Structures and methods for representing and processing documents
First Claim
1. In a document processing system including storage means for storing blocks of data and processing means for processing the data blocks and wherein a document is represented by a chain of text blocks of the data blocks in the storage means which contains test belonging to the document, the chain being formed by means of chaining information in each text block by means of which the processing means locates the following block in the chain, the method of inserting characters into the text contained in the chain at a given position in the text comprising for any insertion of characters the steps of:
- (1) immediately following a first text block containing the given position, inserting a second empty text block marked with an insertion mark into the chain by copying the chaining information from the first text block into the second empty text block and setting the chaining information in the first text block to specify the second empty text block;
(2) copying the text which follows the given position in the first text block into the second text block;
(3) deleting the copied text from the first text block;
(4) inserting the characters at the end of the text remaining in the first text block; and
(5) on completion of the insertion, removing the insertion mark.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A document processing system including a document structure and a library of routines for manipulating the document structure. The components of the document structure are made up of individually-locatable blocks. The components include a chain of text blocks which contains at least one document page and includes at least one block, one or more chains of reference blocks, each chain containing a reference and including at least one reference block, information attributes in the text blocks which relate locations in the text of the document to item numbers referring to references, a page index which relates page numbers to the text blocks at which the pages begin, and a reference index which relates each item number to the first reference block in the chain containing the reference. The document structure may only be manipulated by means of routines in the document manager library. The routines in the library are accessible to programs such as editor programs and printing programs which manipulate documents.
110 Citations
22 Claims
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1. In a document processing system including storage means for storing blocks of data and processing means for processing the data blocks and wherein a document is represented by a chain of text blocks of the data blocks in the storage means which contains test belonging to the document, the chain being formed by means of chaining information in each text block by means of which the processing means locates the following block in the chain, the method of inserting characters into the text contained in the chain at a given position in the text comprising for any insertion of characters the steps of:
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(1) immediately following a first text block containing the given position, inserting a second empty text block marked with an insertion mark into the chain by copying the chaining information from the first text block into the second empty text block and setting the chaining information in the first text block to specify the second empty text block; (2) copying the text which follows the given position in the first text block into the second text block; (3) deleting the copied text from the first text block; (4) inserting the characters at the end of the text remaining in the first text block; and (5) on completion of the insertion, removing the insertion mark.
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2. In a data processing system including storage means for storing at least routines and data and processing means for executing the stored routines and processing the data under control thereof, means for processing a document comprising:
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(1) a document structure of the data for representing the document and (2) document management routines that are a subset of the stored routines and are predefined for use by a plurality of application programs for performing operations on behalf of a plurality of application programs, including reading and modifying the document, on the document structure, the document management routines being the only means available in the data processing system for performing operations on the document structure and being employed by any other of the stored routines to perform an operation on the document structure. - View Dependent Claims (3)
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4. In a document processing system for processing documents, the document processing system including storage means for storing blocks of data at predetermined locations in the storage means and processing means for locating and processing the data blocks, a document structure for representing a document in the storage means by means of the data blocks and permitting the processing means to locate the data blocks as required to process the document, the document structure comprising:
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(1) a plurality of chains of at least one data block, the data blocks in a given chain including chaining information used by the processing means to locate the next data block in the chain when processing the chain, the plurality of chains including (a) a first chain which represents text belonging to the document; (b) a second chain which represents a reference specifying information additional to the text of the document; (3) in a data block of the first chain, a reference specifier specifying the reference; and (4) a reference index which relates the reference specifier to the location in the storage means of the first data block in the second chain independently of the position of the reference specifier in the first chain and which the processing means employs to locate the reference for processing when the processing means encounters the reference specifier while processing the first chain. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. In a document processing system for processing documents, the document processing system including storage means the storing blocks of data and processing means for locating and processing the data blocks, a document structure for representing a document in the storage means by means of the data blocks and permitting the processing means to locate the data blocks as required to process the document, the document structure comprising:
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(1) a plurality of chains of data blocks, the data blocks in a given chain including chaining information used by the processing means to locate the next data block in the chain when processing the chain, the plurality of chains including (a) a page chain of at least one text block of the data blocks, the page chain representing at least one page of text of the document and (b) a reference chain of at least one reference block of the data blocks which represents a reference specifying information additional to the text of the document; (2) in a text block, an information attribute word containing an item number referring to the reference; (3) a page index block of the data blocks which contains page index information relating a certain page number to the page and which the processing means employs to locate the page when the processing means receives the certain page number in the course of processing the document; and (4) a reference index block of the data blocks which contains reference index information relating the item number to the location of the reference chain representing the reference and which the processing means employs to locate the reference for processing when the processing means encounters the information attribute word in the course of processing the page chain. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification