Patent ID: 8756539

Claim:
A non-transitory computer accessible memory medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement: displaying a circuit diagram on a display, wherein the circuit diagram comprises a plurality of electronic components connected by nets, wherein the circuit diagram comprises one or more modular blocks which represent a circuit portion in a hierarchical fashion; storing a global netlist that stores information regarding the nets of the circuit diagram; receiving user input modifying the circuit diagram, wherein said modifying comprises connecting a first net to a second net, wherein the first net and the second net each have a respective name; updating the global netlist in response to the user input modifying the circuit diagram, wherein updating the global netlist comprises automatically updating one or more names of one or more of the nets, wherein automatically updating the one or more names comprises automatically preempting the name of the first net with the name of the second net in response to determining that the name of the second net has a higher priority than the name of the first net; and updating the circuit diagram on the display after said updating the global netlist, wherein said updating is performed based on the information in the updated global netlist, wherein updating the circuit diagram comprises displaying the updated names; wherein said receiving user input, said updating the global netlist, and said updating the circuit diagram are performed a plurality of times, such that said updating the global netlist and said updating the circuit diagram are performed dynamically during edit time.