Wait for service request in an iconic programming system

• US 5,551,041 A
• Filed: 12/15/1992
• Issued: 08/27/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Beethe, Douglas C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Christopher B.
• Application Number:
  US07/991,485
• Time in Patent Office: 1,351 Days
• Field of Search: 395/680, 395/275, 395/735, 395/740, 395/159, 364/200 MS File, 364/900 MS File
• US Class Current: 710/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues

Abstract

Disclosed in an iconic programming system process for processing the icons within an iconic network. When a user starts execution of the iconic system, the system first separates the icons into a list of threads, and creates a pending queue and a done stack for each thread. Execution then starts by selecting the first icon in the pending queue of the first thread within the system, processing the icon, and placing the icon on the done stack. After all icons on the pending queue are processed, icons are removed from the done stack and a sequence signal is sent on the sequence output for the icon. If a service request is received, the subthread hosted by an active service request icon is immediately made the highest priority, and processing continues with this subthread until the subthread is completely processed.

Claims

1. In an iconic programming system process executing in a computer system, said programming system process having at least one thread of connected icons, a method for processing service requests from devices connected to said computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) starting processing of icons in all threads within said iconic programming system process;

(b) when a wait for service request icon is processed on a singular thread, stopping further processing on said singular thread, and setting a status of said singular thread to a status which indicates that processing of said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received;

(c) when a service request from a device occurs, stopping processing of all threads not having said status which indicates that processing of said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received, and restarting processing of all threads having said status which indicates that processing of said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received; and

(d) after processing all threads having said status which indicates that processing of said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received, restarting processing all other threads.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein step (c) further comprises the step of:

(c1) assigning a processing priority to all threads, and setting a processing priority of all threads having said hosted status to a processing priority higher than a processing priority of any thread not having said hosted status.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein step (c) further comprises the step of:

(c1) assigning a processing priority to all threads, and setting a processing priority of all threads having said hosted status to a highest possible processing priority.

4. In an iconic programming system process executing in a computer system, said iconic programming system process having at least one thread of connected icons, a method for processing service requests from devices connected to said computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) starting processing of icons in all threads within said iconic programming system, and assigning a processing priority to each thread;

(b) when a wait for service request icon is processed on a singular thread, stopping further processing of icons on said singular thread, and setting a status of said singular thread to a status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received; and

(c) when a service request from a device occurs, setting a processing priority of all threads having said status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received to a processing priority higher than any processing priority of any thread not having said status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received and restarting processing of icons within all threads having said status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received.

5. The process of claim 4 wherein step (c) further comprises the step of:

(c1) setting a processing priority of all threads having said hosted status to a highest possible processing priority.

6. In an iconic programming system process executing in a computer system, said programming system process having at least one thread of connected icons, and having zero or more subthreads of icons connected to each other and also connected to an output of an iteration icon connected to a thread, a method for processing service requests from devices connected to said computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) starting processing of icons in all threads within said iconic programming system;

(b) when a wait for service request icon is processed on one subthread, stopping further processing of icons on said one subthread and a singular thread having said one subthread connected thereto, and setting a status of said singular thread to a status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received;

(c) when a service request from a device occurs, stopping processing of all threads not having said status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received, and restarting processing of all threads having said status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received; and

(d) after processing each thread having said status which indicates that processing of icons in said singular thread is stopped until a service request is received, restarting processing of all other threads.

7. The process of claim 6 wherein step (c) further comprises the step of:

(c1) assigning a processing priority to all threads, and setting a processing priority of all threads having said hosted status to a processing priority higher than any processing priority of any thread not having said hosted status.

8. The process of claim 6 wherein step (c) further comprises the step of:

(c1) assigning a processing priority to all threads, and setting a processing priority of all threads having said hosted status to a highest possible processing priority.