Method for visual programming with aid of animation

A method for making a program for processing a target object to be processed by the program by using example visual objects of the target object, comprising the steps, executed by a computer system having a display device and a processor to produce a desired result under control of an application program:

• (a) calling a set-up subroutine of the application program and user entering example visual objects under control of the set-up subroutine;
• (b) storing at least some of the example visual objects as arguments for commands of the application program;
• (c) displaying commands and their arguments of the application program;
• (d) executing built-in commands of the application program, and calling a user program corresponding to user commands that are not built-in commands and executing such user commands;
• (e) storing a first sequence of operations which produce the desired result with the first example visual object of the target object, including the steps of
• (e1) inputting a command requesting execution of an operation on a visual object,
• (e2) automatically executing the operation in response to the inputted command,
• (e3) displaying visual information related to the executing result of the operation as an aid for an operator to select an appropriate additional command,
• (e4) repeating the steps (e1) to (e3), until the desired result is obtained by execution of a sequence of operations requested by inputted commands and storing the sequence of the operations as the first sequence of operations;
• (f) executing the first sequence of operations on at least a second example object of the target object;
• (g) repeating the step (e) for the second visual object, when execution by the step (f) turns out to be unsuccessful in producing the desired result, to obtain a second sequence of operations which produce the desired result with the second example visual object;
• and
• (h) storing the program as a combination of a first partial program which executes the first sequence of operations on the target object and a second partial program which executes the second sequence of operations, when execution of the first sequence of operations on the target object turns out to be unsuccessful.

A device for writing a program to produce an expected result, comprising:

• a visual display;
• an information entry system;
• a central processing unit;
• a memory having an application program for controlling said visual display, said information entry system, and said memory by programming the central processing unit for the writing of the program;
• said memory having an instruction set of a plurality of built-in commands, some of which are to be used for the program, which said built-in commands require arguments for execution by said central processing unit;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for displaying a scene prompting entry of arguments and at least one of a user command and built-in command;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for storing in a program history said commands and their arguments in order as they are entered by said information entry system;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for interpreting said commands and executing said interpreted commands with the associated arguments to produce a result;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for interpreting the success of the execution of at least one command with respect to an expected result to provide a corresponding one of a failure signal and a success signal;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for displaying, in response to said failure signal, a new scene with said visual display prompting entry of at least one additional command that operates upon at least one of the arguments of the failed command for alternate execution to produce the expected result;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for interpreting said additional command upon its entry and executing said additional command immediately thereafter with respect to said at least one argument of the failed command without requiring reentry of said at least one argument to produce an additional result of execution of said additional command;
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display, in response to production of said additional result, judging the success or failure of said additional result with respect to said expected result and producing a corresponding one of an additional success signal and an additional failure signal;
• in response to said additional success signal, said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for displaying the additional result;
• in response to receipt of said additional failure signal, said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for displaying an additional scene prompting entry of at least an additional different command executable with respect to said at least one argument to produce the expected result;
• and
• said application program controlling said central processing unit, memory, information entry system and visual display for saving a program representation of the command history, including the sequence of entered commands and arguments.

A method of writing a program to produce an expected result with a user interfacing with a computer system having a user entry system, a central processing unit, a memory having an application program with a command set, and a display, comprising the steps, performed under control of the application program, of:

• user entering a first argument as user data of a general one argument type and saving said argument;
• displaying a scene on said display prompting user entry of at least one command of said command set that is executable with respect to arguments of said one argument type;
• user entering one command, with said one command being of a type that is executable with respect to at least some arguments of said one argument type and storing said one command in a program history;
• thereafter automatically executing said one command with respect to said user data to produce a specific execution result dependent upon the specific user data;
• thereafter automatically judging the specific execution result with respect to the expected result for producing one of a failure signal and a success signal in accordance with said judging;
• in response to said success signal, automatically outputting the result and repeating the preceding steps in order until the first user program is complete;
• in response to said failure signal, displaying a new scene automatically on said display prompting user entry of an additional command that is executable with respect to arguments of said one argument type and user entering the additional command;
• thereafter, in response to said entering of said additional command, automatically executing the additional command with the specific user data without reentry of the specific user data to produce an additional result dependent upon the specific user data;
• thereafter automatically judging the additional result with respect to the expected result for producing one of a second failure signal and a second success signal in accordance with said judging;
• in response to said second success signal, automatically outputting the results and repeating all of the preceding steps in order to produce a branch program;
• in response to said second failure signal, displaying a new scene automatically on said display prompting user entry of a second additional command;
• repeating said steps to produce a program that is complete with respect to the specific user data executed with success;
• and
• saving a program representation of the first and branch programs with the specific user data executed only with success, in order, without reentry, in a form reusable with the application program to produce the expected result with data of the one argument type.

