JPH06214778A - System for automatic generating program - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically convert a processing description (sentence) by daily terms into the description by a program language. CONSTITUTION:The daily terms (an information name and its data structure and variable name in the case of the job terms, the language designating a processing and program parts which executes the processing for basic data structure in the case of the processing terms) are previsously stored in a storage part 3 as a dictionary. The processing description by the daily terms from an input part 1 is morpheme- and syntax-analyzed in a central processing part 2 and also the dictionary is retrieved and edited so that the processing description is automatically converted into the program language description.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically creating a program in which description processing contents in everyday terms such as Japanese are automatically converted into descriptions in a programming language.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, with regard to automation of programming, a decision table, which is a so-called fourth generation language, is displayed on a display, and then a program designer embeds predetermined data into it through an input section. It is known that after the program parts prepared for a fixed process are extracted by instructing the processing conditions, programming is performed by an editing operation on the display. Also, regarding the automatic programming method, the paper "Automatic Programming by Component Synthesis" (Information Processing Society of Japan 198
It is discussed in the October 7 issue, PP1329-1345), and in addition, a programming language specification that can be described in Japanese is also devised.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]
After specifying the processing conditions by the decision table, take out the fixed program parts stored in advance and connect them, or
Alternatively, while the list of program parts is displayed on the display using the input process description as a key, the desired program parts are selected by the program designer's selection operation and then connected to perform automatic programming. Therefore, not only is the programming target limited to fixed-form business programs, but also the operation by the program designer is required in the programming process. In other words, in the conventional automatic programming, the process (sentence) described in everyday terms based on the dictionary stored in advance is not machine-translated, and the program parts are not automatically selected and edited. Is the reality.

A first object of the present invention is to provide an automatic program creation system capable of roughly automating the process of converting an abstract processing description into a programming language description in everyday terms. A second object of the present invention is to provide an automatic program creating system capable of automatically converting the programming language description into a more specific one in addition to the first object.

[0005]

The first object is to decompose an instruction sentence of program processing contents described in everyday terms into morphemes and analyze the syntax to obtain an information name and an operation processing instruction. After automatically extracting
The data structure corresponding to the information name and the program component corresponding to the operation processing instruction are extracted from the data structure corresponding to the information name and the program language description (= program component) corresponding to the operation processing instruction stored in advance. It is achieved by combining parts. The second purpose is to automatically extract the information name and the operation processing instruction by analyzing the syntax by decomposing the instruction statement of the program processing content described in everyday terms into morphemes and then analyzing the syntax.
The data structure corresponding to the information name and the program component corresponding to the operation processing instruction are extracted from the data structure corresponding to the information name and the program language description (= program component) corresponding to the operation processing instruction stored in advance, and the component is also extracted. At the time of composition, the variable name corresponding to the information name is extracted from the variable name stored in advance corresponding to the information name based on the extracted information name, and automatically at the predetermined position of the extracted programming language description. It is achieved by being fitted.

[0006]

[Function] A data structure for each of arrays, lists, stacks, cues, tree graphs defined in the field of computer science is used as a basic data structure, and a known operation for the data structure (setting / registering of data)・ Delete / search / sort) as a programming language description
Further, it may be a dictionary of terms used in the daily term description (if the information is indicated, a variable name corresponding to the information, an indication of which of the above data structures corresponds), or a processing instruction. For example, it is intended to achieve the intended purpose by pre-storing an operation (correspondence table corresponding to which of data setting / registration / deletion / search / arrangement).

