JP3373129B2 - Program development support method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program development support method for promoting the efficiency of work in program development and program maintenance, and a technique effective when applied to a storage medium having a program for executing the program development support method. Is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, data used for maintenance of a program in which a data item used in the program to be developed and an attribute including a process relating to the item of the data are defined and stored at a preliminary stage of developing the computer program. An item dictionary was created in advance, an input / output specification for defining input / output of data was created based on the data item dictionary, and a program was developed based on the input / output specification.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional program development, all data items used in the program are analyzed in advance as a preliminary step,
It was necessary to register as a data item dictionary and create an input / output specification based on it.

The data item dictionary has data items having basic attributes that represent data commonly used by the entire program, and some of these data items due to differences in input / output modes such as files, screens, and forms. Input / output items having different attributes are registered, and an input / output specification is created from these input / output items.

The conventional creation of the data item dictionary is very troublesome since many parts are manually created. In addition to that, after creating this data item dictionary, I / O specifications must be created further, which takes a lot of time at the pre-stage of program development, resulting in poor work efficiency. .

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and its purpose is to unify the creation of a data item dictionary and the creation of an input / output specification, which are conventionally performed separately. It is to provide a technology capable of improving the work efficiency of program development.

[0007]

Among the inventions disclosed in the present application, a brief description will be given to the outline of typical ones.
It is as follows.

Data items used in the program to be developed are extracted in advance, input / output items and input / output specifications relating to the extracted data items are generated, and those data items, input / output items and input / output specifications are programmed. A program development support method for supporting the development of a program by registering it in a storage device as information at the time of development, wherein the previously extracted data item group is displayed on the screen, and the input / output specifications are displayed on the same screen. Input to display the input / output specification creation area, drag the data item for which the input / output specification is to be created from the data item group displayed on the screen, and drop it in the input / output specification creation area. Is received from the user, an input / output item that is associated with the input data item and inherits the attribute is generated, and the attribute content of the input / output specification is created as described above. It displayed in the area, to create the output specification edited the attribute if there is a change in the attribute, and registers the data item, input and output specifications, and their associated in the storage device.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for implementing a program development support method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the implementation device of the present embodiment is a keyboard 1 that accepts a command input by a programmer.
1. A mouse 12, a data item dictionary 131, a data item dictionary management program 132 for updating and displaying the data item dictionary 131, an input / output specification 133, and a plurality of types of input / output specifications in cooperation with the data item dictionary. Of the input / output specification definition program 134, the source program 135, and the source program generation program 136 that are edited and defined by the external storage device 13, the central processing unit 14 that executes the program, and the data item dictionary 131. The display 15 includes a list display and a definition screen of the input / output specifications 133.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data structure of the above-mentioned data item dictionary 131. Data item dictionary 131
2 is a data item 22 (hereinafter referred to as a basic item) having a basic attribute of information that is extracted by a data analysis performed in a preliminary stage of computer program development and is handled in the entire computer program, as shown in FIG. ,
A collection of related items of the basic item 22 2
1 (hereinafter referred to as an entity) and its associated basic item 22 at various points in the computer program,
The data items 23 (hereinafter referred to as input / output items) are used as input / output information from files, databases, screens, and forms. Then, the group of input / output items 23 is collectively set as an input / output specification 133.

In FIG. 2, the data item dictionary 131 is
The order entry entity 21a and basic items 22 (order date 22a, customer code 22b, order code 22c) associated therewith, and input / output items (order date 23a, customer code) associated with each basic item 22. 23b and order code 23c). As for the association between the entity 21 and the basic item 22 described above, the information of the ID assigned to each basic item 22 in the object-oriented database is used as the entity 21.
Is done by having. Similarly, input / output item 23
Associates the basic item 22 with the input / output item 23 by having 1D of the related basic item 22, and the input / output specification 133 has the ID of each related input / output item 23, so that the input / output specification 133 And the input / output items 23 are associated with each other.

As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the basic item 22 has attributes such as item name, expression format, length, and constraint condition, and the input / output item 23 is shown in FIG. 3 (b). As shown, it has the ID of the basic item 22 related to the item name, expression format, length, and constraint condition.

