INFORMATION PROCESSOR FOR CHECKING DATA

Abstract: A data checking system optionally attached to a host device like a typewriter has two buffers, a predetermined cut-out rule and a dictionary ROM. A data queue from the host device is temporarily stored in one of the buffers, and then one word is cut out therefrom by cut-out codes like a space or punctuation mark to be stored in another buffer, where the word is looked up in the dictionary ROM to determine if the spelling thereof is correct.

Description: This invention relates to an information processing system for separating a significant block of data, e.g., a word, from a data queue to check the block of data. It is applicable to an external spelling check device for an electronic typewriter. In the prior art, a spelling check apparatus adaptable to a host device, e.g. a typewriter, receives information which the host device has previously divided into words. An apparatus of this type is described in U.S. Patent No. 4,651,300. In this patent, the host word processor determines the completion of the input of each word, and transmits the data word by word to a spelling collating apparatus. The spell collating apparatus checks each word input from the host processor but cannot deal with a queue of data which comprises a plurality of words. Thus, the prior art apparatus cannot associate with typewriters which output a queue of data as it is operated on the keyboard, without dividing it into words. US Patent No 4,136,395 assigned to IBM discloses a typewriter incorporating a spell checking device which automatically checks the spelling of words typed. As letters are typed on the keyboard they are stored in a queue in a memory until a stop character (space, tab or carriage return) is typed, this occurrence is signalled to the memory on a separate communication line whereupon the contents of the memory are transferred to the spell-checking device as a word. According to the present invention there is provided a data processing apparatus for use with an external device that outputs data, including stop data, in a queue, said apparatus comprising: an input terminal for receiving data from the external device; an input buffer for sequentially storing the data input from the input terminal; cut-out means for cutting out a group of data preceding a stop datum, in the queue, as a block of data from the queue of data stored in the input buffer in accordance with a predetermined cut-out rule to divide said queue of data into words; reference information store means for storing reference information on a plurality of blocks of data; search means for searching out reference information corresponding to the block data cut-out by the cut-out means from the reference information store means; and output means for outputting a search result of the search means. Thus with the invention the information processor for checking data is adaptable to an external device which outputs data queue not properly divided into data blocks suitable for specific checking purposes. The invention will be further described by way of non-limitative example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a principle structure of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of an information processing system as an embodiment of the present invention; Figs. 3A, 3B are flow charts integrally showing a routing executed responsive to a data input; Fig. 4 is a flowchart for a Spelling check routing; and Fig. 5 is an explanatory illustration of data structure in a correction buffer and a pointer in the embodiment. An embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter. The present invention is embodied as an information processor which executes spelling check of a text, or a queue of data, which is input from a host device, e.g., typewriter, and is not divided into words. The present invention is constituted as shown in Fig. 1. Namely, the information processing system of the present invention includes: an input terminal M1 for receiving a data from an external device; and input buffer M2 for sequentially storing the data input from the input terminal M1; cut-out means M3 for cutting out a block of data from a queue of data stored in the input buffer M2 with a predetermined cut-out rule; reference information store means M4 for storing reference information on a plurality of blocks of data; search means M5 for searching out a reference information corresponding to the block of data cut out by the cut-out means M3 from the reference information store means M4; and output means M6 for outputting the search result of the search means M5. Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the information processor 10 of the present embodiment. The processor 10 includes: an input port 40 connected to an input terminal 35 through which data is input from an output terminal 30 of a host device 20; CPU 50; ROM 60; RAM 70; a bus line 80; an output port 100 which is connected to a buzzer 90; and a dictionary ROM 110 in which reference word data are stored. The host device 20, in this embodiment, is a typewriter which outputs data continuously from the output terminal 30. This typewriter does not have the ability to output word by word, but the letters, characters, spaces, punctuations, etc. are output as they are input by the operator on the keyboard. The processor 10 cuts out words from the input plain text by a predetermined cut out rule. In this embodiment, the word cut-out is performed when a cut-out code as follows is found in the input text. The cut-out codes are: a space, a punctuation mark such as a comma(,), a full stop (.), a question mark (?), a semicolon (;), a colon (:), a hyphen (-), etc., a quotation mark (") or ('), a carriage return code and the like. They are selected as conventional means for separating words in ordinary text. The cut-out codes are stored in a cut-out rule region 60a in the ROM 60. The RAM 70 includes: a correction buffer 70a which stores a