DOMAIN TRANSFORMATION LANGUAGES

• US 20110225489A1
• Filed: 05/24/2011
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Software Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Clifford, Shane J., Simonyi, Charles
• Granted Patent: US 9,158,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/40 Transformation of program code

Abstract

A method and system for transforming documents from different domains into a common representation for viewing and editing is provided. The system prepares the domain-specific document for visual representation by performing a series of transformations in a pipeline that convert the document from its domain-specific input state to a series of intermediate languages. The intermediate languages share the same syntax regardless of the domain of the document being transformed.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing system having a memory and a processor for converting documents using different domain languages into an abstract language that is domain-independent for rendering each document, the method comprising:

identifying domain-specific data elements of a document;

identifying, with the computing system, domain-specific statements that specify intentions of a document author for expressing the document in a variety of notations;

identifying domain-specific operations that specify document elements that have combinational semantics;

identifying domain-specific organizers that specify organizational information that affects a visual representation of the document; and

representing the identified data elements, statements, operations, and organizers in the abstract language, such that documents from different domains can be expressed in the abstract language and the abstract language can be used to render the documents in a domain-independent way.

2. The method of claim 1 including reverse transforming an abstract language representation of the document to produce a domain language representation of the document that contains editing changes made to a displayed representation of the document.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the document is a word processing document that does not contain source code.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the document contains source code.

5. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations for preparing a document in a word processing domain that does not contain source code, the operations comprising:

mapping the document in the word processing domain that does not contain source code to an abstract language representation of the document that does not contain source code;

receiving notational choices related to the abstract language representation;

mapping the abstract language representation to a concrete language representation of the document that does not contain source code based on the received notational choices;

determining the layout of the concrete language representation; and

for each of a plurality of elements of the concrete language representation of the document, mapping the element of the concrete language representation to an element of a graphical language representation of the document that does not contain source code based on the determined layout.

6. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

mapping the domain-specific document to an abstract language representation of the document;

receiving notational choices related to the abstract language representation;

mapping the abstract language representation to a concrete language representation of the document based on the received notational choices;

determining the layout of the concrete language representation;

for each of a plurality of elements of the concrete language representation of the document, mapping the element of the concrete language representation to an element of a graphical language representation of the document based on the determined layout; and

displaying the document based on the graphical language representation.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting changes to the domain-specific document and updating a display based on the changes.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting changes to the displayed document and incorporating the changes into the graphical language representation.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the operations further comprise:

reverse mapping the incorporated changes from the graphical language representation to the domain-specific document.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein displaying the document includes determining a size of a display area for displaying the document.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting changes to the document and representing the changes using a pending language representation.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the changes include changes that are invalid for the domain-specific document.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein each of the plurality of elements of the concrete language representation of the document is mapped to a different element of the graphical language representation of the document.

14. A system having a memory and a processor for representing a document specific to a domain for interaction with a user, comprising:

a domain-to-abstract language component configured to transform a domain language document in a domain language to an abstract language document in an abstract language at least in part by mapping elements of the domain language document to abstract language elements of the abstract language, wherein the domain-to-abstract language component is specific to the domain of the domain language document and wherein the abstract language represents the abstract language document in a set of domain-independent terms;

an abstract-to-concrete language component configured to transform the abstract language document in the abstract language to a concrete language document in a concrete language at least in part by mapping elements of the abstract language document to concrete language elements of the concrete language based on notational choices received from a user, wherein the abstract-to-concrete language component is independent of the domain of the domain language document and wherein the concrete language represents the concrete language document after a specific set of marks have been chosen; and

a concrete-to-graphical language component configured to transform the concrete language document in the concrete language to a graphical language document in a graphical language at least in part by mapping elements of the concrete language document to graphical language elements of the graphical language based on dimensions of a display area, wherein the concrete-to-graphical language component is independent of the domain of the domain language document

wherein at least one of the components comprises computer-executable instructions stored in memory for execution by the system.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the abstract language elements comprise:

data elements that represent data that does not contain semantics that need to be preserved for visual representation;

statements that represent intentions of a document author, wherein the statements are capable of expressing documents having a variety of notations;

operations that represent document elements that have combinational semantics defined priority; and

first organizers that represent organizational information that affects the visual representation of the document.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the concrete language elements comprise:

transparent frames that represent a box with one or more layout rules;

controls that change a state of a display of the document through one or more layout rules, wherein the controls comprise a first control configured to set tabification rules for a block of text;

control organizers that each defines a scope associated with a control; and

first marks that represent data within the document, wherein each of a plurality of first marks have an associated formatting choice specified by the user.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the graphical language elements comprise:

canvases that define an area of a display with specific dimensions; and

second marks that represent a part of a displayed image relative to a canvas, each second mark having an associated reference position relative to a canvas,

such that the graphical language describes a layout of elements of the graphical language document.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the concrete language further comprises:

a second control specifying a continuation string to be placed at each line where a break occurs; and

a first control organizer that defines a scope associated with the second control.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the concrete-to-graphical component is further configured to perform a reverse transformation to transform a graphical language document to a concrete language document, wherein the abstract-to-concrete language component is further configured to perform a reverse transformation to transform a concrete language document to an abstract language document, and wherein the domain-to-abstract language component is further configured to perform a reverse transformation to transform an abstract language document to an domain language document.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the domain document is source code for a computer program.

21. The system of claim 14 including a pending language component that represents intermediate changes to the document that are invalid for the domain and cannot be stored in the domain language.

22. The system of claim 14 wherein the concrete language represents formatting and styles applied to the document.

23. The system of claim 14 including a hit-testing component for detecting graphical language elements selected by a user based on a displayed representation of the document.

24. The system of claim 14 wherein each element of the abstract language document is mapped to a different concrete language element.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein each of a plurality of elements of the concrete language document is mapped to a different graphical language element.