Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Data processing system error or fault handling – Reliability and availability
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-01
2001-07-31
Iqbal, Nadeem (Department: 2184)
Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery
Data processing system error or fault handling
Reliability and availability
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269460
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE
Copending patent application “COMPOSITION OF ERROR MESSAGES BASED UPON NON-LOCAL CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION” (Ser. No. 09/177,032) having the same inventor and assignee as the present application.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to interactive computer controlled display systems for controlling computer and computer network operations, and particularly to user friendly interactive display interfaces that provide error message notification and error tracking in computer operations, which is particularly useful in computer networks.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The 1990's decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry, the communications industry and the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the Internet over the past few years. It seems as if virtually all aspects of human endeavor in the industrialized world will potentially involve human-computer interfaces; especially such interfaces to communication networks as the Internet. As a result of these profound changes, there is a need to make computer directed activities accessible to a substantial portion of the world's population which was computer illiterate or, at best, computer indifferent. In order for the vast computer supported marketplaces to continue and be commercially productive, it will be necessary for a large segment of computer indifferent consumers, workers and business people to be involved in computer interfaces. In addition, because of the vast amount of information potentially available through networks such as the Internet, there has been an increasing demand on the part of relatively sophisticated users for implementations which make display terminal access to the Internet less cluttered and confusing and, of course, easier to use.
Among the most disturbing and frustrating user interface information to be presented to the interactive user, particularly a novice or less sophisticated user, is the error message. When an error message is presented to the user, it is usually at a time when something in the operation has stopped working or something bad is ominously waiting to happen. Usually the information in the error message is quite limited and sometimes is presented in computer jargon, both of which may panic the unsophisticated user into a “What do I do now?” state of mind.
In this connection, we understand that the concept and presentation of an error message was developed at a time when the users of computers were a much smaller and more sophisticated group which was much more likely to know “What I do now”. Developers of programs have, of course, recognized that their user base has expanded to a much larger and less sophisticated mass consumer base and have accordingly been working to make their error messages more comprehensive and informative. However, satisfying the error message needs of a wide variety of user groups in response to error conditions is a drain on the developers' resources and may be a virtual impossibility with programs having a broadly diverse group of potential users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a solution to the above problems through a system for enhancing error messages in computer operations and computer network operations. The developers of any program to be used by computer users provide for a basic set of error conditions which the program may monitor for during normal computer operation using the program. The invention involves the basic combination of means for basic detecting and handling of the basic set of error conditions and means for providing a set of basic error messages respectively responsive to said basic set of error conditions. But the invention goes on to further provide means for recording data augmenting said basic error messages. In other words, the invention permits users of the program or those installing or setting up the program for less sophisticated users to set up message data to augment the basic error message in order to clarify the message or give more information about what the system is doing to fix the error condition which caused the error message. The key is that the additional information enhancing the error message is in response to, i.e. triggered by, the error message. Thus, the developer of the program need not have anticipated the enhanced information and the program is not affected by, nor has any affect on, the enhanced information. The enhanced information may be presented based primarily on the needs of the localized group of users of the program without changing the original program. In order to present the above-recorded information augmenting the error message, the system provides means responsive to the occurrence of an error message for searching for said recorded data and augmenting the error message with said recorded data.
The present invention operates most effectively when the programs are in scripted programming languages such as REXX (Restructured Extended Executor—a programming language used on International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Mainframes and with OS/2, Version 2.0) and Perl (Practical Extraction Report Language) which is an interpreted language based on C and several Unix utilities. Perl is specifically designed to scan text files and extract and summarize information from these files. As such it is commonly used to create CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts that handle HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) outputs. Such scripted languages are simple to use and are easily converted to the text which is used to augment or supplement the error message output or displayed to the user. Also, such scripted languages are extensively familiar to developers and network users, particularly Internet functions; this is a major aspect of the present invention which will be developed hereinafter in greater detail.
Because the key to the present invention is that error handling and error message modifications are made in response to a set of basic error messages, such modifications may readily be made by programming support groups and even used after the basic program is “out the door” and in general usage. In addition to just modifying error messages to provide the users with more information, the invention provides for dynamic modifications in the basic handling of the error conditions during program operations; the means for activating these dynamic modifications are also responsive to the respective error messages.
Accordingly, the developer of the program tries to anticipate a group of error conditions which may occur in the operation of the program. He then may classify these error conditions into categories, each of which may be represented by a relatively broad error message. He then makes the program available to users and to systems support personnel. The support people, as well as the users of the program, then consider the skill and sophistication of the local users of the program to determine how much support such local users will need in dealing with error messages. With some local user groups, all that may be necessary is to give them some additional information about their options in dealing with certain error messages. In such a case, the invention provides for additional displayed information augmenting the basic error message. With other local groups, the level of computer sophistication may be so low that the computer system in place will have to automatically take steps to resolve the error conditions represented by the error message. In such a case, the invention provides for dynamic additions or modifications in the handling of an error condition in response to the error message. The key is that the modifications and/or augmented displayed data are both in response to the error message itself rather than to any particular error condition. Because both of these changes are triggered by the set of error messages rather than the actual error conditions, the changes may
International Business Machines - Corporation
Iqbal Nadeem
Kraft Jerry B.
LaBaw Jeffrey S.
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