JP3057844B2 - Program execution control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program execution control system, and more particularly to a program execution control system for an execution management system for a design process using a plurality of CAD programs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional program execution control method, a method is described in which a dedicated execution control program is described for each design flow in a programming language such as C or a description language such as UNIX shell. In order to describe a complicated processing flow such as CAD by this method, an enormous amount of description is required. In CAD execution control, there is a high need for a method of displaying a flowchart to visually appeal to the designer about the processing flow, and using the flowchart itself for a program execution menu to allow the user to start the program. In this case, it is necessary to create a program for displaying a flowchart for each of different design flows in addition to the execution control program.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional program execution control method is a complex program in which a plurality of various programs such as the execution control of a CAD program are combined and a processing flow is controlled by an execution result of a certain program. When the processing flow is shown in a flow chart and execution control is performed, it is necessary to rebuild a dedicated program every time the design flow is different, and there is a disadvantage that a great deal of time and labor is required.

In particular, in a recent CAD design environment, there is a tendency that a plurality of CAD programs are integrated to perform one large process, so that program functions such as automatic logic synthesis, logic verification, and automatic layout are advanced and specialized. Depending on the design target and design method, the parameters given to the program can be changed, or the program itself can be selected,
Optimal design must be performed. For this reason, the execution flow of the CAD program is also complicated and needs to be changed for each design object, and it is difficult to cope with the conventional method.

[0005]

According to the program execution control method of the present invention, there are provided (A) a plurality of execution control statuses for controlling the entire processing flow in the execution processing of a plurality of programs and an execution start condition of each program. The execution condition definition data that defines the conditional expression of the status and the calculation expression that expresses the status change when the program terminates normally and abnormally, and evaluates the conditional expression and the computational expression. (B) The execution condition determination unit that detects the program to be executed next, the executable program, and the unexecutable program at the time of (B). A flow chart automatic generation unit that traces the processing flow of the program by using Chart to graphically display, program execution menu and flowcharts user interface unit used for displaying the processing status, and include a city.

[0006]

Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. The program execution control method shown in FIG. 1 includes execution condition definition data 1, an execution condition determination unit 2, a flowchart automatic generation unit 3, and a flowchart user interface unit 4. The execution of the program is controlled by a plurality of statuses having an integer value whose initial value is 0. In all execution control target programs, the execution condition definition data defines a status condition expression for starting execution and a formula for calculating a status how to change a status value at normal termination and abnormal termination.

[0008] The flowchart automatic generation unit 3 reads the execution condition definition data 1 and uses the execution condition determination unit 2 to execute
The flowchart is generated by virtually changing the status value on the assumption that the program has been normally completed. The generated flowchart is displayed on the graphic display by the flowchart user interface unit 4, and is used as a menu button for executing a program and displaying detailed information of the program. Also, the current progress of the process is represented by changing the color of each box in the flowchart.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a basic algorithm for automatically generating a flowchart used in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an automatically generated flowchart for explaining the algorithm of FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process which is composed of seven programs and is controlled by two statuses STS1 and STS2. Each rectangle means a program. Indicates the status calculation formula at the time of normal termination.

The automatic generation algorithm of the flowchart of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the example of FIG. First, as step 1, status initialization is performed. In the example of FIG.
= 0, STS2 = 0. Next, in step 2 of FIG. 2, a program whose execution start condition is true is extracted.
In the example of FIG. 3, programs 10 and 20 are extracted. Next, as step 3, the status is changed assuming that each program virtually ends normally in all combinations of the extracted programs, and a program whose execution start condition is true next is extracted.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, it is checked whether only the program 10 has terminated normally, if only the program 20 has terminated normally, or if both the programs 10 and 20 have terminated normally. As a result, both have terminated normally. It can be understood that the execution start condition of the program 30 becomes true only in the case. Next, the process of step 3 is performed on the program 30, and the programs 40, 50, and 60 are extracted. Program 4
When step 3 is executed for 0, 50, and 60, the combination of the programs 40 and 60, the combination of the programs 50 and 60, and the combination of the programs 40, 50, and 60 all make the execution start condition of the program 70 true.

When the execution condition of the same program is true in a plurality of combinations as described above, merge processing is performed so that a plurality of programs 70 do not appear in the flowchart. In this example, it means that either one of the programs 40 and 50 should be executed. Step 3 is repeated in this manner until a program whose execution start condition becomes true cannot be found. However, it is necessary to add a loop detection process corresponding to a case where the execution start condition and the normal end condition expression are defined so as to generate an infinite loop.

[0013]

According to the program execution control method of the present invention, a flow chart for execution control is automatically generated by defining an execution condition expression of each program to be executed and a status expression at the time of normal termination. This allows the user to control the activation of the program in the form of a flowchart, and control the executable / non-executable of each program by changing the status according to the end state of the program.

According to this method, the efficiency can be greatly improved as compared with the conventional method in which all the processes are programmed for each design flow, and it is possible to cope with a change in the design flow.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a basic algorithm flow chart of the flowchart automatic generation unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flowchart automatically generated based on the algorithm of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Execution condition definition data 2 Execution condition judgment part 3 Flow chart automatic generation part 4 Flow chart user interface part

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 9 / 06,11 / 36

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] (A) A plurality of execution control statuses for controlling the entire processing flow in the execution processing of a plurality of programs, a conditional expression of the status indicating an execution start condition of each program, and a normal termination of the program , Execution condition definition data that defines a calculation expression that expresses a change in each status in the event of abnormal termination, and evaluates these condition expressions and calculation expressions, and a program to be executed next at any time
An execution condition determining unit for detecting an executable program and an unexecutable program; and (B) a status initialization using the execution condition determining unit.
Then, extract and extract the program whose execution start condition is true.
Each program in all combinations of
Change status as ram virtually completed successfully
And then extract the program whose execution start condition is true
A flow chart automatic generation unit that traces the processing flow of the program by repeating the operation and automatically generates a flow chart based on the trace, (C) a graphic display of the flow chart, a program execution menu, and a flow chart user used to display a processing status. A program execution control method, comprising: an interface unit;