公开(公告)号：AU3958995A

公开(公告)日：1996-05-06

申请号：AU3958995

申请日：1995-10-18

Applicant: MOLECULAR DYNAMICS

Inventor： CARLSON JEFFREY D ,  FERNANDES JORGE M

IPC: G06F9/44 ,  G06F15/00

Abstract: A method and apparatus for causing a computer to drive one or more external devices is provided. A computer executes instructions which cause the computer to display an experiment design region and a set of icons. A user copies the icons into the experiment design region to specify the various phases of an experiment. By setting controls in windows associated with the icons, a user specifies how the general stages of an experiment will be performed. Specifically, a user operates controls associated with the icons in the experiment design region to specify which devices will be used in the experiment, how data generated during the experiment will be stored, how different sets of data are related, calculations to be performed on the data, and the format of reports generated based on the data gathered during the experiment. The user specifies the operations to be performed by constructing an icon sequence in a scheduler window. The icon sequence may include device icons which represent devices, operation icons which represent the operations to be performed, and sequence control icons which affect the sequencing of certain designated operations. The computer then issues control signals to the devices specified in the icon sequence to cause the devices to perform the operations specified in the icon sequence. The operations are performed in the order specified by the icon sequence.