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US005692194A
United States Patent [19] [ii] Patent Number: 5,692,194
Nguyen et al. [45] Date of Patent: Nov. 25, 1997
Black, Carla F. 5. l's Fantastic File Clerk: Become Efficient With Document Summary, Wordperfect Magazine, Aug. 1991 p. 65(5).
Ehrman, Dan Starting Paradox 3.5 DBMS Nov. 1991 v4 nl2 p. 38(3).
Halpern, Ruth Fields of Files, Lan, Technology Sep. 1991 v7 n9 p. 48(9).
Cypher, Allen, EhgenPrograrnming Repetitive Task by Example, CHI '91, Conference Proceedings, New Orleans, Louisiana Apr. 27-May 2. 1991.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 30, No. 10. p. 77, Mar. 1988, New York, "Automatic Loading in Memory of Most Recent Used Data File".
EXE Magazine, vol. 4. Issue 2, Jul. 1989, pp. 44-50. UK. A. Flower, "File Selection for Presentation Manager".
Primary Examiner—Lucien U. Toplu
Attorney, Agent, or Finn—G. S. Grunebach; M. W. Sales;
W. K. Denson-Low
A number of program modules (32,34,36) are sequentially controlled by a procedural user interface (PUT) 38 and an operating system (40) to perform tasks. Transfer of files or other data entities between the modules (32,34,36) and a storage (13) is seamlessly integrated by a sequential information integration service (SUS) (50). For reading a file from the storage (13), a the PUI38 or the operating system (40) generates a read command including a filename designation which can include a pathname, complete filename or wildcard characters. The read command can also include one or more arguments such as a user or group access code and an error message to display if the required file is not found. In an automatic mode, the service (50) automatically selects the most recent file corresponding to the filename designation and arguments, or displays the error message if a file meeting these criteria is not found. In a manual mode, the read command includes a manual selection argument which controls the service (50) to display a list of files (64) corresponding to the filename designation and arguments in a dialog box or window (60) for manual selection. The read command can further include a prompt message (62) for display in the window (60) togelher with the list of files (64).
13 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets
