JPH0434662A - Device for supporting development of picture display program - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the efficiency of program development by displaying picture information inputted by a developer on a display screen at real time and adjusting the layout or color balance of the picture while observing the displayed picture. CONSTITUTION:The development supporting device is constituted of a display screen 1, a 1st picture storing part 2, a 2nd picture storing part 3, a display part 4, an input part 5, a graphic editor 6, an animation information storing part 7, an animation information extracting part 8, an objective language translating dictionary 9, and an animation information translating part 10. When the developer inputs information to be displayed on the screen, the information is immediately displayed on the display, so that the developer can design a picture while considering a layout, color balance, etc., based upon the displayed contents. Thereby, the source program of the objective language can be automatically generated from the picture information without newly coding the information. Thereby, also a developer who is not much experienced in program development can easily create a picture display program within a short time.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Table of Contents Summary Industrial Field of Application Conventional Technology Problems to be Solved by the Invention Means for Solving the Problems Examples Effects of the Invention Summary Regarding a device for supporting the development of a program, For the purpose of improving program development efficiency, dialogue with the operator is performed by displaying characters and figures on the screen of the target computer and changing part or all of the screen display according to transition factors. A development support device for a screen display program, which divides the display screen of a development computer into a plurality of areas, and stores screen information consisting of a plurality of attributes related to characters and figures to be displayed in the area for each divided area. a display unit that displays characters and figures in corresponding areas on the screen based on each piece of screen information in the screen information storage unit; and editing means that edits the screen information in the screen information storage unit. , a video information extraction unit that extracts content before and after the attribute changed by the editing means from the screen information, adds transition factor information to the content to generate video information, and stores this in a video information storage unit; a target language translation dictionary storing a series of command groups in the target language corresponding to a plurality of attributes constituting the screen information; and a command group extracted from the target language translation dictionary and stored in the video information storage unit. The apparatus includes a video information translation unit that sets and outputs parameters for each command based on the video information.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION FIELD The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting the development of computer programs, and in particular, for displaying characters and figures on the screen of a target computer and changing part or all of the display on the screen when a trigger occurs. The present invention relates to a device that supports the development of a screen display program for interacting with an operator.

In recent years, with the spread of Hersonal Computers, Microcombiners, etc., software has come to be used by a variety of people, and with this, more sophisticated computers, machines, etc.
An interface (MMI) is required. In the development of various types of software, operability is an important point, and in general, characters or figures are displayed on the screen and the user is asked to select the number or click the mouse on the figure, etc. We are taking measures to improve operability.

Developing such software naturally requires specialized knowledge and experience, and also takes a great deal of time. Particularly in the case of programs related to screen display, it is difficult to grasp the image of what will actually be displayed, so after creation, the program is executed on an actual device to make corrections and confirmations. Therefore, it is desired that even a person without such specialized knowledge can develop this program easily and in a short time.

2. Description of the Related Art In the development of conventional screen display programs, coding and compilation are carried out in accordance with design specifications, and the suitability of the program is determined by actually executing the program on a target computer.

In general, there is a considerable difference in impression between the screen image on the design specifications and the screen image on the target computer, and the layout, color balance, etc. on the target computer screen is inappropriate. In this case, modify the source program based on the prediction, compile it again, and actually run the program on the target computer.If it is not suitable, repeat this process and finally get a good screen. I'm trying to get it.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, since programming has traditionally been based on design specifications, developers (programmers) are required to have advanced knowledge and experience with programming languages, There was a problem that those who did not have one could not be involved in its development.

In addition, since it is not possible for developers to code while being aware of the screen layout and color balance on the target computer, the results should be checked by running them on the target computer after compilation, and if the results are not appropriate. However, there was a problem in that the program had to be modified, compiled, and checked many times until the result was suitable, and development took a long time.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and it is an object of the present invention to enable a person with experience in program development to easily create a screen display program in a short period of time.

Means for solving the problem In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the purpose is to display characters and figures on the display screen of the computer, and change part or all of the display on the screen depending on the transition factor (occurrence of a trigger). By modifying the present invention, a device whose principle configuration is shown in FIG. 1 is provided as a development support device for a screen display program that interacts with an operator.

That is, this device divides the display screen 1 of the display of the development computer into a plurality of areas, and for each divided area, a plurality of attributes (display position, color, blinking, etc.) related to characters and figures to be displayed in the area are set. first and second screen information storage sections 2.3 that store screen information (presence/absence, normal display/inverted display, brightness, displayed text or graphics, etc.); a display unit 4 that displays characters and figures in corresponding areas on the screen 1 of the display based on each screen information;
Based on the input from the input unit 5, the screen information in the first screen information storage unit 2 is edited, and the screen information in the first screen information storage unit 2 is transferred to the second screen information storage unit before writing the editing result. 3.

Then, the first screen information storage section 2 and the second screen information storage 83 are compared, and the contents of the screen information before and after the change of the attribute changed by the graphic editor 6 are extracted, and the contents are added to the input section 83. a video information extracting unit 8 that adds transition factor information (trigger information) from the above to create video information and stores it in a video information storage unit 7; The target language translation dictionary 9 stores the command group, and the command group is extracted from the target language translation dictionary 9, and parameters are set for each command based on the video information stored in the previous language video information Δ self memory section 7. and a video information translation unit 10 that outputs the video information.

For production Reference is made to the flowchart of the process of the present invention shown in FIG.

In the following description, for convenience, one piece of screen information corresponding to each category stored in the first screen information storage section 2 may be referred to as a package.

The developer first creates an initial screen (basic screen) using the input unit 5 and the graphic editor 6 (step 201). This is done by manually inputting the attribute information for each package, and when the manual input of the - package is finished, the display unit 4 displays it at the corresponding position (section) on the screen 1. The developer looks at this display while creating the product, taking into account color balance and layout.

Once you have finished creating the initial screen, while looking at the initial screen, enter the attribute information about the package that you want to change, taking into account the color balance and layout, and create the transition screen (changed by the transition factor on the purpose calculator). A new screen) is created (step 202). Next, the corresponding transition factor information (trigger information) is manually registered (step 203). At this point, the video information extraction unit 8 stores the changed attribute information of the changed package in the video information storage unit 7 together with the trigger information.

When creating another screen, the process returns to step 202 and performs similar processing, and when all transition screens have been created, the process advances to step 205 (step 204). In step 205, the video information translation unit 10 retrieves all the video information stored in the video information storage unit 7, and refers to the target language translation dictionary 9 to determine the source program for the desired screen display. generated.

Next, this source program for screen display is embedded in an application program (source program) (step 206), and these are compiled to finally create an executable program (step 207).

In this way, the screen information manually generated by the developer is displayed on the display screen 1 in real time, and the layout and color balance can be adjusted while looking at it, so the screen can be adjusted to display a screen with a good layout and color balance. Display programs can be created efficiently. Furthermore, since a screen display program can be created without being aware of the programming language, even people with little programming experience can participate in its development.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. 1 and FIGS. 3 to 8, focusing on the flow of operations by a developer.

First, refer to FIG. Before starting the development of the screen display program, the screen information is not stored, so the developer inputs information about each attribute of each package using the input unit 5 and the graphic editor 6, for example, packages A and An initial screen 1a consisting of B is created.

The input information is sequentially stored in the first side information storage section 2, retrieved by the display section 4, and displayed on the screen of the display 1 in real time. The developer can determine the layout, colors, etc. as appropriate while looking at this screen, and if it is not suitable, he can immediately make corrections. When the creation of the initial screen is completed, the graphic editor 6 copies all the information stored in the first screen information storage section 2 to the first screen information storage #B3.

After creating the initial screen, create the next screen that changes from this screen by some trigger (key input by the operator of the target program, mouse click, signal sent from the communication line, etc.). The developer uses the input section 5 and the graphic editor 6 to select the package (
For example, select packages A and B), change their attributes as appropriate to make them packages A" and Bo, and obtain the modified screen 1b. Before and after this, the corresponding trigger information is also input. At this point The package that has been modified in the first screen information storage section 2 is copied to the corresponding second screen information storage section 3.The developer can create a series of display screens by repeatedly creating modified screens and inputting trigger information. design.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen display during the above-mentioned screen design and screen information corresponding thereto.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a transition base screen which is the screen that is the basis of the change, and this is assumed to change to transition base screen work 2 by a predetermined trigger. 13 is area 1 of the transition base screen 11
Transition base screen information corresponding to 1a, 14 is transition back surface 1
This is transition back surface information corresponding to the area 12a of No. 2. This screen information 13° 14 includes a plurality of attributes, namely display position,
It consists of color, presence or absence of blinking, normal display/reverse display, brightness, and display text (including graphics), and the first
This is stored in the screen information storage section 2 or the first screen information storage section 3. Note that this screen information also includes the package number and the number of the screen displayed based on this information.

