Patent ID: 6243858
Filing Date: 2001-06-05
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A program construction assisting apparatus, comprising:visualizing means for storing a plurality of program modules for processing various data processes and module tile information used for displaying each of the program modules as module tiles, the program modules and the module tile information corresponding with each other;arrangement limiting means for arranging, on a display screen, a grid which limits an arrangement position of each of the visualized module tiles;program presenting means for arranging a plurality of module tiles which correspond to a flow of a data processing program from a beginning to an end, next to one another in grid positions on the display screen, and presenting the data processing program with the plurality of module tiles visualized and displayed based on the module tile information;determining means for, when the data processing program is presented by the program presenting means on the display screen and a user provides an instruction for arranging a new module tile, determining, based on an instructed arrangement position of the new module tile and the arrangement of the plurality of module tiles arranged on the grid, whether or not the instructed arrangement position is an effective position to insert the new module tile with respect to the flow;inserting means for, when the instructed arrangement position is determined by the determining means as the effective position to insert the new module tile, inserting the new module tile into the instructed arrangement position, and rearranging the plurality of module tiles in accordance with grid intervals based on the instructed arrangement position, so as to cause the program constituted after the rearrangement; andprogram constructing means, based on the arrangement positions of the plurality of module tiles, for combining a plurality of program modules which correspond to the plurality of module tiles for the flow of the data processing program presented by the program presenting means, determining a data flow between the program modules, and thereby constructing a data processing program.