Program construction assisting system

Details Program construction assisting system Program construction assisting system

1998-07-21

2001-06-05

Powell, Mark R. (Department: 2122)

Data processing: software development, installation, and managem

Software program development tool

Translation of code

C717S152000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06243858

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a program construction assisting system for assisting in constructing business application programs.
Many business application programs used in business computers have been composed of such basic processes as the input, processing, and output of data records. For example, a billing process is composed of the following processes:
Inputting slip data from an input/display unit such as a keyboard or a CRT
Processing data records on memory
Updating data records into data files
Printing data records on an output unit such as a printer
Furthermore, for example, a master maintenance process is composed of the following processes:
Inputting retrieval conditions from an input/display unit
Retrieving the data record from a data file
Displaying data records on a display unit
Correcting the relevant data record
Processing data records on memory
Updating data records into data files
Moreover, for example, a ledger printing process is composed of the following processes:
Inputting retrieval conditions from an input unit
Retrieving the data record from a data file
Processing data records on memory
Printing data records on a printing unit
As described above, the processing of a business application program is basically a series of processes of transferring various types of data records.
What sets those data transfer processes is a business application program construction tool.
In conventional business application program construction tools, however, since the aforementioned processing steps were written in text form, for example, in the C language or the BASIC language, or in table form (various types of database tool), even SEs (system engineers), designers, had the difficulty of grasping the whole picture of the data flow concerning how the data were generated, processed, and outputted.
In recent years, there have been appeared business application program construction tools which visually modularize files or screen data processing and represent the connection between modules by connecting them with lines. Many of such construction tools have represented only the flow of data, making it difficult to accurately grasp the contents of the definition of a data record, an interface between modules, or the contents of data changing with time.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to locate, on a specific grid, module tiles obtained by modularizing and visualizing basic processes and set the connection between the module tiles to enable the construction of a business application program, thereby making it possible to grasp the flow of data from the beginning to end of the business application program with the passage of time.
According to the present invention, there is provided a program construction assisting system comprising storage means for storing program modules that perform various types of data processing, module tile storage means for storing module tiles that represent the individual program modules stored in the storage means, arranging means for arranging the module tiles stored in the module tile storage means on a display screen according to a user's instruction, and program construction means for combining program modules stored in the storage means on the basis of arrangement of module tiles by the arranging means to construct a data processing program.
The program construction assisting system further comprises data definition means for defining input and output data in each module tile arranged by the arranging means, and determination means for determining the matching between the individual modules on the basis of the input and output data defined for each of the module tiles.
The program construction assisting system further comprises control means for causing items of the output data defined in a previously arranged module tile to coincide with items of the input data defined in a module tile immediately after the previously arranged module tile, when the input and output data in each module tile arranged by the arranging means is defined.
The program construction assisting system further comprises branching means for displaying a setting screen for setting branch conditions to allow the setting of branch conditions when a module tile indicating a branching process is positioned in arranging the module tiles, display means for displaying connection lines corresponding to the set branch conditions between module tiles positioned in front of and behind the branch processing module tile, and means for reading the program modules from the memory means and combining them on the basis of the branch conditions set for the branch processing module tile to construct a data processing program including a branching process.
The program construction assisting system further comprises selecting means for allowing the user to choose more than one from a group of module tiles arranged by the arranging means, submodule creation means for combining program modules corresponding to the module tiles chosen by the selecting means to create a single submodule, submodule registration means for registering the submodule created by the submodule creation means, submodule storage means for storing module tiles representing the submodules registered in the submodule registration means, and submodule display means for displaying module tiles stored in the submodule storage means on a display screen.
The arranging means includes means for arranging the module tiles displayed by the submodule display means according to instructions on the display screen, and the program construction means includes means for combining program modules stored in the storage means with submodules stored in the submodule storage means on the basis of the state of arrangement of the module tiles arranged by the arranging means to construct a data processing program.
The program construction assisting system further comprises test means for testing the application program constructed by the program construction means, and display control means for providing a special display of module tiles representing the component modules for the program while the program is being tested.
The program construction assisting system further comprises timer means for measuring the time required to perform the processing of the test each time a program module represented by the module tiles is tested, and testing time storage means for storing the testing time measured by the timer means in such a manner that the testing time corresponds to each of the program modules and the display control means changes the representation of each of the module tiles corresponding to each of the program modules, on the basis of the testing time stored in the testing time storage means.
The program construction assisting system further comprises means for moving module tiles in front of and behind the insertion position for rearrangement as a result of inserting a new module tile between module tiles already arranged by the arranging means and displayed on the screen.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5381548 (1995-01-01), Matsuo
patent: 5603018 (1997-02-01), Terada et al.
patent: 5687331 (1997-11-01), Volk et al.
patent: 5884306 (1999-03-01), Bliss et al.
patent: 5946691 (1999-08-01), Lee et al.
patent: 6026336 (2000-02-01), Sakurai et al.

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