Next, a process of creating the above-mentioned data item dictionary 131 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the process of creating the data item dictionary 131 of this embodiment. To create the data item dictionary 131 of this embodiment, first, as shown in FIG. 4, the data item dictionary management program 132 displays the entity 21 and the basic item 22 extracted by the data analysis performed in advance ( Step 30
1) Furthermore, the input / output specification definition program 134 displays the input / output specification creation area on the same screen (step 302). Then, the entity 21, which is the target for creating the input / output specification 133, receives the input to the basic item 22 from the user (step 303), and the input entity 21,
The input / output specification 133 is defined based on the attribute of the basic item 22 and displayed (step 304). If there is no change in the attribute of the basic item 22 (step 305), the input / output item 23 associated with the basic item 22 and inheriting the attribute is generated (step 306). If there is a change in the attribute of the basic item 22, the attribute is edited, and the input / output item 2 associated with the basic item 22 according to the edit.
3 is created (step 307), an input / output specification is created in association with the created input / output item 23 (step 308), and a data item dictionary 131 is created.

Next, the above-mentioned steps will be specifically described. FIG. 5 shows steps 301 to 303.
FIG. 6 is a diagram for specifically explaining the processing process of FIG. Reference numeral 41 shown in FIG. 5 indicates the entity 21 and the basic item 22 by the data item dictionary management program 132 in step 301.
The list display screen of is shown. This graphic representation uses an ER diagram (Entity-Relationship diagram) showing entities and their relationships.

In the example of FIG. 5, three orders 21a, a order 21a, a order 21b, and a order detail 21c are displayed on the order receiving system 40.
And the name of the order details are given, and it is composed of a set of basic items 22 expressing a plurality of information. In the example of FIG. 5, the order 21a includes the order date 22a and the customer code 22.
b and the order code 22c, the customer 21b has a customer name 22d, a customer address 22e, and a customer telephone number 22f.
The order specification 21c includes a product code 22g, an order quantity 22h, and an order unit price 22i.

The entity 21 shown here is composed of a set of realized values. For example, the order 21a is actually a set of orders from a plurality of customers. Thus, there is a correspondence between the entities 21 as a set. The one that expresses this correspondence is the relation, and the order is received 2
A relation 42a exists between 1a and the customer 21b with the customer code 22b as a key. Similarly, the order 42a exists between the order 21a and the order detail 21c with the order code 22c as a key.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the input / output specification creating area 43 is created by the input / output specification defining program 134.
Is displayed. Items that can be defined as input / output specifications here include database tables, file records,
Although there are screens, forms, etc., the screen example is used in the example shown in FIG. Here, the user operates the mouse 12 to select from the list of the displayed entity 21 and basic item 22, the entity 21 and basic item 22 to be input / output specification creation targets.
Is input by dragging and dropping it in the input / output specification creating area 43. In the example of this FIG.
a is dragged and dropped.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for specifically explaining the process of step 304. As described above, the order 21a dropped in the input / output specification creating area 43 is laid out by the input / output specification defining program 134 for each basic item 22 and its attribute contents are displayed. To be done.

In FIG. 6, the order input screen 50 is the title of the display screen 66 for creating the input / output specifications, and the order details 55 is the title of the table, and both are fixedly displayed texts. This is defined in advance regardless of the dictionary. The display screen 66 has a title indicating each basic item 22 and a field 5 actually used for input / output.
1 to 60 are defined. In the example of FIG. 6, an order date field 51, a customer code field 52, an order code field 53, a customer field 54, a product code field 56, an order quantity field 57, an order unit price field 58, an amount field 59, and a total field 60.
The attributes are displayed in each.

By defining the basic items 22 to be displayed in advance, as shown in FIG. 6, the customer address 22e is displayed.
The customer telephone number 22f can be prevented from being displayed as being out of the scope of the input / output specifications 133.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for specifically explaining the process of step 306. Each basic item 22 mentioned above
If you don't need to edit the attributes of
An input / output item 23 associated with the basic item 22 and inheriting its attribute is generated. In the example of FIG. 7, the input / output item order date 23 is subordinate to the basic item order date 22a.
a is generated, and the input / output specification 133a is associated therewith.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for specifically explaining the process of step 307. Each basic item 22 mentioned above
If it is necessary to edit the attributes of each of the basic item fields 51 to 60 on the display screen 66 shown in FIG. 6, by the input / output specification definition program 134, as shown in FIG. An input / output item edit dialog 70 having fields for editing attributes is displayed.

The example shown in FIG. 8 shows editing of the input / output item order date 23a. In this case, "order date" is entered in the input / output item field 71, and the expression format field 72 is entered. Is changed from "DATE" to "YYY"
YMMDD "is entered and the length field 73 contains""
"8" changed from 4 "is input. The constraint and edit processing is marked on the inheritance check buttons 74 and 75, and the constraint and edit processing of the basic item 22 is inherited.