Initially, the transition base screen information 13 is stored in the first screen information storage section 2, and the screen is displayed based on this information (see transition base screen 11). This transition base screen information 13 is copied to the second screen information storage section 3 in units of packages before the next screen design is started. The developer changes the color (blue to red), blinking (normal to blinking), and reverse display (normal to reverse) among the attributes of the transition base screen information 13. The corresponding package in the first screen information storage unit 2 becomes the post-transition surface information 14, and the display is performed on the screen based on this (see the post-transition surface 12). If the developer looks at this screen and determines that it is not appropriate, he can make further changes, and if it is appropriate, he inputs predetermined trigger information and moves on to designing the next screen. In the design of the next screen, the above-mentioned post-transition surface information 14 will become the transition base screen information, and the above-mentioned operations are repeated to design all the screens.

Returning to FIG. 1, at the time when the developer inputs the trigger information, the video information extraction unit 8 compares the contents of the first screen information storage unit 2 and the second screen information storage unit 3, and determines whether any changes have been made. Extracts information before and after the change for attributes that have been changed in the package. That is, differential package information 15 as shown in FIG. 3 is obtained. Then, predetermined information including trigger information is added to this to create video information, and the video information storage unit 7
Store in.

This moving image information is structured as shown in FIG. That is, the screen number 41 for distinguishing this screen from other screens, the previous screen number 42 leading to this screen, the trigger information 43 that is a factor when changing to this screen, and the next screen that changes from this screen. The total number of screens is 44, the next screen number 45 corresponding to this total number, and the differential package information number 46 corresponding to this number 45. This differential package information number 4
6 corresponds to the package difference information 15 in FIG. The reason why there are multiple next screen numbers 45 and differential package information numbers 46 for one piece of video information is that, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, only the previous display screen 16 changes to the current display screen 17; From the current display screen 17 -
This is because depending on the trigger, the screen may change to the next display screen 18, and depending on another trigger, the screen may change to the next display screen 19. Such moving image information is generated for all images f that change due to the occurrence of various triggers in the target program.

Once all screens have been created, video information translation department 1
0 extracts a series of commands corresponding to each attribute of the screen information from the target language translation dictionary 9, sets parameters to the commands based on the video information stored in the video information storage section 7, and outputs them one after another.

As a result, the target source program is generated.

The target language translation dictionary 9 is prepared according to the specifications of the language in which the target program is written. For example, when even one element (attribute) is changed, settings for all elements are required. If a certain language is used, the dictionary will be as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, this dictionary is composed of a series of commands corresponding to each attribute of the package (position, color, blinking, inversion, brightness, content). In the figure, "&" indicates a parameter to be set, and "@" indicates a parameter to which current data, that is, previous setting data should be inherited as is. - For example, LOCATE (&X, &Y)
, rLOcATEJ is a command that specifies the display position of text (characters or figures), and the parameters in parentheses are the parameters that this command takes, and &X and &Y are the X and Y coordinate values to be set. It is.

For example, if a source program is generated based on the differential package information 15 shown in FIG. 40,
10) Brightness: (OFF) Text content: (AAAAAA), and the information taken from the difference package information 15 indicating the changed elements is: Color: (RED) blinking
: (ON) Inversion : (ON), and as a result, it is expanded as LOCATE (40,10) COLOR (RED) BRINK (ON) REVER3E (ON) BRIGHT (OFF) PRINT AAAAAA”).

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the specifications of the screen display program to be developed, and the specifications of this screen display program are as follows. That is, the entire display screen is divided into three areas, and the first
The area 20a is a display to alert the operator (program user) when an abnormality occurs, and the second area 20b is a display for the operator to select a process (for example, an instruction to start accessing a floppy disk). The third area 20c is used for a display to inform the operator whether or not the floppy disk device can be used.

The display in the third area 20C on screen ■ is blue rFL.
P: OKJ is displayed, and when the operator instructs to start accessing the floppy disk, the start of access to the floppy disk is used as a trigger to change the display in the third area 20c to red/inverted rFLP:
After the floppy disk access ends, if the access ends normally, this will be used as a trigger to display the blue rFLP: OK'' in the 311th area 20C, which is the same as the screen ■). ), if the access ends abnormally, this is used as a trigger to access the first area 20.
a white rSET FLP and RETR
YJ is displayed, and the third area 20c is displayed using blue rFLP.
: OK” (screen ■).

