Graphical programming system and method for enabling a person to learn text-based programming
First Claim
1. A graphical programming system adapted to execute under a graphic user interface, said graphical programming system being adapted to enable a user to design and modify a graphical program, and to assist the user in learning computer programming with a text-based programming language, comprising:
- (a) a computer on which the graphical programming system executes under the graphic user interface, said computer including a user input device for making selections and entering instructions that control the graphical programming system, and a display screen on which are displayed components of the graphical programming system;
(b) object means for presenting a plurality of graphic objects on the display screen of the computer and for enabling the user to select a specific graphic object from among said plurality of graphic objects, for inclusion in the graphical program;
(c) action means for displaying a plurality of actions to the user on the display screen, at least one of said plurality of actions being represented by a graphic icon, and for enabling the user to select a specific action for execution by a user selected graphic object, thereby creating and displaying a user defined sequence of graphic program steps that include text and graphic objects, said user defined sequence of graphic program steps comprising the graphical program; and
(d) mode selection means for enabling the user to select a mode from among a plurality of different modes, one of said plurality of different modes displaying at least a portion of a textual computer program listing corresponding to a portion of the graphical program, a plain text mode enabling the user to enter text that is translated to program commands in the textual computer program listing for modifying the graphical program, said textual computer program listing assisting the user to learn computer programming by exposing the user to the program commands of the text-based programming language that correspond to the graphic program steps of the graphical program.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A graphical programming application is provided that is intended to be run under a graphic user interface operating system. When running the graphical programming software application, a user can select a graphic object and an associated event, and define actions that occur when the event happens, to develop or modify the graphical program as desired. In addition to a graphic editor view mode, the user may optionally view a plain text listing corresponding to the graphic program, or use a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code editor in which statements corresponding to the graphic program are displayed, or activate a mode in which both code editors are visible at one time on the screen, so that changes made to the VBA statements are immediately reflected in the graphical program and vice versa. Since the user is able to view the VBA code that corresponds to the graphical program steps, proficiency in programming with VBA text-based code is more rapidly developed.
162 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A graphical programming system adapted to execute under a graphic user interface, said graphical programming system being adapted to enable a user to design and modify a graphical program, and to assist the user in learning computer programming with a text-based programming language, comprising:
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(a) a computer on which the graphical programming system executes under the graphic user interface, said computer including a user input device for making selections and entering instructions that control the graphical programming system, and a display screen on which are displayed components of the graphical programming system; (b) object means for presenting a plurality of graphic objects on the display screen of the computer and for enabling the user to select a specific graphic object from among said plurality of graphic objects, for inclusion in the graphical program; (c) action means for displaying a plurality of actions to the user on the display screen, at least one of said plurality of actions being represented by a graphic icon, and for enabling the user to select a specific action for execution by a user selected graphic object, thereby creating and displaying a user defined sequence of graphic program steps that include text and graphic objects, said user defined sequence of graphic program steps comprising the graphical program; and (d) mode selection means for enabling the user to select a mode from among a plurality of different modes, one of said plurality of different modes displaying at least a portion of a textual computer program listing corresponding to a portion of the graphical program, a plain text mode enabling the user to enter text that is translated to program commands in the textual computer program listing for modifying the graphical program, said textual computer program listing assisting the user to learn computer programming by exposing the user to the program commands of the text-based programming language that correspond to the graphic program steps of the graphical program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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8. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical program is executed by the computer based upon underlying corresponding commands of the text-based programming language.
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13. A method for creating a graphical program for use on a computer under a graphic user interface operating system, to enable a user to graphically design and modify the graphical program, and by doing so, to better understand a text-based programming language, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) presenting a plurality of graphic objects on a display screen of the computer and enabling the user to select specific graphic objects from among those presented for inclusion in the graphical program; (b) displaying a plurality of actions for the graphic objects, at least one of said plurality of actions being represented by a graphic icon, and enabling the user to select a specific action to apply to any of the graphic objects that were selected to create a user defined sequence of graphic program steps comprising the graphical program; (c) enabling the user to selectively display a plain text listing corresponding to at least a portion of the graphical program, said plain text listing enabling the user to better understand the text-based programming language by comparison of commands of the text-based programming language, which are included within the plain text listing, to the corresponding portion of the graphical program; and (d) enabling the user to modify the plain text listing, causing corresponding changes to the graphical program. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification