A system for viewing and manipulating information of various data types
within a single document in an integrated computer system environment is
disclosed. Each data type is maintained within a dataset. Datasets
comprise logical information of a common data type along with the
functions or processing logic to view and manipulate that data type. The
logical types of information managed by datasets in the preferred
embodiment include graphical objects, blocks of text, spreadsheet cells,
and database records. Datasets also manage frames. Frames provide a means
by which datasets are viewed and manipulated. Each dataset is responsible
for managing the display of information inside one of its frames.
Significantly, the present invention provides a logical independence
between the information contained in a dataset and the manner in which
the information is viewed and manipulated (i.e. frames). This
independence provides a significant improvement in the ability to
manipulate various types of information. Any type and number of datasets
can be combined together into a single document and saved in a file
system as a document file.