CHAINING OBJECTS IN A POINTER DRAG PATH

• US 20080235610A1
• Filed: 06/03/2008
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wrp IP Management, LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wenzel, Shannon Everett, Kolz, Daniel Paul, Dettinger, Richard Dean
• Granted Patent: US 7,865,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a graphical user interface allow performing operations simply by dragging a first object to touch a second object. The selection of the first object places a corresponding first object in a chain of objects. When the selected first object touches a second object, a corresponding second object is added to the chain of objects. This process may continue for the selection of many objects by merely touching each object with the selected first object, which causes a corresponding object to be added to the chain of objects. The chain of objects may then be processed as an atomic group of operations that may be rolled back if any of the operations in the group fail.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor; and

a pointer drag path chaining mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the pointer drag path chaining mechanism comprising a pointer that allows selecting a first object in a graphical user interface, the selection of the first object causing the pointer drag path mechanism to place a first corresponding object in a chain of objects, wherein the pointer further allows dragging the selected first object to touch a second object, the touching of the second object causing the pointer drag path mechanism to place a second corresponding object in the chain of objects without a user of the pointer pressing any additional buttons on a pointing device that controls the pointer, wherein after the selected first object is deselected, the pointer drag path chaining mechanism processes the chain of objects as an atomic group of operations according to at least one operand and at least one operator in the chain of objects, thereby allowing rolling back any performed operations if any operation in the chain of objects fails.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pointer drag path chaining mechanism adds objects to the chain of objects according to at least one predefined rule.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further wherein the pointer drag path chaining mechanism processes the chain of objects according to at least one predefined rule.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the pointer drag path chaining mechanism processes the chain of objects when the selected first object is deselected.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pointer further allows dragging the selected first object to touch a third object, the touching of the third object causing a third corresponding object to be placed in the chain of objects.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the first, second and third objects each represent an operator or an operand.

5-6. -6. (canceled)

9. A computer-readable program product comprising:

a pointer drag path chaining mechanism comprising a pointer that allows selecting a first object in a graphical user interface, the selection of the first object causing the pointer drag path chaining mechanism to place a first corresponding object in a chain of objects, wherein the pointer further allows dragging the selected first object to touch a second object, the touching of the second object causing the pointer drag path chaining mechanism to place a second corresponding object in the chain of objects without a user of the pointer pressing any additional buttons on a pointing device that controls the pointer, wherein after the selected first object is deselected, the pointer drag path chaining mechanism processes the chain of objects as an atomic group of operations according to at least one operand and at least one operator in the chain of objects, thereby allowing rolling back any performed operations if any operation in the chain of objects fails; and

recordable media bearing the pointer drag path chaining mechanism.

10. The program product of claim 9 wherein the pointer drag path chaining mechanism adds objects to the chain of objects according to at least one predefined rule.

11. The program product of claim 9 wherein the pointer drag path chaining mechanism processes the chain of objects according to at least one predefined rule.

12. The program product of claim 11 wherein the pointer drag path chaining mechanism processes the chain of objects when the selected first object is deselected.

15. The program product of claim 9 wherein the pointer further allows dragging the selected first object to touch a third object, the touching of the third object causing a third corresponding object to be placed in the chain of objects.

16. The program product of claim 15 wherein the first, second and third objects each represent an operator or an operand.

13-14. -14. (canceled)