Abstract: Each time a document or a program source is edited, version information including its version name and creation date is stored in a storage. Configuration information of a plurality of documents and program sources is stored in another storage. The version and configuration information is read from the storages such that information of constituent elements of a project such as documents and program sources is placed in a vertical direction and version information of the elements is placed by use of a creation date as a reference in a horizontal direction for a two-dimensional display thereof. With the configuration, there is provided a display method of clearly presenting to the user a display image in which version information is combined with configuration information.

Abstract: An office information system having a plurality of work stations connected via a network to mutually exchange electronic mails each includes a control information definition unit for defining control information representing what kind of processing can be performed on mails after reception, a processing log memory unit for storing log information of operations which have been performed on a received mail, a control unit for guiding a receiver by referring to both the control information and log information, a task tracking instruction unit for inquiring the processing status of mail, and a task tracking unit for reporting the status in response to such a tracking instruction. The system stores and interprets control information relating to the flow of an OA object on the network, which has been conventionally involved in the memory of an office worker, and guides the office worker to work to be done by the office worker.

Abstract: Each time a document or a program source is edited, version information including its version name and creation date is stored in a storage. Configuration information of a plurality of documents and program sources is stored in another storage. The version and configuration information is read from the storages such that information of constituent elements of a project such as documents and program sources is placed in a vertical direction and version information of the elements is placed by use of a creation date as a reference in a horizontal direction for a two-dimensional display thereof. With the configuration, there is provided a display method of clearly presenting to the user a display image in which version information is combined with configuration information.

Abstract: Each time a document or a program source is edited, version information including its version name and creation date is stored in a storage. Configuration information of a plurality of documents and program sources is stored in another storage. The version and configuration information is read from the storages such that information of constituent elements of a project such as documents and program sources is placed in a vertical direction and version information of the elements is placed by use of a creation date as a reference in a horizontal direction for a two-dimensional display thereof. With the configuration, there is provided a display method of clearly presenting to the user a display image in which version information is combined with configuration information.

Abstract: A system for managing an object-oriented database in response to a request issued from an application program includes a database for storing therein both of a class having a definition of an object and an object generated from the class; a generating unit for generating a class and a plurality of attributes based on class definition information and attribute definition information, which are designated by the application program; another generating unit for generating an object to store an attribute value corresponding to the class definition information in accordance with the class definition information, the object generating unit including a-storage control unit for storing the attribute value related to a normal attribute into one storage unit area of the database when the request issued from the application program is related to the normal attribute, and for storing the attribute value related to a clustering attribute into another storage unit area of the database when the request issued from the appli

Abstract: An office information system having a plurality of work stations connected via a network to mutually exchange electronic mails each includes a control information definition unit for defining control information representing what kind of processing can be performed on mails after reception, a processing log memory unit for storing log information of operations which have been performed on a received mail, a control unit for guiding a receiver by referring to both the control information and log information, a task tracking instruction unit for inquiring the processing status of mail, and a task tracking unit for reporting the status in response to such a tracking instruction. The system stores and interprets control information relating to the flow of an OA object on the network, which has been conventionally involved in the memory of an office worker, and guides the office worker to work to be done by the office worker.

Abstract: In a distributed database system including a plurality of database systems each having a database, wherein a database possessed by one of the database systems serves as an original database, and databases of the remaining database systems are produced by replicating the original database, the presence or absence of update contention of the same data in two database systems is detected. When data susceptible to detection of update contention is updated, an update serial number is produced for the data. The update serial number includes a system identifier for identifying a database system in which the data is updated and an update frequency related to the number of times of updates. The update serial number is accumulatively stored in an update serial number history associated with the data each time the data is updated.

Abstract: In an object-oriented database management system, a storage area of each data object is controlled using information indicating a storage area position of the data object in the database and a management serial number of the storage area. Each data object is provided with a directory object to keep therein information indicating a storage area position of the associated data object in the database and a management serial number of the storage area. In the database, the storage area of each data object is controlled using information denoting the storage area position in the corresponding directory object and the management serial number of the directory object.

Abstract: In a database management system for concurrently executing a plurality of transactions for access to a database, there is provided a user interface for defining a parent/child relationship between a plurality of pieces of data. The parent information of data is added to the data itself and to a storage location information of the data in the database. Upon access to data, lock control is performed by use of the parent information of the data, thereby performing representation of locked a object.

Abstract: An office information system has a plurality of work stations connected via a network to mutually exchange electronic mail, each work station including a control information definition unit for defining control information representing what kind of processing can be performed on mails after reception, a processing log memory unit for storing log information of operations which have been performed on received mail, a control unit for guiding a receiver by referring to both the control information and log information, a task tracking instruction unit for inquiring into the processing status of mail, and a task tracking unit for reporting the status in response to such a tracking instruction. The system stores and interprets control information relating to the flow of an OA object on the network, which has been conventionally involved in the memory of an office worker, and guides the office worker to work to be done by the office worker.

