Patent ID: 7779356

Claim:
A method of avoiding pop-up windows and excessive scrolling while displaying data sub-items corresponding to an object displayed on a computer screen, the method comprising: determining that a cursor is initially hovering over the object on the computer screen, wherein the object represents a variable incorporated into a line of program code that is currently displayed on the computer screen; evaluating the object to determine if the object: has a variable value; and has related data sub-items; assembling variable values for the object and the related data sub-items; and generating an expansion tree of data tips incorporating an auto-expansion feature, the auto-expansion feature comprising: displaying on the computer screen the values of the object in a parent data tip, the parent data tip containing a first expansion widget indicator of the related data sub-items; determining that the cursor is next hovering over the first expansion widget indicator, and automatically launching a first child data tip that is a part of the expansion tree of data tips, the first child data tip displaying the related data sub-items together with associated data values for each individual data sub-item; and automatically dismissing the first child data tip upon determining that the cursor has been moved out of the first child data tip and is hovering inside the parent data tip.