Method and apparatus for continuously displaying a hierarchical menu with a permanent stationing setting/clearing icon

• US 5,485,175 A
• Filed: 02/06/1995
• Issued: 01/16/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Suzuki, Yasuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Breene, John E.
• Application Number:
  US08/384,223
• Time in Patent Office: 344 Days
• Field of Search: 395/155-161, 395/700, 345/117-120, 345/146, 345/902
• US Class Current: 715/841
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A method and apparatus of displaying a hierarchical menu for editor commands to be used with drawing software for processing objects in the drawing by displaying hierarchically structured command menus and executing a designated command. The command menus comprises at least a part of the command names belonging to the same hierarchy, a command name belonging to a senior hierarchy of the command, and the command menus are updated at each command selection for display. A permanent stationing setting/clearing icon is used for continuously displaying a selected command while successively performing the command on the objects in the drawing.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a hierarchial edit command menu operated in a data processing system for processing data by editing a drawing displayed on a display unit, and executing a selected command, comprising the steps of:

editing said drawing according to a first command operating procedure when at least one element of said drawing displayed on said display unit is selected, and editing said drawing according to a second command operating procedure when said at least one element is not selected;

for each said first and second command operating procedure, preparing a primary command menu having a first hierarchy of at least one primary command name, a secondary command menu having a second hierarchy of at least one secondary command name, said second hierarchy being lower than said first hierarchy, and at least one lower order branch mark corresponding to said at least one secondary command name in said second hierarchy of said secondary command menu and indicating an existence of a third command menu having a third hierarchy of at least one tertiary command name, said third hierarchy being lower than said second hierarchy;

said command menus further including a permanent stationing setting/clearing icon for determining the permanent stationing of said command menus, and when the permanent stationing setting/clearing icon is in a setting state, continuously displaying the selected command on said display unit, and when a plurality of elements in said drawing are successively selected, performing the selected command on the plurality of elements without selecting the selected command repeatedly; and

sequentially displaying said prepared primary, secondary and tertiary command menus in an order based on a selected one of said first and second command operating procedures.

2. The method of displaying a hierarchical edit command menu according to claim 1, wherein:

said first command operating procedure is a noun-to-verb operation, and said second command operating procedure is a verb-to-noun operation, the noun indicating an element in said drawing and the verb indicating a process to be performed on said element in said drawing.

3. The method of displaying a hierarchical edit command menu according to claim 1, wherein a hierarchy of said command menu includes:

a verb menu for specifying a verb indicating a type of processing to be performed on an object in said drawing;

an object menu for specifying said object; and

a complement menu for specifying a complement.

4. The method of displaying a hierarchical edit command menu according to claim 1, wherein:

said primary, secondary and tertiary command menus each sequentially display a command name for said respective command menu.

5. A method of displaying a hierarchical edit command menu as claimed in claim 1, wherein the drawing is a circuit diagram.

6. A hierarchical edit command menu display apparatus comprising:

a display unit;

storage means for storing a hierarchically-structured menu, including;

a same level command name displaying section for listing at least a part of command names of a same hierarchical level, the command names corresponding to respective commands,

a lower branch mark displaying section for displaying a lower branch mark indicating an existence of a command at a level lower than said command of the same hierarchical level, and

a higher level command name displaying section for displaying a name of a command included in said commands, at a level higher than that of said commands of the same hierarchical level;

data processing means coupled to the display unit and the storage means, for editing a drawing according to a first command operating procedure if at least one element of said drawing displayed on said display unit is selected, and editing said drawing according to a second command operating procedure if said at least one element is not selected, for displaying said hierarchically-structured menu on the display unit, for displaying a menu listing a command name at a level lower than that of a selected command name if said selected command name has said lower branch mark, and for performing a process on said element in said drawing corresponding to said selected command name when said selected command has no lower branch mark; and

said hierarchically-structured menu further includes a permanent stationing setting/clearing icon for determining the permanent stationing of said hierarchically-structured menu, and when the permanent stationing setting/clearing icon is in a setting state, the selected command is continuously displayed on said display unit, and when a plurality of elements in said drawing are successively selected, the selected command is performed on the plurality of elements without selecting the selected command repeatedly.

7. A hierarchical edit command menu display apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said hierarchically-structured menu has a hierarchical structure including

a verb menu for specifying a verb indicating a type of processing to be performed on an object;

an object menu for specifying said object; and

a complement menu for specifying a complement,

the verb, object and complement menus being displayed in a predetermined order.