Further, when it is desired to add to or overwrite the constraint and edit processing, additional check buttons 76 and 77 are added.
Then, the overwrite check buttons 78 and 79 are marked, and the constraint or edit processing is written in the write fields 80 and 81, respectively. And when all the editing is finished,
The attribute of the input / output item 23 is determined by clicking the OK button 82, and the cancel button 83 is clicked when canceling.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the generation result of the edited input / output item 23. When the attribute of the input / output item 23 is determined by editing, the input / output item 23 is generated based on the attribute as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 9, as in the case of FIG. 7, the basic item order date 2
The edited input / output item order date 23a 'is generated in the subordinate of 2a, and the input / output specification 133a is associated with the subordinate thereof. Then, each process described above is executed by the customer code 22b,
Order code 22c, customer name 22d, product code 22g,
Similar operations are performed for the order quantity 22h and the order unit price 22i to create the data item dictionary 131.

Here, among the fields of the basic items 22 defined in the input / output specifications 133, the basic items 22 are not registered in the data item dictionary 131 in the fields that can be calculated. Such a field is independently defined on the input / output specification definition screen 41, and the result is registered in the dictionary as the input / output item 23 having no basic item 22.

Further, in the order entry input screen 66, the amount and the total are fields representing data items having no basic item 22, and are newly created on the order entry input screen 66. Since the field 59 showing the amount of money is obtained by the product of the field 57 showing the quantity of orders received and the field 58 showing the unit price of orders received, the field 59 showing the amount of money newly created on the order input screen 66 is selected with the mouse 12. Then
When double-clicked, the input / output edit dialog 70 is displayed similarly to the data item having the basic item 22.

In this case, unlike the above-mentioned example, since there is no attribute to inherit, the field 7 indicating the input / output item 23 is displayed.
"1" is "amount", and "72" is a field indicating the expression format
9 ", and enter" 7 "in the field 73 indicating the length.
Since the inheritance 74, the addition 76, and the overwriting 78 indicating the constraint state do not have the basic item 22, they cannot be selected. Since there is no constraint here, nothing is input in the field 80 indicating the constraint.

Further, the inheritance 75, the addition 77, and the overwriting 79, which indicate the state of the editing process, also have no basic item 22 and therefore cannot be selected. In the field 81 indicating the editing condition, the process obtained by the product of the field 59 indicating the amount of money, the field 57 indicating the quantity of orders received, and the field 58 indicating the unit price of orders received is input. When the OK button 82 is selected after the editing operation is completed, the amount of money is registered as a single input / output item 23 having no basic item 22 in the data item dictionary 131. The same operation is performed for the total field 60.

FIG. 10 is a diagram in which only the basic items 22 and the input / output items 23 of the data item dictionary 131 related to the order input screen shown in FIG. 6 are extracted. The input / output item 23 is the order date 23a, the customer code 23b, and the order code 23.
c, customer name 23d, product code 23g, order quantity 23
The h and order unit price 23i are registered at the time of defining the input / output specifications, and are registered in association with the corresponding basic items 22.

Further, the amount of money 23j, which is the input / output item 23 without the basic item 22, and the total 23k are registered as independent input / output items 23.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, the order entry input screen 133a as the input / output specification 133 is also registered in the data item dictionary 131 after the input / output item 23 is generated, and is registered when the order entry screen is defined. It is also registered in association with the input / output item.

Although a specific example of the screen input / output specification 133 has been described above, the same applies to the database table, file record, and form.

Next, a method of generating the source program 135 by the source program generation program 136 from the information registered in the data item dictionary 131 (FIG. 11) created by the above-mentioned procedure will be described. In general, the source program 135 has a processing pattern for each function of inputting information from a screen and registering it in a database, or searching information in the database and outputting a form.

In the source program generation program 136 of this embodiment, this processing pattern is described as a template which is the skeleton of the source program.
The source program 1 is generated by associating the input / output specification 133 with the template, and generating and synthesizing the variable part of the template different for each input / output specification 133 using the information registered in the created data item dictionary 131.
35 is generated.

Here, a source program 135 for inputting order data from the order input screen 66 and registering it in the database will be described based on a concrete example.

In order to realize the function of inputting data from the screen and registering it in the database, the check processing based on the constraint of the data input from the screen and the area for the data input from the screen are used in the database. It is necessary to edit the area for output to. Hereinafter, the checking process and the editing process at this time are generated from the data item dictionary 131 shown in FIG. It should be noted that, here, the generated parts other than the data item dictionary 131 are not directly related to the present invention, and therefore omitted.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the concept of the template. As shown in FIG. 12, the variable symbols used in the template are defined at the tops 101 and 102 of the template. In particular, the input / output specification 133 used in the template is defined by the variable 101 called a temporary symbol.