A method of operating a computer system under control of an application program for automatically writing a branch program for an existing program, which includes a user program and an application program, in response to failure of the existing program with respect to new data, comprising the steps of:

• providing the user program portion of the existing program in memory in a form representative of a sequence of operations executable with respect to specific data of a general data type;
• thereafter, entering specific new data of the general data type;
• thereafter, automatically executing said operations with respect to said specific data, in the order of said existing program to produce corresponding execution results;
• thereafter, at selected positions within said sequence of operations, the application program judging whether the execution result corresponds to an expected result of the existing program and accordingly producing one of a success signal and a failure signal;
• in response to the success signal, automatically executing subsequent commands in said sequence of operations of the existing program;
• and
• in response to said failure signal, automatically inserting a conditional branch operation in said existing program with the condition being said failure and prompting user revision of said existing program to provide a new sequence of operations executable with respect to said data type in a branch program reached the application programming calling the conditional branch operation upon failure of the user program by said conditional branch operation.

A method for making a program that includes user programs and an application program by using examples of data to be processed thereby, comprising the steps to be executed by a computer system under control of the application program:

• (a) storing a main user program that has first sequence of commands which produces a result desired by the program with first data, including the steps of,
• (a1) inputting an operator-selected command to be executed,
• (a2) executing the inputted command,
• (a3) outputting information related to an executing result of the command as an aid for an operator to select an appropriate command to be inputted additionally, and
• (a4) repeating the steps (a1) to (a3), until a sequence of commands required to obtain the desired result with the first data is inputted and storing the sequence of commands as the first sequence;
• (b) repeating the step (a) at least for second data to store a branch user program that has a second sequence of commands which produces the result desired when the second data fails to produce the desired result with execution of the first sequence of commands;
• and
• (c) forming the program as a combination of the application program, the main user program which executes operations requested by the first sequence of commands on the data and at least one branch user program which executes the second sequence of commands when execution of the first sequence of commands turns out to be unsuccessful in producing the desired result.

A method for making a program for processing a target object to be processed by the program to produce a desired result, by using example visual objects of the target object, comprising the steps executed by a computer system having a processor under control of an application program:

• (a) determining a main user program of a first sequence of operations required to be executed on a first example visual object of the target object, to produce the desired result, including the steps of;
• (a1) inputting a command requesting execution of an operation on a visual object,
• (a2) automatically executing the operation in response to the inputting command,
• (a3) automatically outputting information related to the executing result of the operation as an aid for an operator to select an appropriate additional command, and
• (a4) repeating the steps of (a1) to (a3), until the desired result is obtained by execution of operations requested by operator-selected appropriate commands and storing the sequence of the commands of the steps (a1) to (a3) that produce the desired result as the main user program of the first sequence of operations;
• (b) executing the first sequence of operations on at least a second example visual object of the target object;
• (c) automatically repeating the step (a) for the second example visual object, when execution by the step (b) turns out to be unsuccessful in producing the desired result, to obtain a branch user program of a second sequence of operations executed on the second example visual object which produce the desired result;
• and
• (d) storing a program as a combination of the application program, the main user program which executes the first sequence of operations on the target object and the branch user program which executes the second sequence of operations, when execution of the first sequence of operations on the target object turns out to be unsuccessful.

A method of writing a program using a computer system, under the control of an application program, having a set of built-in commands and storage for user commands, comprising the steps of:

• user entering a sequence of commands to produce a desired program result;
• by means of the application program, judging whether each of the entered commands is one of the application program built-in commands or a user command, after user entry of the command;
• for each command that is judged to be a built-in command, executing the built-in command prior to entry of the following command in the sequence of commands;
• for each command that is judged to be a user command, executing the user command prior to the entry for the following command in the sequence of commands when the user command is a user command stored in the computer system;
• and
• when the-user command is judged not a user command stored in the computer system, calling a branch subroutine of the application program that prompts the user to enter a branch sequence of commands to accomplish the purpose of the last mentioned user command and storing the branch sequence of commands as a subroutine thereafter called by the user command.

