JPS6037945B2 - How to display hierarchical tree-structured text in an ordered structure - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a text processing system comprising a central processing system and at least one interactive display terminal with editing capabilities.

The ability of data processing systems to store and manipulate data has already been developed in the field of text processing.

It is possible for an author to enter text into a data processing system using an interactive display terminal, in which case the processing system displays the text on a display device, such as a cathode ray tube, and the author The text is then stored in a storage device, such as a magnetic disk storage device. In order to manipulate data, the system must be capable of performing editing functions. Editing programs are now well known in the field of data processing, and a general study of editing programs such as
veys, Vol. 3, No. B, September 1971, 9
○n-lj fertilizer by Messrs. A. VanDam and D.E. Rice on pages 3-114 TextEditin
g: Described in a paper called A Suwey. A file of data, as considered in the field of data processing, is one that can hold numerical data, computer programs, documents (text), as well as other information.

When changes need to be made to a file of data, the computer must be able to programmatically access the file and make changes such as changing a few lines, copying a group of lines, moving data within the file, etc. Must be. Typically, files are presented to users as if they were long scrolls or blocks, many thousands of lines long (see GB 136,391). The main obstacles to user productivity when editing files are:
In the case of large files (several hundred lines or more), it is difficult to constantly recognize the current position within the file, so it takes time to find the position within the file.

For example, when editing a document consisting of many chapters, the chapters are usually presented one after the other, and the user cannot tell which part he is editing from a few lines shown on the display. It's not easy. Similarly, computer programs have a logical structure that is well known to the program's creator, but because of the sequential nature of the files themselves, this structure is ``always physically present within the file.''It's not that I'm doing it.

If the logical structure reflects the physical structure within a file, that structure will be immediately obvious to anyone accessing the file (not just the creator), and will be able to access the file in order to edit it. When scanning sequentially, low level programming can be avoided. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to disclose a method for subdividing a file of data in a text processing system into logical blocks that can be accessed individually by a user and forming a hierarchical tree structure capable of maintaining relationships between the blocks. It's true.

A text processing system in which the present invention may be practiced includes a processing unit and at least one interactive display terminal, the processing unit having main storage and under the control of instructions received from the interactive display terminal. processing means capable of performing a text editing process, the text being a block of text lines;

Each block is identified by each block header in the list of block headers, and at least one piece of data in a higher level block contains the name of the next lower level block. Can be related to other blocks by structure. Additionally, the text processing device forms new blocks from text data entered into the interactive display terminal by adding the block header of the new block to the list of block headers. For a thorough understanding of the invention, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The structure editing data processing system allows you to perform single-line operations with the same ease that other editing programs allow.
Allows the user to manipulate multiple row groups (referred to as "blocks"). Multi-level tree-structured blocks can be created naturally and easily, either at file creation time or by structuring existing sequential files. On systems that cannot handle structured files directly, they should be handled by other routines (e.g. compiler, text formatter, assembler).
It is possible to "create" regular files from structured files. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the text processing system provides user access to structured files (in addition to normal sequential files) and uses an IBM 3277 (IBM registered When used with a keyboard such as the ``Machine'' keyboard, it allows you to edit various structured blocks of a file.

The display screen "acts as a 'window' into a small portion of the file. The keyboard is used to enter data as well as various commands that manipulate data or blocks within the file and which the user can display. Adjusting the window to the file you are viewing on the screen. Most regular editing commands are performed, such as writing a file to a magnetic disk, locating a string of text, etc. However, the present invention , which concern only the directives dealing with the structure of files, and which are described below.Referring in more detail to the drawings, FIG. 1 schematically shows the hardware required for a basic text processing system. .

An interactive display terminal 1, consisting of a display screen and a keyboard, is followed by a processing device 2. The processing unit, which is a machine such as the M370/168 processing unit, has an operating
It includes a system and a system control program that allows the user of terminal 1 to interact with application programs running within the processing unit. Application programs and data files are stored in an auxiliary storage device 3 connected to the processing device 2. Auxiliary storage is magnetic disk storage, such as is commonly used with data processing systems. Of course, a processing device such as the BM370/168 supports many interactive terminals simultaneously, and connections are made across many types of communication links.

There are also several types of auxiliary storage connected to the main processing unit. However, the processing power of the processing unit is not directly relevant to the present invention, and therefore, with today's advances in technology, a system that incorporates all three components of FIG. , it can be envisaged that the invention will be implemented. A preferred embodiment of the present invention as a text processing system will be described with reference to FIGS. 2-6.

The structured file is held in an auxiliary storage device 3 such as a magnetic disk, and when the user of the terminal device 1 wants to edit it, the user reads it into the main storage device of the processing device 2. As shown in Figure 2, the basic data constituting a file is a list of data lines; for example, data lines 1 to j form a list of block M, and data lines 1 to k form a list of block N. Configure the list.

