System construction assistance apparatus, method, and recording medium

A method comprising:

• displaying, on a first display screen included in a computer, a plurality of units, which are components connectable to slots of a programmable logic controller, each of the plurality of units belonging to one of a plurality of categories comprising a power source category, a central processing unit category, and a motion control category, such that the units are sorted by category;
• receiving, by the computer, a first input to select one unit from the displayed units;
• generating, by the computer, a system configuration diagram based on the received first input;
• displaying the generated system configuration diagram on a second display screen included in the computer;
• and
• after the receiving of the first input and before receiving a next input, determining, on a per category basis which is a larger basis than a per unit basis, a category from among the plurality of categories to which a unit to be selected by the next input belongs based on a category from among the plurality of categories of the selected one unit and based on a plurality of first inputs received in a past and outputting the determined category as a candidate category, and
• wherein the determining the candidate category comprises:
• counting for each of selection combinations comprising a first unit from a first category and a second unit from a second category that is selected before the first unit, a number of times the first unit and the second unit are selected in combination,
• storing, in a memory, a first summary information comprising a count value, obtained based on the counting, indicating the number of times the respective selection combination was selected from among the selection combinations,
• updating a second summary information, which indicates per category selection combinations, based on the count value stored in the first summary information, and
• determining the candidate category based on values stored in the second summary information.

A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded a program for causing a computer to execute:

• displaying, on a first display screen, a plurality of units, which are components connectable to slots of a programmable logic controller, each of the plurality of units belonging to one of a plurality of categories comprising a power source category, a central processing unit category, and a motion control category, such that the units are sorted by category;
• receiving a first input to select one unit from the units displayed on the first display screen;
• generating a system configuration diagram based on the received first input and displaying the generated system configuration diagram on a second display screen;
• and
• after the receiving of the first input and before a next input is received, determining, on a per category basis which is a larger basis than a per unit basis, a category from among the plurality of categories to which a unit to be selected by the next input belongs based on a category from among the plurality of categories of the selected one unit and based on a plurality of first inputs received in a past and outputting the determined category as a candidate category,
• wherein the determining the candidate category comprises:
• counting for each of selection combinations comprising a first unit from a first category and a second unit from a second category that is selected before the first unit, a number of times the first unit and the second unit are selected in combination,
• storing, in a memory, a first summary information comprising a count value, obtained based on the counting, indicating the number of times the respective selection combination was selected from among the selection combinations,
• updating a second summary information, which indicates per category selection combinations, based on the count value stored in the first summary information, and
• wherein the candidate category is determined based on values stored in the second summary information.