8. A hierarchical edit command menu displaying apparatus according to claim 7, wherein:

after a command selecting operation is executed in a "verb to noun" type operation, said verb menu, said object menu and said complement menu continue to be displayed in the predetermined order, said noun corresponding to said object.

9. A hierarchical edit command menu according to claim 7, wherein:

when a command selecting operation is executed in a "noun to verb" type operation, said noun corresponding to said object, said objects in the object menu, separately designated on the display unit, are identified;

said complement menu is displayed after said verb menu is displayed by omitting a display of said object menu; and

on said complement menu displayed, command names corresponding to said identified objects are described in a senior hierarchy command name displaying part, and the commands corresponding to said processing objects identified are executed.

10. A hierarchical editing command menu display apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the drawing is a circuit diagram.

11. A method of editing a drawing displayed on a display unit, comprising the steps of:

editing said drawing according to a first command operating procedure when at least one element in said drawing displayed on said display unit is selected as an editing object, and editing said drawing according to a second command operating procedure when said element is not selected, said second command Operating procedure being a verb-to-noun operation, said noun indicating an element in said drawing and said verb indicating process to be performed on said drawing;

displaying a command menu comprising commands to edit said drawing;

selecting a command from said menu;

selecting an element in said drawing as an editing object of said selected command;

executing said selected command on said selected element in said drawing; and

continuously displaying the selected command in said command menu on said display unit until a predetermined command is received, and when a plurality of elements in said drawing are successively selected, performing the selected command on the plurality of elements without selecting the selected command repeatedly.

12. The method of editing a drawing according to claim 11, wherein:

said first command operating procedure is a noun-to-verb operation, said noun indicating an element in said drawing and said verb indicating a process to be performed on said element in said drawing, said method further comprising the step of editing the drawing according to a command selected from a command menu, the command being performed on the selected element based on said noun-to-verb operation.

13. The method of editing a drawing according to claim 12, wherein:

said command menu includes a plurality of commands only corresponding to said selected element in said drawing as an object based on said noun-to-verb operation.

14. The method of editing a drawing according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

displaying said command menu and a complement menu comprising complements corresponding to said selected element in said drawing; and

executing a complement selected from said complement menu.

15. The method of editing a drawing according to claim 11, wherein:

each said element in said drawing belongs to a predetermined class of objects,

said method further comprises the steps of;

displaying said command menu, an object menu comprising said objects each indicating one of said classes and a complement menu comprising complements corresponding to each of said objects;

selecting one of said objects from said object menu;

selecting an element in said drawing among elements which belong to the class corresponding to the selected object; and

executing said selected command on said selected element in said drawing.

16. A method of displaying a hierarchical edit command menu in a data processing system for processing data by editing a drawing, each of plurality of elements of said drawing being displayed on a display unit and corresponding to one of a plurality of object types, and executing a selected command, comprising the steps of:

editing said drawing according to a first command operating procedure when at least one of said plurality of elements of said drawing displayed on said display unit is selected, and editing said drawing according to a second command operating procedure when at least one said plurality of elements of said drawing displayed on said display unit is not selected;

for each said first and second command operating procedure, preparing a primary command menu having a first hierarchy of at least one verb command, said verb command indicating a type of process to be performed on the selected element of said drawing, a secondary command menu having a second hierarchy of at least one object command, said object command specifying said one object type edited by performing a command corresponding to said at least one verb command, said second hierarchy being lower than said hierarchy,

said command menus further including a permanent stationing setting/clearing icon for determining the permanent stationing of said command menus, and when the permanent stationing setting/clearing icon is in a setting state, continuously displaying the selected command on said display unit, and when a plurality of elements in said drawing are successively selected, performing the selected command on the plurality of elements without selecting the selected command repeatedly,

said first command operating procedure including the steps of;

displaying said primary command menu including said at least one prepared verb command on said display unit only corresponding to the selected element in said drawing;

selecting one of said at least one verb command from said primary command menu; and

executing a command corresponding to the selected verb command on the selected element of said drawing; and

said second command operating procedure including the steps of;

displaying said primary command menu including said at least one prepared verb command on said display unit;

selecting one of said at least one verb command from said primary command menu;

displaying said secondary command menu including said at least one prepared object command;

selecting one of said at least one object command from said secondary command menu;

selecting an element of said drawing corresponding to the selected object command; and

executing a command corresponding to the selected verb command on the selected element of said drawing.

17. A method of displaying a hierarchical edit command menu according to claim 16, wherein said second command operating procedure further includes the step of:

erasing the other of said at least one verb command not selected from said display unit.