relative to the application icon,

means for displaying the application icon and the variable icons on a display device in a configuration determined by the user,

means for communicating with an input device and displaying a full value of at least some of the variables selected when the associated variable icon is designated by said input device,

thereby allowing the user of the application to execute at run-time at least some of the selected variables from within the application and to access external documents used in the program module displayed individually with the application icon.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising means for storing multiple versions of said program module and displaying, with the application icon, a time axis and time icons, associating with at least some of the time icons, versions of said program module, and means for displaying an icon configuration according to the specific version of said program module associated with a time icon when designated by said input device

26. A system for representing program variables, of an advanced functional language, and program execution in a cell frame, comprising:

indication value representing means for displaying in said cell frame, values of said program variables using indication values, and

text or graphical editing means for creating, deleting and

modifying the definitions of said program variables.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising means for displaying the full value of said program variables.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein call declaration variables/statements are defined/generated using graphical editing means in the form of editing a modular structure diagram, data flow variables associated with said call declaration statements being defined and represented in a cell frame.

29. A method of creating a program application environment, by storing an executable application-building and run-time executing program in a general purpose digital computer'"'"'s memory and executing the stored application building program to impart functionality to the general purpose digital computer, by changing the state of the general purpose computer'"'"'s arithmetic logic unit when program instructions of the application-building program are executed, said method including the steps of:

representing program variables, of an advanced functional language, and program execution in a cell frame using indication values, and

allowing a user to create, delete and modify the definitions of said program variables using text or graphical editing means.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising displaying the full value of said program variables when requested by the user.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising defining/generating call declaration variables/statements using graphical editing means in the form of editing, by the user, a modular structure diagram, and, defining and representing the data flow variables associated with said call declaration statements in a cell frame.

32. A computer-readable medium, encoded with a computer program permitting the creation and run-time execution of an application program, comprising:

a program specification storage area for storing at least one program specification of a module, written in an advanced functional language;

wherein a processor enables the creation and the execution of the application program from the at lest one program specification by representing program variables and program execution in a cell frame using indication values, and by allowing a user to create, delete and modify the definitions of said program variables using text or graphical editing means.

33. The medium of claim 32, further permitting displaying the full value of said program variables.

34. The medium of claim 32, further permitting defining/generating call declaration variables/statements using graphical editing means in the form of editing a modular structure diagram, and defining and representing the data flow variables associated with said call declaration statements in a cell frame.

35. A method of controlling a processor to perform application program generation and run-time program execution, comprising the steps of:

representing program variables, of an advanced functional language, and program execution in a cell frame using indication values,

allowing a user to create, delete and modify the definitions of said program variables using text or graphical editing means.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising displaying the full value of said program variables.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising defining/generating call declaration variables/statements using graphical editing means in the form of editing a modular structure diagram, and defining and representing the data flow variables associated with said call declaration statements in a cell frame.