Method and system for providing multiple levels of help information for a computer program

• US 8,341,523 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2010
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Software Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Simonyi, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Theriault, Steven B
• Application Number:
  US12/691,150
• Publication Number:
  US 20100229092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,069 Days
• Field of Search: 715234-236, 715/715, 717/101, 717/105, 717/108, 717/144
• US Class Current: 715/715
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A method and system for providing help information for a computer program. The help system provides help information based on a schema that specifies the structure of a valid computer program. The schema provides definitions of program element types that are specific instances of a program element type derived from more general program element types. The help system identifies a “derivation” of program element types relating to the selected program element. The help system then displays the derivation to the user. The user can then select to display documentation associated with the displayed program element types.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer having a memory and a processor for providing information for a program subtree, the method comprising:

providing a structure of element types specifying relationships between the element types;

providing a program subtree having program elements, each program element having an element type, wherein the structure of element types is not part of the program subtree; and

with a processor, identifying, based on the structure of element types, at least one element type that is related to an element type of a first element of the provided program subtree.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an indication of the identified at least one element type, including naming information associated with the identified at least one element type.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein information associated with a first element type is stored as an attribute of a node representing the first element type.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein element types are stored in schemas defining valid program trees at different levels of abstraction.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein a schema is represented as a tree data structure.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein each element type is represented as a node within a type tree.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a related element type may be any of an ancestor element type, a sibling element type, or a descendant element type.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein each ancestor element type is specified by an is a relationship.

9. A computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computer having a memory and a processor, cause the computer to perform a method for controlling a computer system to provide information for a tree, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of element types that are specific instances of more general element types, each element type having associated information;

providing a tree having elements, each element of the tree having an element type of the provided plurality of elements types, wherein the plurality of element types is stored separately from the tree;

based at least in part on the plurality of element types, identifying a derivation of an element type of a selected element of the provided tree, the derivation representing more general element types of the element type of the selected element; and

displaying information associated with at least one element type of the identified derivation.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the identifying of a derivation is performed in response to a user selecting an element of the tree.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the information associated with an element type is stored as an attribute of the element type.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein an element type is stored as a definition within a type tree.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the displayed information is help information.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the plurality of element types are organized according to a schema.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the schema specifies a structure of a valid computer program.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the schema provides definitions of program element types related to other program element types.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein identifying the derivation of the element type of the selected element of the provided tree comprises:

determining a first element type of the selected element of the provided tree;

adding the first element type of the selected element of the provided tree to the derivation;

identifying a first node corresponding to the first element type of the selected element of the provided tree, wherein the first node is not part of the provided tree;

determining a second element type of the identified first node;

adding the second element type of the identified first node to the derivation; and

identifying a second node corresponding to the second element type of the identified first node, wherein the second node is not part of the provided tree.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein identifying the derivation of the element type of the selected element of the provided tree comprises:

determining a third element type of the identified second node;

adding the third element type of the identified second node to the derivation; and

identifying a third node corresponding to the third element type of the identified second node, wherein the third node is not part of the provided tree.

17. A system having a memory and a processor for providing information for a tree structure, the system comprising:

a schema specifying a structure of a valid computer program, the schema providing definitions of program element types related to other program element types;

a component that receives from a user a selection of a program element of a computer program, the computer program having a plurality of program elements;

a component that, based at least in part on the schema, identifies at least one program element type related to the selected program element;

a component that retrieves information associated with the identified at least one program element types related to the selected program element; and

a component that displays the retrieved information

wherein at least one of the components comprises computer-executable instructions stored in memory for execution by the system.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a component that identifies element types related to the selected element type.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the component that displays the retrieved information displays naming information associated with the related element types.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the related elements include ancestor elements, sibling elements, and descendant elements.