maximum of 60 bytes of information data input from the input port 40; a check buffer 70b which stores a word cut out from the data queue stored in the correction buffer 70a; and a pointer 70c for pointing an address in the correction buffer 70a normally corresponding to a printing head or a cursor of the host device 20. The processing of the present embodiment is executed by the CPU 50 in accordance with programs stored in the ROM 60. Figs. 3A, 3B are flow charts integrally showing a routine executed responsive to a data input. Fig. 4 is a flowchart for a spelling check routine. Fig. 5 shows the data structure in the correction buffer 70a where 60 data sites are addressed from 1 to 60 (address 1 is illustrated rightmost in Fig. 5.) Fig. 5 also shows that a value Po of the pointer 70c is initially 1. Referring to Fig. 3A, when the program starts, a data Dt is input from the typewriter 20 at S20. Then, at S21, a determination is made as to what kind of data the data Dt is, in order to process it according to its kind. Hereinafter, processes of various data will be described. If the data Dt is determined as a letter code data at S21, the process step proceeds to S22. Here "letter" includes alphabets (a, b, c, ... or A, B, C, ...), symbols (#, $, %, ...), numerals (1, 2, 3, ...) and other subsidiary characters ({,[,=,<, ...). The data Dt is stored in the correction buffer 70a at an address pointed by the pointer Po. If the pointer Po is 1, it means that the pointer Po points to the most recent item of the data queue which has been input. By the proceedings from S22 to S25, in the correction buffer 70a, each data TB(I) before (here, "before" means leftward to in Fig. 5) a data TB(Po) pointed by the pointer Po is shifted upward (leftward in Fig. 5) by one address. Specifically, at S22, a loop counter I is set to 60 where 60 is the length of the correction buffer 70a. Next, at S23, the data TB(I-1) is shifted upward to become data TB(I). Then, at S24, the counter I is decremented by 1. A determination is made at S25 if the counter I is equal to the pointer Po. If the answer is NO, the process step is looped back to S23. This procedure is continued until a determination is made at S25 that the counter I is equal to Po; then the process step goes to S26, where the data Dt is stored at an address pointed by the pointer Po, and the process step returns to S20. If the data Dt is determined to be a back space (BS) code data at S21, the pointer Po is incremented by 1 at S30, and the process step returns to S20. Therefore, the address pointed to by the pointer Po coincides with that of the print head of the typewriter 20 or with that of the cursor if the external device has a display. If the data Dt is determined to be a correction code data at S21, the process step goes to S40 through S44 where the data TB(Po) pointed to by the pointer Po is deleted by shifting each data TB(I) after the data TB(Po+1) downward (rightward in Fig. 5) by one address. Specifically, at S40, the value of the pointer Po is substituted for a loop counter I. Then, at S41, the data TB(I+1) is shifted to the address I to become data TB(I). Next, at S42, the counter I is incremented by 1. The counter I is compared with 60 at S43. If the counter I is less than 60, the process step is looped back to S41. This procedure is continued until a determination is made at S43 that the counter I is equal to 60; then the process step goes to S44, where a null code (NULL) is stored for the data TB(60), and the process step returns to S20. If the data Dt is determined to be a space code data at S21, the process step goes to S50 where a determination is made if the data Dt is the last data in the correction buffer 70a. If it is not, i.e., the pointer value Po is greater than 1, the value of the pointer Po is decremented by 1 at S51. If the data Dt is the last data, i.e., the pointer Po is equal to 1, spelling check is executed at S52, since a space is a predetermined cut-out code. The procedure of spelling check will be described later. Then, the process step returns to S20. If the data Dt is determined to be a relocate code data, the process step goes to S60 through S65 in Fig. 3B, where spelling check is executed, if necessary, with decrementing the pointer Po one by one. Here the relocate code is generated in the typewriter 20 when the operator presses a relocate key after he corrected a misprinted character in order to relocate the print head to a resuming position. Specifically, at S60, a determination is made if the pointer Po points the last data in the correction buffer 70a. If the pointer Po does not point the last data TB(1), i.e., the pointer value Po is greater than 1, a determination is made, at S61, if the data TB(Po) is a cut-out code. If the answer is YES, spelling check is executed at S62. Then, at S63, the pointer Po is decremented by 1. If the answer is NO at S61, spelling check is not executed, and the process step goes directly to S63. After the procedure from S61 to S63, the process step returns to S60 where a determination is made if the next data is the last data. If the pointer value Po points the last data at S60, i.e., the pointer value Po is equal to 1, a further determination is made, at S64, if the data TB(Po), i.e., TB(1), is a cut-out code. If the answer is YES, spelling check is executed at S65. If the answer is NO, spelling check is not executed. After the procedure from S60 to S65, the process step returns to S20 in Fig. 3A. If the data Dt is determined to be a cut-out code as described before, the process step goes to S70 in Fig. 3B, where spelling check is executed. Then, the process step returns to S20 in Fig. 3A. If the data Dt is determined to be other than the abovementioned codes at S21, the process step directly returns to S20 as shown in Figs. 3A and 3B. Then, the next data Dt is input from the typewriter 20, and the procedure as mentioned above is repeated. Spelling check executed at S52, S62, S65, and S70 