Activemark mechanism in a live parsing editor

• US 6,976,209 B1
• Filed: 04/15/1999
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Knight, Christine Nancy, Storisteanu, Adrian
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Application Number:
  US09/291,147
• Time in Patent Office: 2,434 Days
• Field of Search: 707/512, 707/513, 715/501.1, 715/512, 715/513
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

An activemark mechanism for a live parsing editor allows marks (labels) in text to be referenced or linked to any editor command, macro, or any external tool activated by the editor. The activemark mechanism includes a parsing mechanism which creates an activemark automatically when the document is loaded in the editor, and thereafter as a user enters information into the document by parsing the changes to the document as they are committed. The activemarks are dynamic in that their meaning and behavior are updated in the context of any external tool which is activated by the editor.

Claims

1. A processing system for processing a document, said processing system comprising a plurality of modules on a signal-bearing medium that tangibly embodies a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus, said plurality of modules comprising:

a programmable text processing module having means for loading the document and a parsing editor for initially parsing the document and thereafter incrementally parsing changes committed in said document;

a mark control module having means for setting a plurality of marks in the document,

means for modifying said marks, and means for clearing said marks, and each of said marks comprising selected information in the document and means for linking said selected information with a command, said linking means and said means for setting being responsive to an operation of said parsing editor without user intervention;

a graphical user interface module having means for displaying the document and means for controlling the display of the document; and

an edit control module having means for controlling said text processing module, means for controlling said mark control module, and means for controlling said graphical user interface module.

2. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, further including a command interface module, said command interface module comprising means for linking commands internal and external to said processing system to one or more selected marks.

3. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said linking means includes means, responsive to inputs entered by a user through said graphical user interface module, for activating a command linked with said selected information.

4. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said mark control module includes means for changing the appearance of said mark in said document in response to activation of said mark.

5. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said edit control module maintains the selected mark synchronized with text being edited in the document.

6. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said linking means of said mark control module includes means, responsive to input entered by a user through said graphical user interface, for activating a command linked with said selected information.

7. The processing system according to claim 6, wherein said linking means selectively links any piece of text in the document with any of an editor command and macro,

wherein such linking is unspecified in the document loaded in the parsing editor, and wherein said mark is set to a piece of text by at least one of said parsing editor and an external command running in the edit system.

8. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for setting comprises inserting marks into said document without user intervention in response to a parsing of said document.

9. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said parsing editor adds functionality-equivalent tags to a document without user intervention via the mark control module.

10. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the marks set into said document are present only during a document processing.

11. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said mark control module sets said plurality of marks solely as defined by said parsing editor.

12. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said document is parsed by a plurality of parsing editors, each of said plurality of parsing editors providing a unique functionality.

13. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of parsing editors binds different actions to the same activemark set in the document.

14. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said mark control module comprises a module capable of setting said marks in association with any of a plurality of parsing editors and any of a plurality of markup languages.

15. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said marks are defined dynamically by the parsing editor during parsing of the document.

16. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said marks are other than static and other than hard coded in said document.

17. The processing system as claimed in claim 1, said processing system comprising one of:

an aggregate of said modules stored on a standalone diskette to be inserted into a computer drive unit;

an aggregate of said modules stored on a server to be downloaded by a computer on a network;

a computer having said aggregate of module stored in a hard drive; and

a computer having said aggregate of modules stored in a program memory, said program memory providing instructions for execution of a current program by said computer.

18. The processing system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said mark control module comprises a module capable of setting said marks using at least two of a plurality of markup languages.

19. The processing system of claim 1 wherein said mark control module creates at least one data structure for each said set mark in said document, said least one data structure being maintained outside said document.

20. In a document processing system having means for loading and storing a document, a parsing editor for initially parsing the document and thereafter incrementally parsing information entered in the document, and a graphical user interface for displaying the document, a mechanism for creating an activemark comprising:

means for identifying selected information in the document; and

means for binding a command to said selected information, said means for binding and said means for identifying being responsive to the operation of said parsing editor without user intervention, and the activemark being created as said parsing editor parses the document.

21. The activemark mechanism as claimed in claim 20, further including means for modifying the appearance of said selected information in the document being displayed in response to activation of said activemark.

22. The activemark mechanism according to claim 20, wherein the activemark mechanism allows a selected activemark to be exclusively displayed in the edit view according to conceptual relatedness.

23. The activemark mechanism according to claim 22, wherein the activemark exclusively displayed in the edit view according to conceptual relatedness is by type of activemark.

24. The activemark mechanism according to claim 20, wherein said activemark is set to a piece of text by at least one of said parsing editor and an external command running in the edit system.

25. The document processing system of claim 20, wherein said activemark comprises an instantiation of at least one data structure that is maintained outside said document.

26. In a document processing system having means for loading and storing a document, a parsing editor for initially parsing the document and thereafter incrementally parsing information entered in the document, and a graphical user interface for displaying the document, a method for generating marks in the document, said method comprising:

selecting information for a mark in the document;

linking said selected information to a command, said selecting information and said linking operation being responsive to the parsing by the parsing editor without user intervention; and

activating said mark in response to an activation input.

27. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said command comprises a command internal to the processing system.

28. A data storage medium on which a computer program is recorded which, in combination with a general purpose computer loaded with an operating system and a parsing editor, equipped to read into memory and execute program data from the data storage medium to perform the method for generating marks in a document according to claim 27.

29. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said command comprises a command external to the processing system.

30. A data storage medium on which a computer program is recorded which, in combination with a general purpose computer loaded with an operating system and a parsing editor, equipped to read into memory and execute program data from the data storage medium to perform the method for generating marks in a document according to claim 29.

31. The method as claimed in claim 26, further including altering the appearance of said mark in the document in response to activation of said mark.

32. A data storage medium on which a computer program is recorded which, in combination with a general purpose computer loaded with an operating system and a parsing editor, equipped to read into memory and execute program data from the data storage medium to perform the method for generating marks in a document according to claim 31.

33. A data storage medium on which a computer program is recorded which, in combination with a general purpose computer loaded with an operating system and a parsing editor, equipped to read into memory and execute program data from the data storage medium to perform the method for generating marks in a document according to claim 26.

34. The document processing system of claim 26, wherein said mark comprises an instantiation of at least one data structure that is maintained outside said document.