Method for Integrating Structured Data and String Data on a Text Processing System

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the formatting of data files in a text processing system for storage, display, printing or communication. More particularly, this invention relates to methods for automatically integrating data processing fixed length fields and word processing variable length fields into the same data records in a text processing system.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Prior art computer systems tended to support either "DP Data" or "WP Data". DP (data processing) data is typically characterized as having structured fields of fixed length, that is, each field is the same length in every record of a file regardless of how much data it actually contains. When the data does not entirely fill the field positions, the system adds "null" or "blank" characters until the field is full. DP data fields typically contain only graphic data characters (letters, numbers, symbols). The processing of DP data is usually concerned with the reorganization of data by value, the summarization of data by value, the generation of new data values or the collection of data values in long term data bases. WP (word or text processing) data is characterized by variable length field text or string data which contain both graphic data characters and format control characters, such as carrier returns, tabs, font change, etc. The processing of WP data is usually concerned with text formatting, such as character, word, line, paragraph or page orientation, type styles, pagination, margin text, and footnotes, with little or no regard for the data values.

Prior art computer systems for processing DP data were typically large and expensive hardware boxes, such as the IBM system/370, capable of being programmed by the user to provide a variety of functions with structured data. On the other hand, prior art WP systems, such as the IBM office system 6, tended to be relatively inexpensive and preprogrammed to provide function similar to those of an office typewriter. As technology has advanced, the cost of computing power per instruction has been reduced drastically in recent years. Stemming from the lower cost of computing power is an effort to support both DP data processing and WP data processing on the same computer system. The prior art systems which have attempted to integrate DP data and WP data on a single system have typically required that the data be maintained in separate files and have required a run through a conversion routine to process the data as either DP data or WP data. An example of a text processing program for use on a DP system is the IBM program product "Document Composition Facility" marketed in 1978 for the IBM System/370.

The present invention discloses a method for operating a processor driven text processing machine which is capable of integrating and processing structured field DP data and variable length field WP text data containing format codes in the same logical record. A control system displays to the operator a menu of predetermined data types to be selected by the operator in defining data fields in a record. The operator selects a field type for each field of the record in the order in which data will be entered for the records. Additionally, the system may request a field length specifying the maximum length for each structured field. The field type descriptions and lengths are stored and used by the control system to construct records which are added to the file when data is entered. For each WP data field type that is entered, the system constructs and substitutes a fixed-length pointer to storage locations wherein the text and format control codes for the WP data are stored. Upon recall of the records from storage for display or printing, the fixed length fields are displayed or printed in the order of entry including the pointer code for the text (WP data). The text data is displayed or printed under the control of the stored format control codes in the order of its entry following the fixed-length data for each record.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interactive text processing system embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a functional diagram of the microprocessor shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a functional diagram illustrating the data flow path between portions of the memory and the microprocessor and the display refresh buffer;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of the display shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 illustrates the storage of data in the Storage device shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 illustrates the display of the data as it would appear in the printer device or display device of FIG. 1, in accordance with the present invention.

The invention will now be described as embodied in an interactive text processing system of the type shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the text processing system illustrated therein comprises a keyboard 10, a microprocessor 11, a display refresh buffer 12, a display device 14, a printer 15, and an auxiliary direct access storage device 16 such as a disk drive. A clock 17, for keeping the various components of the system in synchronism, is also shown in FIG. 1 and is effectively coupled to each of the units.

Keyboard 10 comprises a normal set of graphic symbol keys such as letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and special character keys, plus text format or control keys like carriage return, tab, index, etc. In addition, the keyboard 10 includes a second set of control keys for issuing special control commands to the system. The control keys include cursor movement keys, keys for setting the keyboard 10 into a number of different modes, etc.

The keyboard 10 is connected to the microprocessor 11 by means of a bus 20. The microprocessor 11, as shown in FIG. 2, comprises an input port 21, an output port 22, a random access memory 23, and a process execution unit 24.

