Patent ID: 7111253

Claim:
A method for displaying hierarchical information, where the information can be represented as a set of nodes wherein each node is associated with a portion of the information and the nodes are connected by directed edges wherein a node has at most one incoming edge, a parent node is the source of an incoming edge, a child node is the target of an outgoing edge, a root node is a node with no incoming edge, a leaf node is a node with no outgoing edges, a subtree is a portion of the nodes such that there is only one node in the portion of nodes that has a parent outside the portion of nodes, and a path is a sequence of nodes, in a two-dimensional structure comprising: a) generating display specifications for a segmented treetable display of the hierarchical information having segments wherein each segment comprises at least 1 subtree, the at least 1 subtree having no more than a single parent of the root of the at least one subtree outside the segment, and the segments are arranged relative to each other such that all children of any given node are substantially adjacent to each other, b) generating display specifications for a treetable for a selected segment of the segmented treetable display, wherein the treetable comprises a two-dimensional structure for containing cells associated with each node in the selected segment wherein the number of the plurality of rows equals the number of the nodes in the longest path in the selected segment, and the number of the plurality of columns equals the total number of the nodes of the segment which do not have children in the segment, and c) generating display specifications for a two-dimensional display space for displaying the hierarchical information divided into at least two display portions, wherein a first display portion displays at least a portion of the segmented treetable display, and a second display portion displays at least a portion of a treetable for a selected segment of the segmented treetable display.