Method and system for providing multiple levels of help information for a computer program

A method for providing information for an intentional tree, the method comprising:

• providing a hierarchy of element types, each element type having associated information;
• providing an intentional tree, the intentional tree having elements with an element type;
• identifying ancestor element types of an element of the provided intentional tree;
• displaying an indication of each identified ancestor element type;
• and
• upon receiving a selection of a displayed ancestor element type, displaying information associated with the selected ancestor element type.

A method for providing information for an intentional tree, the method comprising:

• providing a specification of element types, an element type being defined as a specific instance derived from a more general element type, element types having associated help information;
• providing an intentional tree with elements, each element having an element type;
• identifying a derivation of element types of an element of the intentional tree, the derivation having multiple element types;
• displaying an indication of element types in the identified derivation;
• and
• upon receiving a selection of a displayed element type, displaying information associated with the selected element type.

A method for providing information for an intentional tree, the method comprising:

• providing a hierarchy of schemas defining valid intentional trees, each schema specifying element types at different levels of abstraction;
• providing an intentional tree with elements, each element having an element type;
• identifying a derivation of element types for an element of the provided intentional tree from the provided hierarchy of schemas, the derivation having multiple element types;
• and
• displaying an indication of element types in the identified derivation.

A system for providing information for an intentional tree, comprising:

• a data structure storing a hierarchy of schemas defining element types, each schema specifying element types of an intentional tree at different levels of abstraction;
• a store within an intentional tree having elements, each element having an element type;
• a component that identifies a derivation of element types for an element of the intentional tree from the stored hierarchy of schemas, the derivation having multiple element types;
• a component that displays an indication of element types in the identified derivation;
• and
• a component that displays information associated with an element type selected from the displayed indication of element types.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to provide information for an intentional tree, by a method comprising:

• providing an intentional tree having elements, each element having an element type, the element types being defined by a hierarchy of schemas specifying element types at different levels of abstraction;
• identifying a derivation of element types for an element of the provided intentional tree from the hierarchy of schemas, the derivation having multiple element types;
• displaying an indication of element types in the identified derivation;
• and
• displaying information associated with an element type selected from the displayed indication of element types.

A method for providing help information for an intentional tree, the method comprising:

• providing a hierarchical relationship for elements of the intentional tree;
• receiving from a user a selection of an element of the intentional tree;
• identifying a derivation of the provided hierarchical relationship for the identified element, the derivation having multiple elements, each element having an element type;
• displaying to the user the identified derivation;
• receiving from the user a selection of relationship of the displayed derivation;
• retrieving help information associated with the selected relationship;
• and
• displaying to the user the retrieved help information.