A method for making a program having a program name used for fetching and executing the program, with aid of a computer system, comprising steps executed by the computer system, the steps including:

• (a) inputting a command selected by an operator of the computer system so as to process one example data of one data type to be processed by the program:
• (b) executing the command from the preceding said step of inputting to process the one example data and produce a result;
• (c) informing the operator of the result from said executing;
• (d) repeating said steps (a) through (c) for sequentially inputting and executing commands continuously until an inputted command is an input ending command selected by the operator so that one series of commands required to process the one example data are inputted;
• (e) storing under the program name the one series of commands in a form to be fetched in the order of their sequential inputting as a one program routine for processing the one data type that is part of the program so that the one program routine will be executed for data of the one data type when the program is subsequently fetched;
• and
• thereafter repeating said steps (a) through (e) for at least another example data of a different data type to be processed by the program for thereby storing another series of commands as another program routine for processing the different data type to be subsequently executed for the different type of data to be processed by the program when execution of the program is requested at a later time;
• and
• said storing combining both the one and another program routines as parts of the program under the program name.

A method for making a program with aid of a computer system, comprising steps executed by the computer system, the steps including:

• (a) inputting a command selected by an operator of the computer system so as to process one example data of one data type to be processed by the program:
• (b) executing the command from the preceding said step of inputting to process the one example data and produce a result;
• (c) informing the operator of the result from said executing;
• (d) repeating said steps (a) through (c) for sequentially inputting and executing commands continuously until an inputted command is an input ending command selected by the operator so that one series of commands required to process the one example data are inputted;
• (e) storing the one series of commands in a form to be fetched as a one program routine for processing the one data type that is part of the program so that the one program routine will be executed for data of the one data type when the program is subsequently fetched;
• thereafter repeating said steps (a) through (e) for at least another example data of a different data type to be processed by the program for thereby storing another series of commands as another program routine for processing the different data type to be subsequently executed for the different type of data to be processed by the program when execution of the program is requested at a later time;
• and
• controlling said repeating of said storing step so that the one program routine is stored for execution with new data on subsequent running of the program and the another program routine is stored for automatic execution with the same data upon failure in executing a command of the one program routine.

A method for making a program, with aid of a computer system and an operator, comprising steps executed by the computer system, the steps including:

• (a) inputting a command selected by the operator of the computer system so as to process one example data of one data type to be processed by the program:
• (b) executing the command from said step of inputting to process the one example data and produce a result;
• (c) informing the operator of the result from said executing;
• (d) repeating said steps (a) through (c) a plurality of times so that one series of commands are inputted;
• (e) storing the one series of commands to form one program routine to be used as the program for execution with subsequent data to be processed by the program upon subsequent running of the program;
• (f) reexecuting the one program routine for subsequent data upon subsequent running of the program for processing the subsequent data by the program in response to a request by the operator;
• (g) informing the operator of failure in the event of failure of one command of the one program routine in processing the subsequent data by said reexecuting of the one program routine with the subsequent data;
• (h) in response to the failure, repeating said steps of (a) to (e) so that another series of commands selected by the operator to process the subsequent data without failure are inputted and stored so that together with the one program routine constitutes the program;
• and
• (i) in response to the failure, controlling the storing of the another series of commands so that the another program routine is executed in the event that the one program routine fails during its execution when the complete program is subsequently run.

A method for making a program, with aid of a computer system and an operator, comprising steps executed by the computer system, the steps including:

• (a) inputting a command selected by an operator of the computer system so as to process data:
• (b) executing the command from said step of inputting to process the data and produce a result;
• (c) informing the operator of the result from said executing;
• (d) repeating said steps (a) through (c) a plurality of times for inputting one series of commands until there is a failure in said executing;
• (e) storing the one series of commands to form one program routine;
• (f) informing the operator of the failure;
• (g) repeating said steps (a) through (f) in response to said informing the operator of failure for inputting and storing another series of commands in addition to said one series of commands;
• and
• (h) in response to the failure, controlling the storing of the another series of commands so that the another series of commands forms another program routine to be automatically executed upon failure of the one program routine.

A method for assisting the making of a program with a computer system, comprising steps executed by the computer system under control of an operator, the steps including:

• (a) inputting a command selected by the operator to process data to be processed by the program;
• (b) displaying the command inputted by said preceding step of inputting within a first reserved region of a screen of a display apparatus within the computer system;
• (c) executing the command of said preceding step of inputting for processing the data to produce a result;
• (d) informing the operator of the result of execution of the command according the preceding said executing;
• (e) repeating said steps (a) through (d) a plurality of times for inputting one series of commands until a failure of said executing occurs;
• (f) repeating said steps (a) through (e) in response to the failure with said step of displaying during repeating displaying the command within a second reserved region of the screen separate from the first region of the screen for inputting another series of commands that will successfully process the example data being used when the failure occurred.