That is, an information name (subject, object) and an operation processing instruction (verb) are automatically extracted by analyzing a processing description in everyday terms by a morpheme / syntactic analysis technique known in the field of machine translation. In addition, the data structure corresponding to the information name is extracted from the information name, and the programming language description corresponding to the operation processing instruction is extracted from the operation processing instruction. As a result, the abstract processing description sentence in everyday terms is roughly automatically converted into a programming language description. After that, the extracted variable name corresponding to the information name is extracted and automatically inserted into a predetermined position of the extracted programming language, so that the processing description sentence in everyday terms is automatically written in the programming language description. It can be converted.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, the automatic program creating apparatus according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure. As shown in the figure, the central processing unit 2 is centered around the input unit (keyboard / mouse) 1 and output unit (CR).
A T display (for example) 4 and a storage unit (for example, a magnetic disk device) 3 are arranged, which is configured as a general software design support device. The major difference between the automatic program creation device and the general software design support device is the program parts that operate on the basic data structure in the storage unit 3 and the processing description (sentence) in the everyday terms input from the input unit 1. A process description dictionary for making the instructed process and the above-mentioned program component correspondently searchable, and an information definition dictionary for associating an information name with a data structure / variable name are stored. This means that a program for performing morpheme and syntactic analysis of a term sentence and a program for associating an information name with a data structure and a processing instruction to convert into a programming language description are executed.

Now, the process description in everyday terms input to the automatic program creating apparatus will be described. FIG. 1 shows the structure of the process description (specification description in this example). It should be noted that FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a logical model of information, which is written based on a well-known ER diagram (entity / relationship diagram: entity / relationship diagram) notation, in which a rectangular frame represents entity information and a rhombus frame. Is information that associates entity information. Further, [is a] in the diamond frame indicates that the entity at the higher position is the information at the lower position (for example, the basic data structure in FIG. 1 is an array, a list, and a stack). …
…Such). [Part of] indicates that the entity at the higher position is composed of the entity at the lower position (see, for example, FIG.
The specifications described above are composed of business terms and processing terms).
[Instance of] indicates that the concrete entity of the entity at the higher position is composed of the entity at the lower position (for example, the basic algorithm of FIG. 1 is, for example, setting, registration, deletion, search, and alignment). Etc.).

As shown in FIG. 1, the processing description in everyday terms consists of business terms (this corresponds to the definition of information) and processing terms (this corresponds to the instruction of processing). It consists of information definitions, calculation formulas, and data structures. Processing terms consist of basic data structures and basic algorithms for processing them. Next, the logical model of the dictionary stored in the storage unit 3 used in the present invention will be described. The information registered in the business term dictionary is also stored in the same structure as the process description. That is, with this mechanism, it is possible to efficiently search a term that associates the syntactic structure of the process description input from the input unit 1 with the dictionary, and easily select the program component to be extracted.

Next, the process of automatic programming will be described using a concrete example. FIGS. 3 to 5 show the process of automatically creating a program according to the present invention by taking a simple business management system as an example. First, referring to FIG. 3, this shows the logical relationship between the information used in the business management system. As shown in the figure, the man-hour management system has six types of information of “work”, “charge”, “work”, “employee”, “assessment”, and “unit price”. Of these, “work” and “work” Is related by "person in charge", and
"Responsible" means "employee" and "assessment" of that "employee",
It is associated with "money". Based on these relationships, it is possible to calculate the cost of the "business", for example. FIG. 4 also shows the physical structure of each piece of information shown in FIG. 3, and in this case, “business”, “charge”, “work”, “employee”, “assessment”, “assessment”, Money is "Projec
t ”,“ Charge ”,“ Work ”,“ Emply ”,“ Assess ”,
It is named "Payroll" etc. (name given to a predetermined address in memory such as structure name processed on computer, array name etc.) and its physical structure (so-called table,
The physical structure of the file is the elements (prjcode [project code], prjname [project name], proceed [sales], volume [scale], empcode) shown in the frame in the array.
[Employee code], empname [employee name], enter [hire year], etc.). Note that these physical structures are also analyzed and designed in advance and then stored so as to be mapped in the business term dictionary stored in the storage unit 3. Further, the physical structure is defined as an area for storing a plurality of “business”, “charge”, “work”, etc., but one piece of information such as “business”, “charge”, “work” is stored. An area for storing is also required ("registering a job" means that a certain job is additionally stored in an area where a plurality of previous jobs have already been stored, and this one job is stored. Area is required), in Figure 4 it is an instance ("prjc
"t", "charge", "emply", etc.).

