[Patents] EPO patent on context-based data input

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

EP0517486
Global user interface. 
AMERICAN TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH (US)

This is a cute one: short and broad.  The description behind it refers to
a command environment for the Unix system which the company allegedly
created and which is similar to Niklas Wirth's Oberon.  I wonder how they
derived this one claim from it and whether this claim is infringed on by
hierarchical help systems such as the one found in TCL.

   Claims
   
   1. In a computing system having at least one window, a method for
   defining an input to the computer system comprising the steps of:
   associating the window with a context;
   accepting a string of text selected from anywhere in the window; and
   providing the string of text together with the context as the input.
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   Data supplied from the esp@cenet database - l2