International Business Machines Corporation

Bethany Rose Scaer

Brian James Tarbox

Jeffrey Phillip Snover

A computer managed communication network with user interactive access via a plurality of display terminals and including a plurality of network objects, each respectfully associated with one of a plurality of linked network nodes. The network includes means such as databases for storing data representing attributes of network objects. There is graphically displayed on at least one of said display terminals, at least a portion of said linked network nodes and associated objects. In addition, there is a user interactive implementation for activating a transient display of a selected attribute of one of said displayed objects proximate to said object in combination with user interactive means for selecting the attribute to be transiently displayed. Preferably, the attribute is dynamically selected by user interactive means for activating the display of an attribute menu during the time of said transient display so that another attribute may be selected during said time.

System for displaying a computer managed network layout with transient display of user selected attributes of displayed network objects

A computer managed communication network with user interactive access via a plurality of display terminals and including a plurality of network objects, each respectfully associated with one of a plurality of linked network nodes. The network includes means such as databases for storing data representing attributes of network objects. There is graphically displayed on at least one of said display terminals, at least a portion of said linked network nodes and associated objects. In addition, there is a user interactive implementation for activating for each of a plurality of objects, a primary transient display of a selected primary attribute of said object adjacent to the object and a second transient display of supplementary attributes of said object, remote from said selected object and active during the transience of the primary transient display. The invention operates effectively in a display setup in which objects are graphically displayed as icons without alphanumeric labels and the primary transient display serves to label selected object.

System for displaying a computer managed network layout with a first

A computer managed communication network with user interactive access via a plurality of display terminals and including a plurality of network objects, each respectfully associated with one of a plurality of linked network nodes. The network includes means such as databases for storing data representing attributes of network objects. There is graphically displayed on at least one of said display terminals, at least a portion of said linked network nodes and associated objects. In addition, there is a user interactive implementation for activating for each of a plurality of objects, a transient display of a selected attribute of said object proximate to said object during a period of common transience. The system further includes user interactive means for varying the period of transience of each of said transient displays whereby the attribute values of a variety of objects may be compared to each other without unduly cluttering the display interface.

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Nashua, NH, United States of America

Bethany Rose Scaer