Universal script editor

#The present invention is generally directed to a script editor and, more specifically, to a universal script editor for creating scripts with arbitrary syntax.

#Today, many software and/or hardware development activities use some kind of script interpreter/script compiler engine, which takes a set of textual script command/data structures and interprets/compiles the commands/data structures and provides appropriate processing of the commands/data. For example, a personal computer (PC) with a 1553 card may have a script interpreter engine that takes a file of commands and converts the commands into 1553 I/O messages, data comparisons and pass/fail checks, thereby, controlling and monitoring a system under test. Tool command language (TCL) is one such script interpreter engine that has been used for controlling and monitoring a system under test.

#While standard editors are often used to support the generation of executable scripts, such standard editors are generally inefficient as they have no knowledge of the specifics of the system under test. Alternatively, custom editor applications have been written that support a project-defined command syntax. However, creating/maintaining custom editors can become costly and time-consuming as command syntax is often unique and quite different from one project to the next project.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system for executing a universal script editor for creating scripts with arbitrary syntax, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a screen dump of an exemplary menu that has been customized through the use of a configuration file, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 3 is a screen dump of another exemplary menu that has been customized through the use of a configuration file, according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

#The present invention is directed to a software application that takes the form of a customizable universal script editor. According to the present invention, the script editor utilizes a configuration file to configure a set of menus that are specific to a project—with a menu structure, command names, command source files and other options defined by a user. More than one menu system can be defined, with each menu system associated with the type of the file being edited. These menus can then be used to rapidly build-up scripts for a current project using a general purpose editing window provided by the script editor. Changing from one project to another project, or one file type to another, with a different syntax, command structure and/or menu structures is simply a matter of creating a different configuration file and any supporting script templates, and reading the configuration file into the script editor.

#The configuration file may identify user created individual or multi-command script text files of an appropriate syntax for each command/function that a user supplied script interpreter engine requires. In this manner, the configuration file identifies menu/command names and structures and may include locations and names of files and/or text containing commands for a user's system. A project specific configuration file can provide the information to the script editor in a variety of ways. For example, the configuration file may provide the location/names of the files containing the project specific and/or generic script command structures. Alternatively, or in addition, the command text can be contained within the configuration file.

#The configuration file also defines a menu structure for the project, i.e., the number of menus, names and position of the menus, as well as the menu items for each menu structure, i.e., the number of menu items, the name of the menu items and the position of command names associated with the menu items. The configuration file may also contain keyword definitions that are used for highlighting, automatic indentation and outlining and may provide parameter names on pull-down menus for various parameters contained within a project specific and/or generic script command.