JPH05265733A - Program producing/executing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a program producing/executing device which automatically converts a produced program of a flow chart form into a source program and then interprets and immediately carries out the source program by securing a constitution where a system designer or a programmer produces a program to show the system processing procedure by means of the flow chart form. CONSTITUTION:A program producing/executing device is provided with a flow chart production function 100 which includes a graphic processing/editing function that produces and edits a flow chart, a flow chart file 200 which stores the data on the flow chart produced by the function 100, a flow chart converting function 300 which interprets the data stored in the file 200 and converts the data into a source program, an execution form file 400 which stores the source program converted by the function 300, and a flow chart executing function 500 which interprets and executes the source program stored in the file 400.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention allows a system designer or programmer to create and edit a program in a flow chart format using a flow chart creating function so that the created flow chart is automatically created after the creation of the flow chart. The present invention relates to a program creating and executing apparatus that can be converted into a source program (executable file), interpret the program, and execute the program according to the logic of the original flowchart created.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In developing a program for a computer, first, the specifications of the program are determined, and the program is designed and created so as to meet the specifications, and whether or not the created program operates according to the initially determined specifications. Confirm and complete.

In the process of developing the above-mentioned program, when the source program is created, the processing algorithm is first expressed in the form of a flow chart, and coding is performed using a desired programming language based on this flow chart. In such a method, it is general that the system designer expresses the algorithm in the form of a flow chart by a graphic creation tool or a handwriting work, and based on this, the programmer performs coding using an editor. In this case, the flow chart is for reference only by the programmer, and the computer does not use the flow chart information at all.

Further, in a large-scale program, coding requires a considerable amount of time and steps, so that the burden on the programmer is very large. Even if the program becomes enormous, it is possible to work with human tactics,
Coding mistakes may occur frequently, causing problems in terms of reliability and increasing the burden of debugging.

Under these circumstances, various devices for automatically creating programs have been proposed. For example, the inventions disclosed in JP-A-62-282301 (1987) and JP-A-63-10233 (1988) are known.

The former invention is a program creating and executing apparatus for creating a program by creating a flowchart on a monitor and converting the flowchart into a predetermined programming language.

The latter invention is a program creation support device in which a flowchart is created on a monitor, each pattern forming the flowchart is converted into a programming language, and a programmer writes the lacking part.

[0008]

However, in any of the above-mentioned inventions, since the flowchart is converted into the programming language, there is a problem that the created program needs to be compiled when it is executed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a system designer or a programmer creates a program representing a processing procedure of a system by using the flowchart format. An object of the present invention is to provide a program creating and executing apparatus capable of automatically converting a program into a source program, interpreting the program, and immediately executing the program.

[0010]

A program creating and executing apparatus of the present invention stores flowchart data created by a flowchart creating function and a flowchart creating means having graphic processing editing capability for creating and editing a flowchart. Flow chart storage means, flow chart conversion means for interpreting data stored in the flow chart storage means and converting it into a source program, execution format program storage means for storing the source program converted by the flow chart conversion means, and execution format program Flowchart execution means for interpreting and executing the source program stored in the storage means.

[0011]

In the program creating and executing apparatus of the present invention, a flowchart is created and edited by the flowchart creating function and stored in the flowchart file. The data stored in the flowchart storage means is interpreted by the flowchart conversion function, converted into a source program, and stored in the executable file. Then, the source program stored in the executable program storage means is interpreted and executed by the flowchart execution function.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments thereof.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the basic functional configuration of the program creating and executing apparatus of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the program creating and executing apparatus of the present invention includes a flowchart creating function 100 as a flowchart creating means, a flowchart file 200 as a flowchart storing means, and a flowchart converting function 300 as a flowchart converting means. It is composed of an execution format file 400 as an execution format program storage means and a flowchart execution function 500 as a flowchart execution means.