In each definition shown in FIG. 12, DCL is a definition of a temporary symbol, @ SPEC1 is a temporary symbol, and AS SPEC is an input / output specification 13 of this temporary symbol.
3 is shown. The created input / output specification 133 is associated with this temporary symbol. Here, the input / output specification 133a of the order input screen is input to @ SPEC1 as the input / output specification 133 of the screen, and the input / output specification 133b of the order table is input to @ SPEC1 as the input / output specification 133 of the database table.
It shows that it corresponds to SPEC2.

The checking process and the editing process are generated at the position of the generation instruction based on the generation instructions 104 and 106 in the template, respectively. This generation instruction not only specifies the generation position in the source program 135, but also
The input / output specifications 133 to be generated are specified.
The generation instructions 104 and 106 will be described below.

Generation instruction 10 for check processing shown in FIG.
4 indicates that CHECK is a check process generation instruction, and IN (@ SPEC1) indicates that a check process is generated for the input / output specification 133a of the order input screen shown by @ SPEC1. This indicates that the check process for the input screen 66 is generated.

Then, in the above-described check process generation process in the source program generation program 136, the input / output specification 133a of the order input screen for which the check process is generated is searched from the data item dictionary 131 shown in FIG. All the constraints of the input / output item 23 and the basic item 22 are searched and generated as a check process.

That is, the input / output specification 133a of the order input screen shown in FIG. 11 is associated with nine input / output items 23a-23d and 23g-23k as shown in FIG. Is the basic item 21a that is the parent
.About.22d and 22g to 22i are associated with each other, all of these constraints are searched and generated as a check process.

Here, taking the order date as an example, the source program generation program 136 uses the data item dictionary 1
31 and input / output item 23 from the order entry screen 66
The order date 23a is searched for, and the order date 22a as the basic item 22 is searched. The ordering date 23a as the input / output item 23 is restricted by the ordering date 2 of the basic item.
Since the constraint of 2a is inherited, it is generated as a check process that it is an actual date and is earlier than the current date, which is a constraint of the order date 22a of the basic item.

As described above, in the data item dictionary 131 of this embodiment, the input / output item 23 having the same constraint as the basic item 22 does not define the constraint itself, but inherits the constraint of the basic item 22. Since the constraint is defined only at one place in the basic item because it is only defined, the check process of the input / output item 23 only needs to generate the constraint defined in the input / output item 23. Instead, the constraint of the inherited basic item 22 is generated.

Therefore, even if the constraint is changed, the constraint on the input / output item 23 is also changed by simply changing the constraint in the basic item 22 and regenerating the source program 135. It is not necessary to describe constraints for generating check processing in all input / output items 23,
When there are a plurality of input / output items 23 having the same constraint, it is not necessary to separately define the same constraint. Further, when the constraints are changed, it is not necessary to correct all the constraints.

The edit processing generation instruction 106 shown in FIG. 12 indicates that EDIT is an edit processing generation instruction.
IN (@ SPEC1) OUT (@ SPEC2)
Input / output specifications 13 for the order entry screen indicated by SPEC1
3a shows that an edit process is generated from the 3a to the input / output specification 133b of the order reception table indicated by @ SPEC2.

In the generation process of this editing process, first, as in the case of generating the check process, the data item dictionary 13 shown in FIG.
1, the input / output specification 133a on the order input screen is searched for the input / output item 23a of the order date, and then the basic item 22a of the order date is searched. Similarly, the input / output specifications 133b of the order table are searched for the input / output specifications 23b for the order date and the basic items 22a for the order date. Then, as a result of the search, the order date included in the input / output specifications 133b of the order table and the order date included in the input / output specifications 133a of the order screen are included in the basic item 22a of the common order date. Turns out to be associated. In such a case, the editing process is generated.

That is, in the edit processing generation instruction 106 shown in FIG. 12, the input / output specification 133a corresponding to the specified IN and the input / output specification 133 corresponding to OUT are specified.
Since the input / output items 23a and 23b included in b are associated with the common basic item 22a, edit processing is generated. In the case shown in FIG. 11, the editing process is not defined in the contents of the basic item 22a and the input / output items 23a and 23b on the order date, but the expression format is YY.
Since YYMMMD and DATE are different, YYYYMMD
A conversion process from D to DATE is generated as an editing process.