Further, a block header is provided to represent each block, and a data item "ROCK" is provided to represent a list constituted by these block headers. is shown as an example of computer program text. Data lines x to x+
4, the lines indicated by "a" and "b" are pu. It is called a tsuku reference sentence, and is also represented by the first character of the text on that line, or the special symbol "]". The following characters i.e. “RE”
AD-NEXT-RECORO' and “RE-FORM
AT" means the name of the referenced block. Block reference statement is used to refer to another block in the file, so the referenced block is one level below in the file's hierarchical tree structure. It can also be thought of as a block. In this way, a block reference statement acts as an index in the hierarchical tree structure of the file. Block reference statements are treated like regular data rows, so they can be modified as easily as the data itself. Yes, one block can have any block reference statements, and may be composed only of block reference statements.

To create such a hierarchical tree structure, it is necessary to construct one block from a group of rows selected in advance, and first create a block for that new block. The header is added to the list of block headers and the selected row group is moved to another storage location to form the new block.

A block reference statement for the new block is then inserted at the position in the block where the row group was originally located. This allows existing sequential files to be structured or to reduce the size of blocks that have become too large. Three commands, which are usually special functions assigned to the keyboard, allow the user to navigate the created tree structure with minimal effort.

The first of the three commands is "Down," which performs the following operations.

Scan the current block, starting from the top of the current window, looking for any block references. If one is found (
Otherwise, nothing happens), the block named in the block reference becomes the current block; the top of the new block becomes the window into the file.

The "urn" command therefore has the effect of lowering the level of the file. Each time a downward movement is made within a file, the movement is recorded by the text processing system, thus establishing a history of the steps used by the user to reach the current block. This command can be traced back by issuing the second movement command ''Back●, but this command is therefore valid only after the "wm" command.The "bag ck" command has the effect of tracing back the bell. In this case, this directive tells the user to select the block above the current block,
In other words, trace to the block entered in the current block. The current window is set to the line below the block reference used when the last "ratio wn" command was issued. A third movement command that is particularly useful is “Nexr.” It has the same effect as the European command followed by the Down command, and moves the user to the Since most processing systems do not yet accept structured data directly, they need to be able to create sequential files from structured data.

“The Build directive causes the text processing system to traverse the file (either from the top or root of the tree, or from the current block) and remove all block references at all levels from the referenced block. This produces a normal sequential file without any block references. The method used to accomplish this creation procedure is shown in Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4 shows the overall flowchart of the creation method.First, the root (ROO)
A decision is made in step 41 whether to create from T) or from the current block. If it is from the root, the root is selected in step 42, and if it is from the current block, the name of the current block is selected in step 43.
This is followed by step 43, which is shown in detail in FIG. Step 44 "Calling the create process with the selected name" consists of the steps shown in FIG. is lowered.

If there are no such rows, the routine returns to step 44 and completes. If there is such a line, the next line is read in step 46. The next step 47 is to determine whether what has been read is a block reference statement.
This is a decision step as to whether or not. If this is a block reference statement, a block name is extracted from the block reference statement in step 48, a block called based on the block name is placed in the block reference statement position in step 50, and the process returns to step 45. . Because the structure is part of the data, the text processing system contains information about the structure of the data file, and the structure is presented to the user upon request.

“The Lisr command causes a list of blocks to be displayed indented according to the level of the block within the file.
FIG. 6 shows an example of such a display. The list can be an entire file, a portion of a file, or just a certain number of levels within a file. The processing used to create a structured display is similar to that used in its creation (fourth
(Figures 1 and 5), but whereas this display outputs all rows of data encountered during the search, the process described above displays the name of each block as it was encountered during the search. Just do it. Although a text editing processing system embodying the invention has been described above, it is clear that there may be other features of the editing system that have not been described, but are not necessary for an understanding of the invention. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a text processing system. FIG. 2 shows data 0 in the text processing system of the present invention.
Drawing showing the structure. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of a sample list of basic data. 4 and 5 are diagrams illustrating a method used in a text processing system. Figure 6 shows
A drawing showing a representation of the file structure. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a text processing device consisting of a processing device, a storage device, and a display device, in which each block composed of a plurality of text lines is stored in the storage device in a hierarchical tree structure, the text processing device comprises a processing device, a storage device, and a display device. The associated text line is stored in the storage device along with an indicator indicating that it is a block reference sentence and identification information representing the other block, and one of the stored blocks is displayed on the display device. , detecting a text line bearing the indicator by scanning each text line of a block in the storage device corresponding to the displayed block line; 1. A method for displaying a hierarchical tree-structured text in an ordered structure, characterized in that the other block is read out from the storage device and replaced with a block reference sentence in the displayed block.