International Business Machines Corporation

Jo A Elliott

Paul D Waldo

John W McInroy

Thomas L Adam

Freddie R White

A system for use in an electronic digital signal processor for assembling multiple report definition instructions to create a shell document to generate a file report. The system enables an operator to depress an instruction key to call up an instruction menu and select for display the report definition instruction menu. The operator chooses report instructions desired in any order, and the system inserts chosen instructions in proper order to build the shell document. The operator keys report information in between the instructions. The shell document is stored in machine-dependent language to enable the document to be redisplayed in operator-dependent language as determined by the current program loaded in the processor.

Report preparation

An improved method is disclosed for providing to the operator of an interactive text processing system a displayed summary confirming the effect of requested changes to the field order in an existing file of spatially related data stored in the system prior to creation of new file. The method involves simultaneously displaying to the operator on one screen the header portions of the existing source file and the destination file and causing the data in predetermined fields of each header to be displayed in a manner which is different than the manner in which the data in the remaining fields of said headers is displayed so as to manifest to the operator similar treatment by the system of the data in both headers which is similarly displayed. The header portion of the source file is displayed such that those fields which are not to be copied into the destination file are reverse video displayed, while those fields which are to be copied to the destination file are in normal display. The header portion in the destination file is displayed such that those fields which appear in the existing file and which are to receive data from the source file are displayed in normal manner, while fields which are not to receive data from the source file are reverse video displayed. The resulting display then manifests to the operator those fields which will be copied from the source file to the destination file and provides the opportunity for the operator to confirm the correctness of the interactively entered instructions prior to actual creation of the new file.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Jo A Elliott