As described above, in the editing process of the input / output item 23, the relation is searched, and the relation is generated when it has a common basic item. Therefore, as in the conventional case, the basic item 22 and the input / output item 23 are associated with each other. If not, IN and O
Items that have the same name among the input / output items in the input / output specifications 133 specified in the UT have been detected and the editing process has been performed. Therefore, it is necessary to generate the editing process when the input / output item 23 is created. However, in the present invention, since the basic item 22 and the input / output item are associated with each other, the name of the input / output item can be freely given and the source program can be managed. It can facilitate and reduce management work.

As described above, according to the present invention, at the same time when the input / output specification is created, the input / output items associated with the basic items and inheriting the attributes thereof are registered, and the data item dictionary is automatically created. Since it is possible to centralize the creation of the data item dictionary and the creation of the input / output specifications, which have been performed separately in the past, it is possible to shorten the time required at the pre-stage of program development. It is possible to improve the work efficiency of development.

By using the created input / output specifications, input / output items, basic items, their relations, and attributes, a source program for the check process and the edit process can be automatically generated.

Furthermore, not only in the development of a new computer program but also in the maintenance of the computer program, the relation between the input / output specifications, the input / output items and the basic items can be used to easily investigate the range of influence of the change. Also, the correction can be performed only by correcting the information centrally managed by the data item dictionary.

Each program 1 shown in this embodiment is
32, 134, 136 are floppy disks, CDs,
It may be provided to a general user in a storage medium such as a ROM or a mask ROM. In this case, in addition to these processes, it may be provided to the user in combination with another program such as a GUI program. Further, as an alternative means of providing the storage medium described above, it may be provided for a fee through a network such as the Internet.

Although the present invention has been specifically described based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0057]

The effects obtained by the typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.

The creation of the data item dictionary and the creation of the input / output specifications can be performed in a unified manner, and the time required in the preliminary stage of the program development can be shortened, so that the work efficiency of the program development is improved. It becomes possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus that implements a program development support method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data structure of a data item dictionary 131.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of basic items 22 and input / output items 23.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of creating a data item dictionary 131 of this embodiment.

5 is a diagram for specifically explaining the processing steps of steps 301 to 303 shown in FIG. 4. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for specifically explaining the process of step 304 shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for specifically explaining the process of step 306 shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for specifically explaining the process of step 307 shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a generation result of an edited input / output item 23.

10 is a diagram in which only basic items 22 and input / output items 23 of the data item dictionary 131 related to the order entry screen shown in FIG. 6 are extracted.

FIG. 11 is a data item dictionary 13 created in this embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of 1 and an input / output specification 133.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a concept of a template.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Keyboard, 12 ... Mouse, 13 ... External storage device, 14 ... Central processing unit, 15 ... Display, 21 ...
Entity, 22 ... Basic item, 23 ... Input / output item, 131 ... Data item dictionary, 132 ... Data item dictionary management program, 133 ... Input / output specification, 134 ... Input / output specification definition program, 135 ... Source program, 136 ... Source program generator.

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-5-108319 (JP, A) JP-A-8-171486 (JP, A) JP-A-8-95768 (JP, A) JP-A-7-93143 (JP , A) JP-A-7-21068 (JP, A) JP-A-5-197533 (JP, A) JP-A-5-134865 (JP, A) Matsuno Yoshino, SEWB +: Application Development Tool / Hitachi, Network Computing, Japan, Rick Telecom Co., Ltd., August 1, 1996, Volume 8, No. 8, p. 118-123 (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 9/44

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A data item used in a program to be developed is extracted in advance, an input / output item and an input / output specification for the extracted data item are generated, and the data item, the input / output item and the input / output specification are created. Is a program development support method for supporting the development of a program by registering the data in a storage device as information at the time of program development, displaying the previously extracted data item group on the screen, and inputting / outputting on the same screen. Display the input / output specification creation area for creating specifications, drag the data items for which you want to create input / output specifications from the data item group displayed on the screen, and drop them in the input / output specification creation area. Is input from the user, an input / output item associated with the input data item and inheriting the attribute is generated, and the attribute content of the input / output specification is created as described above. A program characterized by displaying in an area, creating an input / output specification in which the attribute is edited if the attribute is changed, and registering the data item, the input / output specification, and their relations in a storage device. Development support method. 2. The program development support method according to claim 1, which is a program for performing a check process and an edit process based on the registered data item, input / output item, input / output specification, and their relation. program development support how, characterized in that to generate.