Animated user interface for computer program creation, control and execution
First Claim
1. An apparatus for independently and/or simultaneously creating, modifying, controlling, and executing a computer program, comprising:
- at least one programmer persona in an interactive animated computer sustained artificial world in which said computer program creation, modification, control, and execution proceeds in real time in accordance with the actions of said programmer persona, said computer sustained artificial world comprising;
at least one animated agent;
said agent including at least one animated personified rule, each rule having a guard portion for visually representing preconditions of said personified rule, and a body portion for visually representing actions of said personified rule;
each agent including a visual representation of local state; and
animated messages for exchanging information between said agents; and
display means for visually representing data structures which are representations of local state and are components of rules, and which are or which may include at least one of data items, other data structures, logic variables, and messages.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer programming system provides animated program sources that are created in an interactive visual manner. Animation is integrated with computer programming to allow a user or programmer to visualize programming flow and operation. Animated depictions are thus produced for dynamic phenomenon, such as concurrent computations. The program system supports a computation model of concurrent communicating agents. A concrete metaphor for the computation model is provided, e.g. agents are implemented as buildings; rules or methods are implemented robots or workers inside of buildings; local state is posted on bulletin boards inside of buildings; couriers carry messages between buildings; and so on.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. An apparatus for independently and/or simultaneously creating, modifying, controlling, and executing a computer program, comprising:
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at least one programmer persona in an interactive animated computer sustained artificial world in which said computer program creation, modification, control, and execution proceeds in real time in accordance with the actions of said programmer persona, said computer sustained artificial world comprising; at least one animated agent; said agent including at least one animated personified rule, each rule having a guard portion for visually representing preconditions of said personified rule, and a body portion for visually representing actions of said personified rule; each agent including a visual representation of local state; and animated messages for exchanging information between said agents; and display means for visually representing data structures which are representations of local state and are components of rules, and which are or which may include at least one of data items, other data structures, logic variables, and messages. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A process for independently and/or simultaneously creating, modifying, controlling, and executing a computer program, said process comprising the steps of:
providing at least one programmer persona in an interactive animated, computer sustained artificial world in which said computer program creation, modification, control, and execution proceeds in real time in accordance with the actions of said programmer persona; and
, in said computer sustained artificial world;displaying at least one animated computational agent which corresponds to underlying processes in said complex process; displaying preconditions of a personified rule; displaying actions of said personified rule; displaying local state; displaying data structures which are visual representations of local state and are components of rules, and which are or which may include at least one of data items, other data structures, logic variables, and messages; and displaying information exchange between said agents. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A user interface computer program, for independently and/or simultaneously creating, modifying, controlling, and executing an animated visual representation of an underlying computer program, said underlying computer program being described in a high-level computer language, said interface comprising:
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at least one programmer persona in an interactive animated computer sustained artificial world in which said computer program creation, modification, control, and execution proceeds in real time in accordance with the actions of said programmer persona, said computer sustained artificial world comprising; at least one animated computational agent; said agent including at least one animated personified rule, each rule having a guard portion for visually representing preconditions of said personified rule, and a body portion for visually representing actions of said personified rule; each agent including a visual representation of local state; and animated messages for exchanging information between said agents; and display means for visually representing data structures which are representations of local state and are components of rules and which are or which may include at least one of data items, other data structures, logic variables, and messages. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for independently and/or simultaneously creating, modifying, controlling, and executing an animated visual representation of an underlying computer program, said underlying computer program being described in a high-level computer language, said method comprising the steps of:
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providing at least one programmer persona in an interactive animated, computer sustained artificial world in which said computer program creation, modification, control, and execution proceeds in real time in accordance with the actions of said programmer persona; and
, in said computer sustained artificial world;providing at least one animated computational agent; said agent including at least one animated personified rule, each rule having a guard portion for visually representing preconditions of said personified rule, and a body portion for visually representing actions of said personified rule; each agent including a visual representation of local state; and exchanging information between said agents with animated messages; and displaying data structures which are visual representations of local state and are components of rules, and which are or which may include at least one of data items, other data structures, logic variables, and messages. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification