System and methods for compressing user settings based on default values

• US 6,104,325 A
• Filed: 04/16/1996
• Issued: 08/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Borland Software Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Inprise Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Liaw, Weikuo, Orton, David Alan, Spencer, Percy LeBaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Howard L.
• Application Number:
  US08/632,829
• Time in Patent Office: 1,582 Days
• Field of Search: 341/59, 341/50, 341/63
• US Class Current: 341/63
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/973 Scroll tool, e.g. window scroll bar

Abstract

An electronic spreadsheet system of the present invention includes a notebook interface having a plurality of notebook pages, each of which may contain a spread of information cells, or other desired page type (e.g., Graphs page). Methods are provided for rapidly accessing and processing information on the different pages, including displaying a plurality of page identifiers for selecting individual pages, and further including a preferred syntax for referencing information. Additional methods are described for in-memory management and persistent storage of notebooks and their pages.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method for compressing information comprising user input entered by a user for changing values of user-editable values of a computer program, the method comprising:

(a) providing reference information representing default values for said user-editable values of the computer program as a first binary sequence;

(b) receiving input information as a second binary sequence, said input information comprising user input entered by the user for changing at least one of said user-editable values from its default value;

(c) performing an Exclusive-OR (XOR) of the first sequence with the second sequence, thereby generating a third binary sequence; and

(d) performing run-length encoding of the third sequence for generating a compressed binary sequence of the input information, thereby compressing said user input entered by the user for changing at least one of said user-editable values from its default value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said reference information includes default values for an electronic spreadsheet running in the system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said input information includes choices entered by a user with an input device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the binary sequences is stored within the system as a byte string.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating steps (b)-(d) for different sets of input information, whereby a compressed binary sequence of each set is generated.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) setting the reference information equal to the second binary sequence; and

(f) repeating steps (b)-(d) with new input information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

repeating steps (e)-(f) for a plurality of new input information for generating a plurality of compressed binary sequences.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

restoring the input information by;

(i) run-length decoding the compressed binary sequence; and

(ii) performing an Exclusive-OR (XOR) of the run-length decoded binary sequence with the first sequence, thereby restoring the input information.

9. A system for storing in compressed form a plurality of comparable data records comprising user-inputted information entered by a user, the system comprising:

(a) means for storing reference data representing default values for the data records;

(b) means for comparing each of said plurality of data records against said reference data, thereby identifying differences between each data record and the reference data, each of said plurality of data records comprising user-inputted information entered by the user for changing at least one user-editable value in the system from its default value; and

(c) means for storing only the identified differences between each said record and the reference data.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said reference data and each said data record are represented as a sequence of bits, bits from a data record being comparable to bits from the reference data according to location, and wherein said means for comparing includes bitwise operator means for comparing each bit of the reference data with a corresponding bit of a data record.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said bitwise operator means includes:

means for XORing (Exclusive-OR) a bit of the reference data with a corresponding bit of a data record, whereby bits of identical value are converted to the numeric value of zero.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said means for storing only the differences includes:

means for compressing a plurality of consecutive zero bits with a Run-length code.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for run-length decoding the compressed binary sequence; and

means for performing an Exclusive-OR (XOR) of the run-length decoded binary sequence with the first sequence, thereby restoring the input information.

14. In a system for creating graphic images, an improved method for storing graphic information, the method comprising:

(a) storing information describing default values of user-editable attributes for a graphic image;

(b) receiving user input comprising values representing new values for desired attributes for a graphic image being created;

(c) determining ones of the desired attributes which differ from the default attributes by comparing each of the received values against a corresponding one of the default values;

(d) storing information only for those attributes which differ, said information now serving as said default values of the user-editable attributes; and

(e) repeating steps (b)-(d) for a plurality of graphic images, wherein the system sequentially stores incremental-change information for describing user-provided values for the user-editable attributes.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said default attributes represent attributes most likely to be chosen by a user for creating a graphic image.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said default attributes include selected ones of color, type, and font.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said default attributes and desired attributes are represented internally as two comparable byte strings, and wherein said determining step includes XORing (Exclusive-OR) the two byte strings to generate a third byte string for representing ones of the desired attributes which differ from the default attributes.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein step (d) includes:

storing information for indicating a value and a position for those attributes which differ.

19. An improved system for storing user-provided information in binary records, the improvement comprising:

means for representing a last-stored record of user-provided information as a reference record for comparison against a subsequently-stored record of user-provided information;

bitwise operator means for XORing (Exclusive-OR operation) the reference record with a subsequently-provided record to be stored, whereby information common to the reference record and the subsequently-provided record to be stored is converted to binary zeros; and

means for compressing a sequence of binary zeros, such that for each new record stored the system compresses information that is common to a prior-stored record.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the reference record is selected from a previously-stored binary record comprising a set of user-editable attributes.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the reference record is set equal to the last one of previously-stored binary records, such that the system sequentially stores incremental-change information for describing a sequence of user-provided information.