The flow chart creating function 100 is, for example,
Create / edit flowcharts on a dedicated editor while freely copying / deleting / moving drawings drawn and displayed on the screen of a display device such as a CRT display. One of the features of the flowchart creating function 100 is that it has a multi-window function and that the flowcharts can be created hierarchically. Another feature is that each figure that makes up the flowchart is called an object, and the attributes such as the size of each figure, the position on the window, the content of the pasted text, and the connection relationship with other figures are described. This is the point of the graphic itself.

The flowchart file 200 is a data file for storing the flowchart data created by the flowchart creation function 100.

Here, an example of the graphics forming the flowchart is shown in the schematic view of FIG. “Start” 601 is displayed in an elliptical shape or an oval shape, and represents the start of the processing of the flowchart. In this "start" 601, a comment statement for starting the program, a display statement for the screen, or the like can be described.

The "process" 602 is displayed in a rectangle, and a calculation formula, a formula for displaying intermediate information of variables, and the like can be described.
“Judgment” 603 is displayed in a hexagon, and judgment formulas (size comparison, logical operation) or reference values can be described.
“End” 604 is displayed in a shape in which the four corners of the rectangle are chamfered, and indicates the end of the process. This “end” 604 can describe an expression or the like that outputs the final result of the processing.

"Process flow" 605 is displayed as a straight line,
The flow of processing of the program is represented by connecting each object. By this "processing flow" 605, it is possible to automatically represent the connection relationship between the individual objects connected by simply connecting the objects.

Next, in the flow chart conversion function 300,
By tracing the flowchart using the attribute data of each object stored in the flowchart file 200 in order, the text attached to each object is extracted and converted into a source program, and the flowchart is stored in the executable file 400. ..

The flow chart execution function 500 is an interpreter format program execution function that reads the contents of the source program stored in the execution format file 400 one execution unit at a time and interprets / executes them. The source program is executed according to the logic of.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a concrete configuration example of the program creating / executing apparatus according to the present invention.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a computer 10 as a program creating and executing device, a CRT display 1, a printer 2, a database 3, a keyboard 4, a mouse 5 and the like connected to the computer 10 are used. It is configured. It should be noted that the computer 10 as the program creation execution device
Can use a large computer system or a microcomputer.

The display screen of the CRT display 1 is used as a work area for creating a flowchart. The printer 2 prints a hard copy to leave the flowchart created on the display screen of the CRT display 1 as a document. The keyboard 4 and the mouse 5 are input devices for performing input work for creating and editing the flowchart.

The computer 10 is mainly a storage device and a CP that operates according to a program previously stored in this storage device.
Although it is composed of U and 100,
The flowchart conversion function 300 and the flowchart execution function 500 are specifically realized by a CPU, and the flowchart file 200 and the execution format file 400 are specifically realized by a storage device.

The flow chart creating function 100, whose detailed functional configuration is shown in FIG. 4, comprises a flow chart creating section 101 and a text grammar checking section 102.

The flowchart creating unit 101 creates and edits a flowchart and creates a flowchart file 200.
Manage. At this time, the type of the unique variable (flowchart variable) used for each flowchart registered in advance in the database 3 or the data acquisition source is used.

The text grammar checking unit 102, when pasting text on an object, checks whether or not the syntax is correct. At that time, the database 3 is referred to as necessary, and it is checked whether the type of the variable used matches the content of the text. As described above, the types of unique variables (flowchart variables) used for each flowchart or the data acquisition destination are registered in the database 3.

The flow chart conversion function 300 uses attribute data of objects forming the flow chart to sequentially follow the flow charts to convert them into a source program and store them in the executable file 400. The conversion method will be described below.

The basic idea is shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 21 indicates the entire flow chart,
Reference numeral 24 indicates the source program after conversion.

When converting a flowchart into a source program, the entire flowchart is regarded as one large rule, and each partial flowchart branched from the "judgment" 603 is regarded as a sub-rule. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the entire flowchart is ruled
Considered as 21, "Judgment": each partial flowchart branching from C603 is the first subrule 2
2, Taken as the second sub-rule 23. That is, what is considered as the sub-rules 22 and 23 is when the individual flowcharts branching from the “judgment” 603 start with “process” 602 or “judgment” 603, and “end” 604.
If is connected, describe according to the rules.

