Multi-level dynamic menu which suppresses display of items previously

Abstract

A process control interface includes a multi-level dynamic menu for selecting processes from a set of processes that are organized into groups and subgroups. An engineering set up control program enables an engineer to denote which of these groups, subgroups and processes are available for selection by an operator using the process control interface. Only those groups, subgroups and processes which are available for selection are displayed in the dynamic menu. The set of processes defined by the engineering set up control program can be stored on individual operator-related disks so that each operator has access to a distinct set of available processes. Process subgroups and groups can be duplicated by the engineering setup control program to facilitate the setting up of new control processes. In addition, the engineering set up control program can denote parameters used by a process as required entry parameters, fixed value parameters, operator alterable parameters, and single forced entry parameters--the latter being parameters which must be assigned a value only the first time that a process is run.