System and method for specifying and executing temporal order events

• US 7,689,994 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2004
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: MacLaurin, Matthew B., Vronay, David P., Stojanovic, Alexander S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phillip H
• Application Number:
  US10/766,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20050166179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,253 Days
• Field of Search: 717105-109, 717116-120, 706/19, 718/102
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

The system and method of the present invention relates to the determining the specific ordering and execution of events from temporal constraints, filtering functions, and execution heuristics. To facilitate specification of event order objects be can associated with events in an object authoring system which provides for interaction, conditional behavior, and fuzzy relationships by dividing all time into past, present, and future. A user or developer can then perform all their work in the editable area marked “now.” Items that may have happened prior to the current work show up in the “past” area and items which might happen in the future show up in the “future” area. A user can then associate and/or dissociate objects associated with events in the editable area, for instance by simply loosely specifying temporal relationships or constraints amongst objects rather than specifying an exact temporal sequence directly.

Claims

1. An interactive computer-implemented system for specifying and executing temporal order events, comprising a processor executing:

a constraint component that receives, from a user, loose temporal constraints associated with a plurality of events, wherein the loose temporal constraints specify information about execution of the plurality of events, and wherein the loose temporal constraints specify relative timing information but not exact literal times that each of the plurality of events is to be executed;

a system information component that receives execution system information comprising one or more of available memory, cache coherency, data throughput or number of processors; and

an order component that determines a plurality of event execution orders in accordance with the loose temporal constraints and via utility-based analysis of the execution system information, and selects an optimal event execution order from the plurality of event execution orders based on the execution system information;

wherein;

each of the plurality of event execution orders is consistent with the loose temporal constraints supplied by the user;

each of the plurality of execution orders specifies exact literal times each of the plurality of events is executed;

the exact literal times are consistent with the loose temporal constraints; and

all of the plurality of execution orders do not provide the same specific temporal constraints on the plurality of events, but all of the plurality of execution orders are based on the loose temporal constraints.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a constraint from among the loose temporal constraints is an event start and/or a stop time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a constraint from among the loose temporal constraints is event duration and/or a filter.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system information component provides information about an execution system to the order component to facilitate selection of the optimal event execution order.

5. The system of claim 4, the information about an execution system includes data throughput rate.

33. The system of claim 1, wherein the execution system information comprises at least available memory, cache coherency, data throughput and number of processors of the system.

6. An interactive computer-implemented system for specifying and executing temporal order events, comprising a processor executing:

a display component that provides a plurality of object workspaces, wherein the workspaces are user interfaces including a past, present and future space, wherein the present space is an editable area, and wherein the past and future space specify temporal constraints associated with a plurality of events;

a design component that temporally associates and disassociate objects in the editable area, wherein the design component receives, from a user, loose temporal constraints governing event execution orders, wherein the loose temporal constraints specify relative timing information but not exact literal times that each of the plurality of events is to be executed; and

an order component that determines a plurality of event execution orders, wherein;

each of the plurality of event execution orders is consistent with the loose temporal constraints supplied by the user;

each of the plurality of execution orders provides a sequence by which the plurality of events could be executed in accordance with the loose temporal constraints;

each of the plurality of execution orders specifies exact literal times each of the plurality of events is executed;

the exact literal times are consistent with the loose temporal constraints;

all of the plurality of execution orders do not provide the same specific temporal constraints on the plurality of events, but all of the plurality of execution orders are based on the loose temporal constraints; and

the order component selects an optimal event execution order from the plurality of event execution orders in accordance with execution system information.

7. The system of claim 6, object workspaces that facilitate a graphical-based approach to specify relationships amongst objects.

8. The system of claim 6, non-associated objects are executed randomly.

9. The system of claim 6, the design component comprising a specification component that receives hard start and/or end times for events associated with objects.

10. The system of claim 6, the design component temporally associates objects as a function of respective location in the editable area.

11. The system of claim 6, further comprising a duration component that receives information regarding event duration.

12. The system of claim 6, the design component receives and executes information related to nested events associated with respective objects.