will be described referring to Fig. 4. First, at S80, a determination is made if the routine is caused by a relocate code. If the answer is NO, 60 is put into a loop counter I at S81. Next, at S82, The data TB(I-1) is shifted upward by one address to become data TB(I). At S83, the counter I is decremented by 1. At S84, the counter I is compared with 60. If the counter I is equal to 1, the process step is looped back to S82. This procedure is continued until a determination is made at S84 that the counter I is equal to 1; then, at S85, the data Dt is substituted for the last data TB(1). Then, the process step goes to S86. If the routine is determined at S80 to be started by a relocate code, steps S81 through S85 are skipped and the process step directly goes to S86. At S86, a search is made for a cut-out code data TB(Pk) which is the nearest to, and before (leftward to) the data TB(Po) which is pointed to by the pointer Po. Then, at S87, the word formed by the data TB(Pk-1) through TB(Po+1) is transferred to the check buffer 70b. Namely, one word is cut out from the data queue of the correction buffer 70a. At S88, the word is compared with each of the reference words stored in the dictionary ROM 110. Then, at S89, a determination is made if the dictionary ROM 110 has a word which coincides with the cut-out word. If the answer is No, the buzzer 90 is beeped at S90 in order to inform the operator of the typewriter 20 that the word may be misspelled. If the answer is YES, the word is assumed as correct, and the process step is ended. As above described, in this embodiment, a data queue from the host device 20, which is not previously divided into words, is temporarily stored in the correction buffer 70a, and spelling check is executed whenever a cut-out code such as a punctuation mark or a space is found. Therefore, in the present invention, spelling check can be executed for the host device 20 which does not divide its data into words. The cut-out rule 60a, which is stored in the ROM 60 in this embodiment, may be transferred into the RAM 70 when the processor 10 is initialized so as to be modified by an external command. A specific character queue may be used as a cut-out code, instead of the single cut-out codes of a space, a punctuation mark, or a quotation mark of this embodiment. Alternatively, another cut-out rule may be used that a queue of data is divided by a predetermined number of data. Besides spelling check, if the information about inflection, synonym, and parts of speech are stored in the dictionary ROM 110, it is possible to lexically or grammatically check data from the host device 20. Additionally, the checking results may be displayed on a display. While, in this embodiment, literal words are extracted from data by the cut-out code, a secret code or an identification number may be extracted therefrom by properly preparing the cut-out rule.

Claims: A data processing apparatus for use with an external device (20) that outputs data, including stop data, in a queue, said apparatus comprising: an input terminal (M1) for receiving data from the external device (20); an input buffer (M2) for sequentially storing the data input from the input terminal (M1); cut-out means (M3) for cutting out a group of data preceding a stop datum, in the queue, as a block of data from the queue of data stored in the input buffer (M2) in accordance with a predetermined cut-out rule to divide said queue of data into words; reference information store means (M4) for storing information on a plurality of blocks of data; search means (M5) for searching out reference information corresponding to the block data cut-out by the cut-out means from the reference information store means; and output means (M6) for outputting a search result of the search (M5) means. A data processing apparatus according to claim 1, where in the external device (20) is an electronic typewriter. A data processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the block of data is a word and the reference information is a correct spelling of the word. A data processing apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the output means (M6) output an alarm signal as the search result when a reference information is not found in the reference information store means by the search means (M5). A data processing apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the cut-out rule is such that a block of data is cut-out when at least one of a group of stop data including a space code data, a punctuation code data, a hyphen code data, or a quotation mark code data follows the block of data. A data processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the data processing apparatus further comprises data correction means responsive to a correction command from the external device for correcting data in the queue of data in the input buffer (M2). A data processing apparatus according to claim 6, characterised in that the data correction means include: a pointer memory (70c) for pointing to an address of the input buffer (M2), the pointer memory (70c) normally pointing to an address representing one end of the input buffer (M2); backspace means responsive to a backspace code data from the external device for stepping the address in the pointer memory toward the other end of the input buffer; delete means responsive to a correction code data from the external device for shifting the queue of data between the address pointed to by the pointer memory (70c) and said other end of the input buffer toward said one end of the input buffer by one address. A data processing apparatus according to claim 7, characterised in that said one end is assigned with a lowest address and said other end is assigned with a highest address in the input buffer.

Inventors: KOJIMA, YASUMICHI BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Applicants: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1987
Main classification: G06F15
IPC codes: G06F17