Method and apparatus for linking compiler error messages to relevant information

• US 5,845,120 A
• Filed: 09/19/1995
• Issued: 12/01/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Reddy, Achut P., Adams, Evan W., Jervis, Robert B., Jeffries, Robin, O'Leary, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Application Number:
  US08/530,595
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 Days
• Field of Search: 395/704, 395/183.14, 395/336-338, 395/335, 345/335-338, 707/507, 707/513
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Methods and apparati including computer program products link compiler error messages to information relevant to an error causing the compiler to generate the error message by adding link information to the compiler error messages. The error messages are displayed to the user without the link information. Portions of the visible error messages pertaining to the link information are highlighted, and upon selection by the user of the highlighted portion of the error message, information relevant to the highlighted error message is automatically displayed, for example, by running an editor, loading the source file which generated the error message, and displaying the relevant portion of the source file, or by running a help facility and displaying help information relevant to the error.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a system for relating at least one error message with information relevant to the message, the system comprising:

a filter for filtering the at least one error message to generate link information comprising at least one location of the information relevant to at least a first portion of at least one of the error messages;

a links manager coupled to the filter for displaying at least one error message and accepting input from a user to indicate at least a second portion of at least one of the error messages; and

a control manager for directing the operation of a program responsive to the second portion of the error message indicated.

2. A method of directing a program to display information relevant to at least a first portion of an error message selected by a user, the method comprising:

generating link information responsive to the error message, the link information comprising at least one location of information relevant to the error message;

dividing the error message into at least one second portion;

associating at least one of the second portions of the divided error message with the link information generated;

accepting input from a user to designate at least one of the second portions of the divided error message; and

sending the program the location of the relevant information associated with the second portion of the error message designated.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one location of information relevant to the error message comprises a program identifier.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein at least one location of information relevant to the error message comprises a file identifier and file location information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the file location information comprises a file line number.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the file location information additionally comprises a file column number.

7. The method of claim 2 comprising the additional step of displaying the error message to the user.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the displaying step comprises highlighting at least one third portion of the divided error message.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the accepting step comprises receiving user pointing device status information.

10. The method of claim 9 comprising the additional step of identifying at least one display location of at least one displayed fourth portion of the divided error message.

11. The method of claim 10 comprising the additional step of relating the user pointing device status information received to the display location of at least one displayed fourth portion of the divided error message identified.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for directing a program to display information relevant to at least a first portion of at least one error message selected by a user, the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to generate link information responsive to the at least one error message, the link information comprising at least one location of information relevant to the error message;

computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to divide at least one of the error messages into at least one second portion;

computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to associate at least one second portion of the divided error message with at least a portion of the link information generated;

computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to accept input from a user to designate at least one of the second portions of the divided error messages; and

computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to send the program the location of the relevant information associated with the second portion of the error message designated.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein at least one location of information relevant to the error message comprises a program identifier.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein at least one location of information relevant to the error message comprises a file identifier and file location information.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the file location information comprises a file line number.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the file location information additionally comprises a file column number.

17. The computer program product of claim 12 additionally comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to display the error message to the user.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to display the error message to the user comprise computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to highlight at least one third portion of the divided error message.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to accept input from a user to designate at least one of the third portions of the divided error messages comprises computer readable program code devices configured to receive user pointing devices status information.

20. The computer program product of claim 12 additionally comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to identify at least one display location of at least one displayed fourth portion of at least one divided error message.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 additionally comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to relate the user pointing device status information received to the display location of at least one displayed fourth portion of at least one divided error message identified.

22. A computer system for generating a hyperlinked error message from a text error message output from a compiler, comprising:

a filter that identifies error location text data in the text error message; and

a hypertext link manager, coupled to the filter, that generates a first hypertext link from the identified error location text data and replaces the error location text data with the first hypertext link to an error location in a source code file corresponding to the error location text data.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the hypertext link manager embeds the first hypertext link into the error location text data.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein:

the filter identifies help information text data in the text error message; and

the hypertext link manager replaces the help information text data with a second hypertext link to a help file corresponding to the help information text data.

25. A computer implemented method for generating a hyperlinked error message from a text error message output from a compiler, comprising:

receiving the text error message;

identifying error location information in the received text error message;

generating a hypertext link to an error location in a source code file corresponding to the error location information; and

replacing the error location information with the hypertext link.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein replacing the error location information with a hypertext link comprises embedding the hypertext link into the help information text data.