Abstract: An area in a page for a tuple-oriented file system is exclusively controlled such that a tuple is added to, deleted from or updated in a page including a tuple area in use, a vacant area having a deleted tuple and an unoccupied area. In the case where a transaction is active for increasing the total size of the vacant area in a given page, the particular vacant area is locked to prevent another active parallel transaction from using the same vacant area. During the time when the transaction for increasing the total size of the vacant area remains active, other transactions can add a tuple to the unoccupied area or update a tuple in use in the same page to the extent that the particular page is not compacted. The transaction for increasing the total size of the vacant area can perform a special compaction for collecting a plurality of discrete vacant areas into a continuous vacant area without increasing the unoccupied area in the page. The roll back operation can thus be executed securely.

Abstract: In an object extending method for use in an object-oriented data base system having an object having an attribute, a relation and a procedure and a definition object having definition information determining a structure of the object, information on changes in attribute, relation and procedure which accompany a change in the definition object is held as a parts object in the definition object, and data to be newly appended to the object as a result of the change in the definition object is held as a parts object in the object, so that work to change the object in accordance with a change in schema may be reduced.

Abstract: Rules registered in the electronic secretary system are defined by separating each of them into a trigger descriptor part, a condition part for object data retrieval, and an action part, and a flag indicating whether or not to fire a rule and a flag indicating whether or not to suppress firing of a rule after it is fired once are installed in each rule, and a flag for selecting whether to automatically activate the action when object data is retrieved or to activate the action after the user confirms it is installed, and an area for storing the period and timing for judging success or failure of the condition when necessary is referred to so as to change the corresponding flag to ON or OFF or to change the period and, whether to automatically execute the electronic secretary system or to execute it after a human confirms it, can be selected freely.

Abstract: A document retrieving method in a document management system which manages documents, using a computer. The classification of documents is managed in accordance with a plurality of node trees constructed in a hierarchical structure. Each document is related to at least one node among a plurality of nodes in the node trees. In retrieval, an OR merge operation is performed on documents related to all the nodes ranging from the target node and extending through all lower nodes linked directly and indirectly to the target mode of a designated node tree to form a collection of documents. When a different node tree is designated, a similar OR operation is performed on documents related to all the nodes ranging from the target node to lower nodes linked directly and indirectly to the target node to create another collection of documents. These steps are repeated and an AND-marge operation is performed on the obtained collections of documents to create and output a final collection of documents.

Abstract: An input device (12) receives a natural language or conversational statement in the form of a character string (1). A processor (14) performs a natural language analysis (2) to convert the input natural language into a command language instruction for a computer program. A morphological analysis (3) compares words of the input character string with contents of a dictionary (10) to convert the input words into preselected words indicated by the dictionary which are output as another character string. In a semantic or syntax analysis (4; FIG. 9), one of the inputted and another character strings are analyzed to generate a corresponding chained functions structure (FIGS. 2, 3). From knowledge (FIG. 5, 7) described by the plurality of chained function structures and from rules stored in knowledge memory (11), a new character string is generated. If the new character string is in command language, the command is executed (7).

Abstract: In a composite subsystem having a plurality of data base systems and data communication on a plurality of processors, a composite subsystem controller unifies other data base systems of the composite subsystem and distributed data base systems, and, at the occurrence of a fault in some subsystem, allows other subsystems to operate continuously, thereby facilitating the recovery after the faulty subsystem has started up, and makes management as to which data base system a transaction in execution has accessed so that the range of failure is confined, thereby facilitating the fault recovery. The check points of two processings including updating of information in the memory and accumulation of the updated information in the journal are detected so that the need of journals earlier than the check point is eliminated, and a check point dump is acquired without waiting for the end of transaction which has been active at the check point.

Abstract: In a composite system in which a plurality of data base systems and data communication are treated as respective subsystems. At the occurrence of a fault in one subsystem, other subsystems are allowed to operate continuously, thereby facilitating recovery after a faulty subsystem has started up. A controller performs as to which data base system a transaction in execution has accessed so that the range of failure is confined, thereby facilitating the fault recovery. The check points of two processings including updating of information in the memory and accumulation of the updated information in the journal are detected so that the need of journals for information occurring earlier than the check point is eliminated, and a check point dump is acquired without waiting for the end of a transaction which has been active at the check point.

Abstract: In a data dictionary directory system, the definition information to be registered in a dictionary is registered being divided into several definition units. A data base system registers the definition information and confirms the coordination of the contents of definition among the definition units. The definition information is registered without confirming the coordination. The coordination is confirmed when it becomes necessary to confirm the coordination among the definition informations registered in the dictionary.

Abstract: In a database having a dictionary/directory, the dictionary/directory is processed to form a directory using information in the dictionary, or is processed for other purposes. A process record including identification information associated with the process is stored in the dictionary/directory. In a dictionary deletion process, the stored record is designated and read out such that associated information indicated by the process record is also deleted in a batch manner.

Abstract: In a database system having a dictionary/directory for collective management of definition information of the database system, when an application program is compiled to generate an object module, it is confirmed, by referring to the definition information stored in the dictionary, if a database access instruction in the application program is correctly operable. The confirmed definition information is incorporated within an object module which is edited to generate a load module. During execution of the load module, a database access control is effected using the definition information of the database system in the directory as well as the definition information incorporated at the compiling stage.