JPH02213948A - Task schedule processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the dynamic connection among different programs by retrieving the rule including a conditional part corresponding to a received message from a rule set and transmitting a prescribed message to a prescribed task according to the conditions of the consequent part of the retrieved rule. CONSTITUTION:The rule set 2 is added to a task scheduler 1 which controls the execution of tasks 6 of a computer. Each of the rules of the set 2 includes a conditional part which shows the conditions of a message to be inputted and a consequent part which shows the conditions of the message to be transmitted when the due conditions are satisfied. A message receiving part 3 receives a message from a task 6 and retrieves the rule that includes a conditional part corresponding to the message received from the set 2. Then the part 3 sends a prescribed message to a task 6 decided by a program control part 4 via a message transmitting part 5 and based on the conditions of the consequent part of the retrieved rule. Thus it is possible to call out a program to supply a necessary message to the program with no direct communication carried out among programs.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Regarding dynamic program combination processing by a task scheduler that manages tasks for executing programs in a computer, dynamically combining a plurality of different programs in the execution of a task. The aim is to create a task schedule processing method that can be easily implemented, and in a task scheduler that manages the execution of computer tasks, a condition part that indicates the conditions for a message to be received, and a condition for a message to be sent when the conditions are satisfied. If a message is received from the task, search the rule set for the rule having the condition part that corresponds to the received message, and perform the search. The predetermined message is configured to be sent to the predetermined task according to the conditions of the consequent part of the rule.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a task schedule processing method for dynamic program combination processing in a computer by a task scheduler that manages tasks for executing programs.

It is especially flexible in environments such as personal and home computers, where various processes whose occurrence order is difficult to schedule are executed as needed, and where various programs from different developers are used in combination. A task scheduling mechanism is required.

[Prior Art and Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When executing tasks on a computer, as a method for mutually calling and executing a plurality of different programs, a control section is used as a main program, and necessary programs are placed under it. There are systems that combine programs as subprograms.

One method of such a system is configured such that a control unit interprets a return code issued by an executed program to indicate its processing result, etc., and starts another program determined by the return code of that program. be done.

In other systems, the control unit is configured to identify the message number of the message displayed on the operator console and automatically issue an appropriate operator command, and this operator command starts a predetermined program. This function can be used to make calls between programs.

When configuring such a system, interface conditions such as data content, transfer area, data format, etc., for exchanging data between necessary programs must be determined in advance, and each subprogram The necessary subprograms and the main control section must be created in advance and combined by so-called program linkage (combination) processing.

Therefore, it is difficult to bring programs independently created by multiple different developers under the control of such a system, and relinkage is required to add, replace, or delete necessary programs. There is a problem with becoming.

An object of the present invention is to provide a task schedule processing method that makes it easy to dynamically combine a plurality of different programs in task execution.

[Means to solve the problem]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention.

The figure shows the configuration of the task schedule processing method, in which 2 of task scheduler 1 is a rule set, 3 is a message receiving unit that receives messages from task 6 and processes them according to rule set 2, and 4 is a managing unit that manages the correspondence between programs and messages. A program management unit 5 is a message transmission unit that transmits a message retrieved and delivered by the message reception unit 3 from the rule set to a destination task determined by referring to the program management unit 4.

[For production]

In a task scheduler 1 that manages the execution of a task 6 on a computer, a rule set is made up of rules consisting of a condition section indicating conditions for a message to be input, and a consequence section indicating conditions for a message to be sent when the conditions are satisfied. 2
When the message receiving unit 3 receives a message from task 6, it searches the rule set 2 for the rule that has the condition part that corresponds to the received message, and sends a predetermined message according to the conditions of the consequence part of the rule. The message transmitter 5 sends the message to a task determined by the program manager 4.

This processing method makes it possible to call programs and pass necessary messages without direct communication between the programs.

〔Example〕

Each program executed in this system consists of, for example, a resident part and a program main body, and the resident part has an interface definition consisting of a list of messages sent and received by the program, and a process that starts the processing of the program main body by receiving a message. This part resides in the main memory, and the program itself is saved to an external storage device as necessary.

A message is composed of, for example, a message identification name (message value), and each rule of Rule Set 2 is similar to the rules constituting the knowledge base of a known so-called expert system. If the message value Describe the specification of.

The message receiving unit 3 receives the message transmitted from the task 6 program to the task scheduler 1.
is received, for example, via a service function of a control program called by a so-called system call. If necessary, the program name of the sender task is added to the received message before the message in the above format.

FIG. 2(a) shows the flow of processing of the message receiving section 3. When a message is received in processing step 10, a record of the message reception is recorded in processing step 11, and then,
In processing step 12, the rules of rule set 2 are scanned, for example from the first rule, using the message as a key.
Search for rules that have the same message identifier in the condition part.

