GRAPHICAL ENVIRONMENT FOR MANAGING AND DEVELOPING APPLICATIONS

A graphical application developing and managing environment is described capable of representing and editing program modules using multiple display formats, which include embedding source code written in a functional language into a spreadsheet-like format. Methods are described for enabling the sharing of program modules by defining standardized interfaces into program modules and existing documents and by centrally locating module definitions. A patchwork mechanism is descried requiring only basic spreadsheet editing skills on behalf of the user, enabling a user of the environment to connect external documents and program modules into a new program application. The invention allows complicated programming and simple end-user programming to be achieved within a unified environment and allows the execution of program modules and tracing of variables simultaneously with the writing of a program application. The invention defines methods for representing the various parts of a source code, defining a program application, along with the application icon as determined by a user creating the application and thereby making parts of the source code accessible to end-users for run-time execution.