Various operations are performed on the above-mentioned information. That is, the operations are "registration", "delete", "change", "input", etc., but the types of the operations vary depending on the physical structure of the target information. The types of operations are shown in FIG. 4 as “project registration”, “project deletion”, “employee deletion”, etc., but these operations are systematic according to the physical structure of the target information. It is also possible to classify into. That is, as shown in the lower corner of the physical structure of each piece of information shown in FIG. 4, all the physical structures of these pieces of information have a structure array structure, and one operation algorithm for the structure array is prepared as a basic algorithm component. Then, it is only necessary to edit (customize) according to the structure of each information.

Here, if the above-described mechanism is shown by one concrete example, for example, as a description of a processing specification of a program,
Assuming that “delete employee” is input from the input unit 2, first, by using the business term dictionary and the processing term dictionary, the various terms registered therein are compared,
The morphemes (individual terms: "employee" and "delete") are to be extracted, and from the business term dictionary, the data structure (= structure array) and variable name (= empcn) of "employee".
t, Emply [i], empcode, etc.) are extracted. As a result, the input is interpreted as "deletion of structure array". On the other hand, if each program part (basic algorithm part) is stored in the processing term dictionary in the form of “deletion of structure array = sequential search of structure array + deletion from structure array”, Can be taken out to synthesize the parts (see FIG. 5). In order to obtain the target programming language description, it is necessary to customize it according to the physical structure of the target information. Therefore, the previously extracted variable name is inserted into the extracted program component (in FIG. 5, the relevant part is indicated by a broken line frame), so that the target program is automatically converted.

The present invention has been described above, but as can be understood from the above description, the program is at a more abstract level.
Moreover, since it can be described by sentences in everyday terms, troublesome programming work can be omitted. Also,
Since the types of program parts are limited to basic ones and can be used for any program, they can be easily applied to program design in various fields. Further, since the programs stored in advance as the program parts are publicly known, the description in everyday terms can be automatically converted into a high quality program with good performance.

[0015]

As described above, according to claim 1, the process of converting an abstract processing description into a programming language description in everyday terms can be roughly automated, and according to claim 2, In addition to such effects, the processing description can be automatically converted into a more specific programming language description.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of information, a processing term dictionary, and a processing description (specification description) according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an example of a program automatic creation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part for explaining a process of extracting / editing contents / program parts of an information definition dictionary according to a concrete example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a part for explaining the process of extracting / editing the contents / program parts of an information definition dictionary according to a specific example.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a part for explaining the process of extracting / editing the contents / program parts of an information definition dictionary according to a concrete example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Input unit, 2 ... Central processing unit, 3 ... Storage unit, 4 ... Output unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of information names and operation processing instructions are automatically stored after the instruction sentences of the program processing content described in everyday terms are decomposed into morphemes and the syntax is analyzed to store them in advance. Structure corresponding to the specified information name and programming language description corresponding to the operation processing instruction (= program component (= basic algorithm component))
An automatic program creation method in which a data structure corresponding to the information name and a program language description corresponding to the operation processing instruction are extracted from the table and the parts are combined. 2. A plurality of information names and operation processing instructions are automatically extracted after morphologically decomposing instruction statements of program processing contents described in everyday terms and analyzing the syntax, and then a plurality of them are stored in advance. Structure corresponding to the specified information name and programming language description corresponding to the operation processing instruction (= program component (= basic algorithm component))
The data structure corresponding to the information name and the program language description corresponding to the operation processing instruction are extracted from the table, and the program is automatically created so that the parts are synthesized. The information name corresponding to the information name is extracted in advance based on the extracted information name. An automatic program creation method in which a variable name corresponding to the information name is extracted from the variable name stored in, and is automatically inserted into a predetermined position of the extracted programming language description.