Functionally, memory unit 23 stores both instructions and data in specified sections which will be described in more detail later on in the specification. Data is entered into memory 23 from the keyboard 10 as bytes of binary information through input port 21. As shown in FIG. 3, the section of RAM 23 which receives the keystroke data from the keyboard 10 is designated keystroke queue 26. Data to be displayed is transferred by a series of instructions from queue 26 to the text buffer section 27 and then to the display refresh buffer 12 through output port 22 of the microprocessor 11. This is achieved in a conventional way by the microprocessor 11 executing a series of move instructions.

The microprocessor 11 may be an IBM Series 1, INTEL model 8086, or any of the recognized functionally equivalent, currently available microprocessors.

The display refresh buffer 12 is shown as a separate buffer connected between the output port 22 and the display device 14. Buffer 12, in practice, is normally a part of the display device 14 and functions to control the generation of characters on the screen of the display device 14 by exercising on-off control of the beam as it traces a series of horizontal lines across the screen.

The output port 22 also supplies data stored in memory 23 to the printer 15 and disk storage unit 16, each of which may have their own internal buffers which are not shown. Commands to transfer data from the random access memory 23 to the printer 15 or storage unit 16 are sent to the microprocessor 11 by the operator from the keyboard 10.

Printer 15 may be any suitable printer known in the art. In most text processing systems, the printer 15 is basically a standard input/output terminal printer having a type ball element or a daisy-wheel print element.

Disk storage 16 may also be any suitable disk storage device which is capable of storing serial by byte data supplied to it at determined sector address locations, each of which are randomly addressable by the microprocessor 11 to retrieve the data. Spatially related data supplied from disk drive 16 is stored in the display data area 28 of the memory 23 in encoded form. The other section of memory 23 shown in FIG. 3 is the display format buffer area 29 which is involved in the handling of spatially related data in decoded form in accordance with the method of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the screen of display device 14. As shown in FIG. 4, the screen has, for example, the capability of displaying 25 lines of characters where each line consists of 80 character column positions. In practice, one character position consists of a matrix of dot positions or picture elements sometimes referred to as pels. A typical character matrix for a display of the type represented by device 14 would be a matrix of six wide by ten high pels, which has been designated by reference character 32 in FIG. 4. The interaction of the refresh buffer 12 and the display 14 is to convert the characters stored at a location in the buffer 12 to the corresponding character as formed in a 6.times.10 dot matrix at the equivalent location on the display 14. Display 14 generally is provided with its own set of electronics to achieve that conversion. The microprocessor 11 need only supply the address and load the buffer 12 with the appropriate characters.

The disk storage device 16 also is generally provided with its own set of electronics for converting a byte of data supplied from the display data area 28 of memory 23 through the output port 22 to a serial by bit stream of data to be recorded at a predetermined sector of the one addressed concentric recording track on the disk. Data from the device 16 is supplied to the microprocessor 11 serial by byte from the addressed sector and storage tracks when requested.

