Here's another obviously non-novel software patent. Any CASE tool written about in the mid- to late-1980's completely anticipates at least the first claim of this patent. Once again the cited literature references are completely unrepresentative of what had been done to date (for example, any number of articles from IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Sofware Practice & Experience, IEEE Computer, and any OOPSLA conference proceeding before 1992). If your company is sued by Borland, please give me a call, as I can prepare a great prior art invalidation package for you :-) Maybe Borland plans to use it to harass Microsoft :-) Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service (for subscription info, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com) ==================== US PAT NO: 5,339,433 DATE ISSUED: Aug. 16, 1994 TITLE: Symbol browsing in an object-oriented development system ASSIGNEE: Borland International What is claimed is: 1. In a development system in object-oriented programming environment a method for compiling source listings into application and system programs, each of the source listings comprising a plurality of symbols for instructing operation of a program, a method for browsing symbols comprising: (a) compiling a source listing containing the symbols into an object file, said object file storing a reference for each symbol in said source listing; (b) selecting a symbol of interest with an input device coupled to a device displaying said source listing; (c) receiving a request from a user for browsing a symbol of interest; (d) retrieving said reference stored in said object file and using said reference to determine program information specific for the symbol of interest; and (e) displaying said information to the user. ABSTRACT: A system of the present invention includes a development system having a language compiler for generating application and system software from source listings. The system includes an Integrated Development Environment having a browser. Methods of the present invention include inspecting symbols (e.g., classes, objects, methods, variables, and the like) dynamically, i.e., while retaining active scope of the symbol. More particularly, the browser of the present invention directly references symbol information stored in object code or executable modules, which are generated during compilation of the source listings. In this manner, the system provides symbol information directly relevant to the context (location in source listing) the user/programmer is currently working. APPL-NO: 07/979,575 DATE FILED: Nov. 19, 1992 ART-UNIT: 236 PRIM-EXMR: Gareth D. Shaw ASST-EXMR: A. Katbab LEGAL-REP: John A. Smart INT-CL: [5] G06F 9/46 US-CL-ISSUED: 395/700; 364/DIG.1, 280.4, 286, 286.3 US-CL-CURRENT: 395/700; 364/280.4, 286, 286.3, DIG.1 SEARCH-FLD: 395/700; 364/DIG.1, 280.4, 286.0, 286.3 REF-CITED: U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,095,423 3/1992 Gramlich et al. 395/600 5,117,349 5/1992 Tirfing et al. 395/600 5,129,082 7/1992 Tirfing et al. 395/600 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Schmidt, D. et al, "Borland Int. Inc., Turbo Pascal 5.5 . . . " PC Week, vol. V7, No. 15, Apr. 1990, p. 126. Nance, B., "Speaking OS/2's Native language Rev." Byte, vol. 15, No. 9, pp. 206-210, Sep. 1990. Sometinger, J. "A Tool for the maintenance of a C++ . . . " Proc. 1990 IEEE Conf. M software Maintenance, pp. 54-59, 1990.