METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING DISPLAY SCREEN EVENTS IN A SCREEN-ORIENTED SOFTWARE APPLICATION TOO

A screen-oriented application tool is integrated into a computer-aided software development system including one or more software development tools for performing predefined software development tasks. An interface program controls communication between the software development system and a screen-oriented application tool that contains a representation of a display screen. The interface program monitors inputs and outputs of the application tool and generates a trigger when a predefined application tool event has occurred within a predefined region of the display screen. The event region of the display screen is defined by a start row, an end row, a start column and an end column. The application tool events include cursor events wherein the cursor enters or exits the predefined region, text events wherein the text within the predefined region is modified and expression events wherein the text within the predefined region is modified and the new text matches a desired pattern.