Finally, from the screen ■, another input by the operator is used as a trigger to return to the screen ■. It is assumed that the display in the second area 20b is the same in all the screens (2) to (2), and that nothing is displayed in the first area 20H in the screens (2) and (2).

Based on the above specifications, the developer creates and registers the initial screen ■ while looking at the display, changes the third area of the screen ■ to create the screen ■, and registers "start access" as trigger information. There are two types of transitions from screen ■: normal access termination and abnormal access termination, so change the third area 20C of screen ■ to make it the same screen as screen ■, and change "access normal termination". Register as trigger information. Then, after returning the display screen to the screen ■, the first area 20a and the third area 20C of the screen ■ are changed, and "access abnormal end" is registered as trigger information. Finally, erase the characters displayed in the first area 20a of the screen ■ with spaces to create the screen ■,
``Other input'' by the operator is registered as trigger information and the design operation is completed.

When this operation is completed, video information for each screen ■ to ■ is obtained, and based on this video information and the target language translation dictionary shown in FIG. 6, the 81st! A source program as shown in I is generated.

In addition, in FIG. 8, the second screen area 20b described above is omitted because there is no change.

On the right side of Figure 8, (a) is an executable statement for displaying the initial screen ■, which displays a space at position (1, 1) and erases it if a character is displayed). ! f(6
0, 25), "rFLP: OK" is displayed in blue. (b) is an executable statement for transitioning from screen ■ to screen ■,
rFLP: NGJ in red/inverted at position 1 (60°25)
Display. (1) is an executable statement for transitioning from screen ■ to screen ■ or screen ■, and in the case of normal termination (RC = 0
) returns to label 5TART, and in case of abnormal termination (RC
=1) is rSET FLP in white at position W(1,1)
and RETRYJ is displayed. (1) is an executable statement for transitioning from screen ■ to screen ■, and is labeled 5
Return to TART. In this way, the screen conditions of the transition destination are the same (
If there is a destination screen number (already generated), press G
Optimization is achieved by writing OTO statements and the like.

Effects of the Invention As detailed above, by using the screen display program development support device according to the present invention, when a developer inputs information to be displayed on the screen, this information is immediately displayed on the display, and based on this information, the developer can input the information to be displayed on the screen. Screens can be designed taking layout, color balance, etc. into consideration, and unlike screen design on a desk, images can be realized through visual perception, which has the effect of greatly improving the efficiency of screen design. .

In addition, since the source program in the target language is automatically generated from the screen information without having to code again, developers can develop it in a short time even if they do not have advanced programming knowledge or experience. It has a great effect when it becomes like this.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram of the principle of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a processing flowchart of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of screen information, etc. in an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 4 is a diagram showing video information in an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram of screen changes in the embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of the target language translation dictionary in the embodiment of the present invention; Figure 7 is the diagram in the embodiment of the present invention. An explanatory diagram of the specifications of the program to be developed. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing processing results in an embodiment of the present invention. 5... Input section, 6... Graphic editor, 7... Video information storage section, 8... Video information extraction section, 9... Target language translation dictionary, 10... Video information translation section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A screen display program that displays characters and figures on the screen of a target computer and that interacts with an operator by changing part or all of the display on the screen according to transition factors. A development support device that divides a display screen (1) of a development computer into a plurality of areas, and stores screen information consisting of a plurality of attributes regarding characters and figures to be displayed in the area for each divided area. A screen information storage unit (2) and a screen (1) based on each screen information in the screen information storage unit (2).
) The display section that displays characters and figures in the corresponding areas on the top (
4), editing means (5, 6) for editing the screen information in the screen information storage section (2), and contents before and after changes of the attributes of the screen information changed by the editing means (5, 6). is extracted, transition factor information is added to the content to create video information, and this is stored in the video information storage unit (
7); and a target language translation dictionary (8) storing a series of commands in the target language corresponding to the plurality of attributes constituting the screen information.
9) and the command group from the target language translation dictionary (9),
Development of a screen display program characterized by comprising a video information translation unit (10) that sets and outputs parameters for each command based on the video information stored in the video information storage unit (7). Support equipment.