Patent ID: 7779369

Claim:
A method for graphically representing a value of a data type of a formally defined data structure existing as a value tree, comprising: assigning a window as a graphical user interface to the data structure; inserting hierarchically at least one generic, scalable, graphical user-interface component in the window, the value tree of the data structure being mapped onto the at least one user-interface component; providing that the at least one graphical user interface component is in a recognizable relation to at least one node of the value tree; providing at least one of a graphical representation and a textual representation of the value is selectable for each subtree of the value tree; and for a processing of the value tree, deriving for each node a value list of all of values compatible with respect to assignment with the data types, and selecting one of the value from the value list for each value assignment; wherein, when compiling the value list, the number of the values to be accepted in the list being restricted in accordance with predefined rules depending on the current context, wherein a visualization of the window is first undertaken at a time of an initialization of the graphical user-interface and, after that, at least one of data and the value list is initialized, which are derived for a processing and wherein the value to be represented is transferred in a transfer syntax containing all necessary information for the representation with respect to the data type and the value assignment, the value transferable from the subtree to another subtree by intermediately storing and clicking on the subtree, and wherein the data type, whose exact type assignment can first be determined at execution time in accordance with a late binding principle, is inserted as a dynamically changeable subtree in the value tree represented by the graphical user-interface, and wherein additional information to be displayed is storable for each of the at least one node of the value tree which can be uniquely named by a displayed type and a relation to the higher-level type.