It will be understood that all of the above described functions and interactions involving the microprocessor 11 are achieved through suitable programs which are also stored in memory 23 and which are called into operation in response to data from the keyboard 10 or interrupt signals generated by the various components of the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 illustrates the storage arrangement for data stored on the disk storage device 16 of FIG. 1. During initial setup, the operator enters into the system using the keyboard 10, a field type and heading for each of the fields to be entered into a file. The headings are designated by reference number 44 in FIG. 5. A code is entered from the keyboard 10 designating each field as a fixed-length field or text field. For each fixed-length field, additional codes are entered specifying the field length and designating the field as either character or arithmetic. For each field that is designated as a text field type, the control system supplies a fixed-length code which reserves space for a "pointer" to be filled in when text data is entered. When data for the records is entered into the system, the control system controls the processor 11 to concatenate the fixed-length fields and store them at addresses on the disk file 16 designated for fixed-length records as shown by reference number 40. For example, in FIG. 5 the fixed length records are shown as having a maximum length of 1,000 bytes each. When a text field is encountered during data record entry, the system stores an address pointer with the fixed-length fields which points to an address in the variable length section 42 of the disk 16 selected for storing the variable length text fields. For example, the section 42 is divided into 256-byte segments. The data for the text field as keyed will be stored in one or more of these 256-byte segments in the variable length data storage area on the disk and includes the text information and format control codes such as carrier returns, tabs, and index codes. If the length of the text field exceeds 256 bytes, the control system will chain multiple 256-byte segments together to provide the necessary field length by inserting in each segment a pointer to the address of the next segment. An example of a text field is the property description 43 shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 illustrates two examples of reports generated that would be displayed to the operator on the display 14 using the present invention. The report 50 contains records having only fixed-length fields or DP data. The headings 51 identify each field in the records. The records 52 are displayed with the fields horizontally spaced across the display below the headings.

Still referring to FIG. 6, the report 54 shows an example of records which include both fixed-length field DP data and variable length field WP data. The headings 55 for each of the data fields are arranged horizontally by rows and vertically by columns separated by slashes. The fixed length field data 56 is displayed below the headings with the first row of data corresponding to the first row of headings, the second row of data corresponding to the second row of headings, and the third row of data corresponding to the third row of headings. The text data corresponding to the description field is designated by the code TXT1 58 in the fixed length field data 56 and is displayed following the fixed length field data at 57. The text data 57 is processed as it is displayed under the control of embedded format codes which indicate margins, carrier returns, tabs and interlinear spacing.

The manner in which the control system operates the processor to display the report 54 will now be described briefly. The operator places the system in a data entry mode such as "Create Files" through the keyboard 10. In response, the processor 11 under program control, displays on display 14 a request that the operator enter a file name and field descriptions for the data records to be entered into the file. A typical operator response may be "Real Estate File". The operator then keys in Field Names, Headings, Types, and Lengths for each field. For example,

Field 1, AREA/,Character, 2;

Field 2, SUBDIVISION/,Character, 15;

Field 3, ADDRESS/,Character, 15;

Field 4, LOT#/,Character, 4;

defines the first line of headings and the first line of data of the report 54. For the variable length field designated "DESCRIPTION", the operator enters Field 10, DESCRIPTION, TXT1. The processor interprets TXT1 as requiring storage in the variable length file area of the disk device 16 and reserves space in the fixed length record for an address to be determined as each record is entered.

Once the file description is created, the operator keys in the data records corresponding to the file description in the same order as the fields were set up. The microprocessor 11 concatenates each of the fixed length fields into a continguous record, including the system determined address pointer to the text field, and stores the fixed length record in the area 40 and the variable length text in area 42 of the disk storage device 16.

The operator can instruct the microprocessor 11 to recall the data for display or listing by naming the "Real Estate file" in a "Display" or "Report Generation" job. The processor 11 will then access from the disk 16 the fixed length data records and headings and display the records on the display 14 through the display refresh buffer 12. The microprocessor 11 also uses the address provided by the TXT1 field to access from the disk 16 any variable length field data associated with the record. The variable length field data contains the necessary format control codes to tell the processor 11 how it is to be formatted on the display 14 or printer 15.

Suitable program routines for implementing the described control system are shown in the following tables:

The sample program routines are written in Program Design Language (PDL). Table 1 is a routine controlling the processor 11 to segment text field data received from the keyboard 10 and store the text data on disk 16. This text data is concurrently formatted and displayed on the display 14 in a conventional manner through the text buffer 27, display format buffer 29 and display refresh buffer 12. Table 2 is a routine for controlling the processor 11 to retrieve previously stored text data from the disk 16 and concatenate multiple segments of the text field data into the buffer memory 23. The data is then available for display or printing.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in the form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.