Each rule is a rule name 25 determined by the system.
start from. A run unit is separated by a semicolon (;) 26. The end of each rule ends with "end" 27.

"Start" 601, "Process" 602 and "End": D
The conversion rule 604 will be described with reference to FIG. 6 is a conversion example of the flow chart described only by "start": A601, "process": B,: C602 and "end": D604. Reference numeral 28 indicates the source program after the conversion. Has been done. For "Start": A601, "Process": B,: C602, the contents of the text are described as they are in the source program. "End": D604 is described in the source program with a pound (#) before the text content.

The conversion rule of the "judgment" 603 to the "if then else endif" statement will be described below. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of conversion into “if then else endif” statement in “judgment”: A603, and reference numeral 29 shows the source program after conversion. In addition, the example shown in FIG. 7 is "judgment": "process flow" connecting from A603.
This is a case where there are two 605 and the texts pasted to the respective “flows of processing” 605 are Y (YES) and N (NO). It becomes the second subrule.

Next, the rules for converting the "judgment" 603 into the "case endcase" sentence will be described below. Figure 8 shows "Judgment": A
603 is a schematic diagram showing an example of conversion into a “case endcase” statement in 603, and the reference numeral 30 represents the source program after conversion. Note that the example shown in FIG. 8 is “judgment”: three “processing flows” 605 connected from A603.
When the text pasted to each is a number (1, 2) or OTHER, the three "flows of processing" 60
5 Each becomes the first, second, and third subrules.

In accordance with the above rules, it is possible to convert a flowchart in any case into a source program by the flowchart conversion function 300 and store it in the executable file 400.

The flow chart execution function 500 is composed of a lexical analysis unit 501 and a syntax analysis / process execution unit 502, the detailed functional configuration of which is shown in the schematic diagram of FIG.

The lexical analysis unit 501 cuts out a valid character string of the source program read from the execution format file 400, word by word, and sends the result to the syntax analysis / process execution unit 502. The syntax analysis / process execution unit 502 analyzes which one execution unit each word of the source program cut out by the lexical analysis unit 501 matches the syntax of which one execution unit. If there is a matching syntax, the processing is executed, the value is acquired from the user 31 or the database 3, and the processing is moved to the next. By repeating this process, the program is executed in the interpreter format based on the logic of the flowchart created by the user.

[0039]

As described above in detail, according to the program creating / executing apparatus of the present invention, even if an incomprehensible programming method is not understood, it can be programmed only by describing the processing procedure of the program in the flowchart. It becomes possible to execute it.

Further, since the interpreter format for directly executing the source program is adopted, the program can be immediately executed without compiling work such as C language.

Further, since the program in the flow chart format can visually trace the flow of processing,
Even a third party can easily understand.

Furthermore, in the case of creating a program using computerized graphics, it is easy to modify and add the program, and in addition to the effects mentioned above, the system maintainability becomes very high.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a basic functional configuration of a program creating and executing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a graphic forming a flowchart.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of a program creation execution device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a more detailed functional configuration of a flowchart creating function.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of converting a flowchart into a source program by a flowchart conversion function.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of conversion into a source program of a flowchart described only for conversion rules of “start”, “process”, and “end”.

[Fig. 7] "if" of the source program in "judgment"
It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of conversion into a "n else endif" sentence.

[Fig. 8] "case e" of the source program in "judgment"
It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of conversion into a "ndcase" sentence.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a more detailed functional configuration of a flowchart execution function.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 Flowchart creation function 200 Flowchart file 300 Flowchart conversion function 400 Executable file 500 Flowchart execution function

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flowchart creating means having graphic processing editing ability for creating / editing a flowchart, a flowchart storing means for storing data of the flowchart created by the flowchart creating function, and a flowchart storing means stored in the flowchart storing means. Flow chart converting means for interpreting the stored data and converting it into a source program, execution format program storing means for storing the source program converted by the flow chart converting means, and source program stored in the execution format program storing means And a flowchart executing means for interpreting and executing the program creation executing device.