13. The system of claim 6, further comprising a policy component that applies predefined rules to execution of the objects.

14. The system of claim 6, further comprising a policy component that applies predefined rules to editing of the objects.

15. The system of claim 6, the design component receives and executes information regarding hierarchical relationship of respective objects.

16. The system of claim 6, the design component receives and executes information regarding dependency relationship of respective objects.

17. The system of claim 6, further comprising a query component that searches for events that satisfy a query, and displays objects associated with the events in temporal order.

18. The system of claim 17, the query component provides context information for respective objects.

19. The system of claim 6, objects placed in the past area are executed prior to objects in the present area and objects placed in the future area are executed after objects in the present area.

20. The system of claim 8, the design component associates objects in a non-linear conditional manner.

21. The system of claim 6, the design component associates objects via iterative loops.

22. The system of claim 6, the design component associates objects based on a specified version.

29. The system of claim 6, wherein information about event start and stop times and event duration is communicated with a particular object.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the objects are bars and fuzzy edges on the bars indicate an unspecified time.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the fuzzy edges on at beginning of the bar indicate an unspecified start time and the fuzzy logic on at end of the bar indicates an unspecified end time and/or duration.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein hard bold edges on the bar specifies specific start and/or stop time.

34. The system of claim 6, wherein the temporal constraints comprising one specific event must finish before another specific event starts.

35. The system of claim 6, wherein the past and future space provide a context for navigation to a user during application development.

23. A computer-implemented method for specifying and executing temporal order events comprising the following computer executable instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium:

receiving, from a user, loose temporal constraints associated with a plurality of events, wherein the loose temporal constraints specify information about execution of the plurality of events, and wherein the loose temporal constraints do not specify exact literal times that each of the plurality of events is to be executed;

receiving execution system information comprising one or more of available memory, cache coherency, data throughput or number of processors;

generating a plurality of execution orders for the plurality of events in accordance with the loose temporal constraints, wherein;

each of the plurality of event execution orders is consistent with the loose temporal constraints supplied by the user;

each of the plurality of execution orders specifies exact literal times each of the plurality of events is executed;

the exact literal times are consistent with the loose temporal constraints; and

all of the plurality of execution orders do not provide the same specific temporal constraints on the plurality of events, but all of the plurality of execution orders are based on the loose temporal constraints and on the execution system information;

selecting an optimal event order based in part on the system execution information;

outputting the optimal event execution order.

24. A method, comprising:

storing, in a memory communicatively coupled to a processor, computer-executable instructions for performing the method, wherein the method orders events to be executed by an execution system;

executing the instructions on the processor;

according to the instructions being executed;

receiving object data associated with events from a workspace including at least one of a past, present, or future area;

associating objects temporally based at least in part upon relative object locations;

generating a plurality of execution orders based at least on the temporal association of the objects;

wherein the received object data is from a user, and comprises loose temporal constraints associated with a plurality of events, wherein the loose temporal constraints specify information about execution of the plurality of events, and wherein the loose temporal constraints do not specify exact literal times that each of the plurality of events is to be executed;

receiving execution system information comprising one or more of available memory, cache coherency, data throughput or number of processors;

generating a plurality of execution orders for the plurality of events in accordance with the constraints, wherein;

each of the plurality of event execution orders is consistent with the loose temporal constraints supplied by the user;

each of the plurality of execution orders specifies exact literal times each of the plurality of events is executed;

the exact literal times are consistent with the loose temporal constraints; and

all of the plurality of execution orders do not provide the same specific temporal constraints on the plurality of events, but all of the plurality of execution orders are based on the loose temporal constraints;

selecting an execution order of events from the plurality of event execution orders based at least on information comprising available memory, cache coherency, data throughput and number of processors.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising associating objects based on one or more operational objects.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the operational objects correspond to at least a loop, a trigger, a conditional and hard start and/or stop times.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein objects are associated in a non-linear conditional manner.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the objects are associated via iterative loops.