If there is a corresponding condition part, in processing step 13, the message value is set to the value of the received message and the condition is checked, and if the condition is satisfied, in processing step 14, a message is created to be specified as the consequence part of the rule. , passes the message created in processing step 15 to the message transmitter 5.

If the conditions are not satisfied in processing step 13, the process returns to processing step 12 and the following rules are scanned, and if a corresponding rule is found, the conditions are checked as described above. Furthermore, if there is no corresponding rule even after scanning up to the last rule of rule set 2 in processing step 12, the processing ends with just leaving a record of the message.

2 shows the flow of processing of the message transmitter 5,
When the message to be sent in processing step 20 is received,
In processing step 21, the message identification name is sent to the program management section 4 to inquire about the program name of the destination, and the destination is determined.

The program management section 4 has a correspondence table between messages and the names of programs that can receive them at that time, and responds to the above inquiry with the program name and whether the task is activated. Incidentally, for this management, by sending a required message to the program management section 4 as a destination, it is possible to notify a change in the state of the program.

The message sending section 5 identifies the reply from the program management section 4 in a processing step 22, and if the destination task is not started, starts the task of the program in a processing step 23, and performs the process as described above. To the confirmed destination,
Processing step 24 sends the message.

Examples include a monitoring program that monitors the operating status of home appliances; a monitoring program that monitors temperature and humidity; a schedule management program that manages time and family schedules; Figure 3 shows part of the contents of a rule set when configuring a system to manage the operation of home appliances in the home using a telephone program for receiving notifications and an operation control program for each home appliance. show.

Each line in the diagram shows one rule, the left side of the "→" of each rule is the condition part, the right side is the consequence part, and the first and second rules are the message "Temperature 1 (X
) J indicates the "temperature in the living room", 1 temperature 2 (X) J indicates the "temperature outside", so this is the rule for converting the message.

The destination of the message in this result section is, for example, the message receiving section 3 of the task scheduler itself, and therefore, from the monitoring program ■, a message indicating that the outside temperature is 15° C. Then, the message receiving unit 3 substitutes 15 for X based on this rule and sends the message "Outside temperature (15) J
This message is then received again via the message transmitter 5.

The third line of the rule in the figure is that when the message "Outside temperature" is received, the message value is assigned to X, and rX<IO
Indicate in the condition section that J is to be determined, and if the condition is true, that is, if the outside temperature is lower than 10°C, send the message "Set temperature (18)" shown in the conclusion section to the program "Air conditioner 1". , that is, the set temperature of the air conditioner is controlled to 18° C. In this case, the destination is shown in the conclusion section.

Similarly, the fourth line is a rule that says, ``If the outside temperature is higher than 25°C, control the air conditioner to set the temperature to 20°C.'' Lines 5 to 7 are schedule management, respectively. The rule is to ``start air conditioner 1 at 5 p.m.'', ``stop air conditioner 1 at 12 p.m.'', and ``start air conditioner 1 at 6 a.m.'' according to messages from the program. As in the example above, if the message value is empty, it will be abbreviated as "start".

Line 8 shows that the telephone program receives a call, identifies the caller using a password, etc., and sends a message "Caller (
If the caller is a family member, by sending the message "Telephone call" to the schedule management program, the program will send a message to the schedule management program, for example, if the person calling is a family member. This is a rule for receiving.

As a result, the schedule management program can rewrite the schedule or create a message to "stop the air conditioner" and send it to the task scheduler to control the air conditioner.

Furthermore, by providing a processing mechanism to incorporate the above-mentioned rules written by the user into the ruleset,
The system as described above can be easily configured and changed by a computer user.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, it is easy to dynamically combine a plurality of different programs when executing a task on a computer. There is a significant industrial effect of expanding the field of application of the treatment system.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the processing of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining an example of a rule set. In the figure, 1 is a task scheduler, 2 is a ruleset, 3 is a message receiving section, 4 is a program management section, 5 is a message sending section, 6 is a task. Block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention FIG. 1 is an example of a ruleset Figure 3 (b) is a flowchart explaining the

Claims (1)

[Claims] A task scheduler (which manages the execution of computer tasks)
In 1), a rule set (2) consisting of a rule having a condition part indicating a condition for a message to be received and a consequence part indicating a condition for a message to be sent when the condition is satisfied is provided, and a rule set (2) is provided that includes a rule that indicates a condition for a message to be sent when the condition is satisfied. is received, the rule having the condition part that corresponds to the received message is
A task schedule process configured to search from the rule set (3) and send a predetermined message to a predetermined task according to a condition of the consequence part of the searched rule. method.