Methods of indicating states of software processes cooperating on a single task

• US 5,388,268 A
• Filed: 04/28/1994
• Issued: 02/07/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Deshpande, Anand, Fong, Wendy L., Beach, Brian W., Pham, Thuan Q., Ishizaki, Audrey K., Garg, Pankaj K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Heckler, Thomas M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BACKENSTOSE, JONATHAN
• Application Number:
  US08/234,496
• Time in Patent Office: 285 Days
• Field of Search: 395/650, 395/700, 364/264, 364/264.6, 364/284, 364/284.3, 364/264.1, 364/920.4
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/322 Display of waveforms, e.g. of logic analysers G06F11/323 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/966 Computer process, e.g. operation of computer
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/97 Instrumentation and component modelling, e.g. interactive control panel

Abstract

A visual display system providing an operator simultaneous descriptions of the states of many cooperating sub-processes working on a task and residing in various instruments in a distributed system. A server process is connected to receive and translate status signals from the sub-processes into a standardized language. The translated signals are interpreted by a screen manipulation program. A monitor, connected to the server process, displays the interpreted signals to show the states of the sub-processes. The visual indication on the monitor includes a plurality of representations of indicator lights. Each indicator light indicates the state of one of the sub-processes. Next to each indicator light is an identifier which identifies the sub-process represented by the indicator light. The visual indication also includes two types of meters. One type of meter indicates the speed of one of the sub-processes and the other indicates the amount of data used at any given time by one of the sub-processes. Finally, a picture of each of the operators using the system is also included in the indication. In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented to monitor a rule-based programming environment using the X Window System.

Claims

1. In a distributed computer system comprising a plurality of instruments, at least one monitor, and executing a server process, a method of indicating the states of a plurality of software sub-processes that are working together on a task selected by an operator, the sub-processes being coupled to said server process, each sub-process performing at least a part of the task, each sub-process having been programmed to generate signals indicating its state, the states of a sub-process comprising executing, ready, waiting, and stopped, and each sub-process residing in one of said plurality of instruments in said distributed computer system before the operator starts the method, the method comprising the steps of:

generating by each sub-process a signal indicative of the state of that sub-process, said signal being generated in response to a change in state of said sub-process, said signal being unsolicited by the server process, said signal being expressed in a language convenient for said sub-process, said language not required to be the same language for each sub-process;

communicating by each sub-process the generated signals from the sub-processes to the server process;

determining by the server process the states of the sub-process, said determining comprising interpreting the signals received from the sub-processes;

displaying by the server process, via a screen manipulation program, a visual indication of the states of the sub-processes on a monitor; and

repeating from the step of generating until the method is stopped;

such that the operator is provided with a visual indication of the states of the sub-processes working on the task.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of determining the states of the sub-processes by the server process comprises:

translating the communicated signals from each of the sub-process to a standardized language; and

using a screen manipulation program to interpret each of the translated signals to form the visual indication of the state of each of the sub-processes.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein displaying the visual indication comprises displaying a plurality of representations of indicator lights, one light associated with, and indicating the state of, each sub-process.

4. A method as in claim 3, wherein displaying the visual indication of an indicator light comprises displaying the light in a first state if the associated sub-process is busy and in a second state if the sub-process is idle.

5. A method as in claim 3, wherein displaying the visual indication further comprises displaying a plurality of identifiers, one identifier is next to each indicator light identifying the sub-process represented by the light.

6. A method as in claim 1, wherein communicating a generated signal from a sub-process to the server process when the state of that sub-process changes such that the server process does not continuously monitor the states of each of the sub-processes.

7. A method as in claim 2, wherein displaying the visual indication comprises displaying the speed of one of the sub-processes as that sub-process is working on the task.

8. A method as in claim 2, wherein displaying the visual indication comprises displaying the amount of data used at any given time by one of the sub-processes as that sub-process is working on the task.

9. A method as in claim 2, wherein displaying the visual indication comprises displaying a picture of each operator using the distributed system.