TRANSLATION VIEWER FOR PROJECT DOCUMENTATION AND EDITING

• US 20080098356A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stanek, Christopher E., Curry, David R., Malaspina, Fabio, Ericsson, Matthew R., Bliss, Ronald E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,913,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/123
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A software documentation system is provided. This includes a selection component that detects a project component within a context of a current language. A translation viewer displays alternative language documentation associated with the detected project component, where the translation viewer can be associated with an editor that is linked to the context of the current language. Other aspects include providing components to switch from a current language to an alternative language within the software documentation or development system.

Claims

1. A software documentation system, comprising:

a selection component that detects a project component within a context of a current language; and

a translation viewer that displays alternative language documentation associated with the detected project component.

2. The system of claim 1, the translation viewer is associated with an editor that is linked to the context of the current language.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to switch from a current language to an alternative language.

4. The system of claim 1, the selection component is linked to a component that triggers activation of the translation viewer.

5. The system of claim 1, the selection component causes the project component to trigger a display of alternative language documentation.

6. The system of claim 5, the selection component triggers a change from an alpha-blended display to an opaque display of alternative language documentation.

7. The system of claim 1, the translation viewer is associated with a programming language editor.

8. The system of claim 7, the programming language editor is associated with ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, tag editors, properties editors, or structured text editors.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an import and export utility to facilitate creation of the alternative language documentation.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an automatic language translator to facilitate creation of the alternative language documentation.

11. The system of claim 1, the translation viewer is associated with a language selection box to enable selection of alternative languages.

12. The system of claim 11, the translation viewer is associated with a paste function to enable copying of the alternative language documentation.

13. The system of claim 11, the translation viewer is associated with a help function to provide operating instructions to a user.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising at least one configuration menu to adjust display characteristics of the translation viewer.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a configuration switch to disable or enable the translation viewer.

16. The system of claim 15, the configuration menu provides display adjustments, display justifications, grid adjustments, drag adjustments, fading options, font adjustments, or color adjustments.

17. The system of claim 15, the configuration menu is applied to at least one of an application editor, a tag editor, a ladder editor, a sequential function chart editor, a function block editor, and a structured text editor.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising a properties component that adjusts how the translation viewer is displayed for different application contexts.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to detect whether an alternative language is associated with the project component.

20. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon to facilitate documentation, comprising:

a first data field to specify a current language component;

a second data field to specify one or more alternative language components; and

a third data field that displays a translation of available alternative language components for a selected documentation object.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, further comprising a field to specify whether or not the alternative language components exist for the selected documentation object.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 20, the third data field is associated with a text display.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 20, further comprising an editor field associated with the current language component.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 20, further comprising a configuration field to enable or disable the third data field.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 20, further comprising a switch field to indicate a change from a current language to an alternative language.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 20, further comprising an import or export field to facilitate language translations.

27. A method to generate software documentation, comprising:

associating a current language with an editor;

determining if an alternative language is supplied for a documentation component when the editor is enabled; and

displaying the alternative language if the alternative language is supplied for the documentation component.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising generating a plurality of alternative languages for a documentation system.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising switching between the plurality of alternative languages.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising switching between a faint display of text and a bold display of text upon hovering over the alternative language.

31. The method of claim 28, the editor is a programming language editor.

32. The method of claim 27, further comprising altering a translation display in view of a documentation context.

33. A development system, comprising:

means for editing a documentation object according to a current language context; and

means for viewing an alternative language documentation object in accordance with the current language context.

34. The development system of claim 34, further comprising means for switching between a current language context and an alternative language context.