JPH0521249B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The screen is divided into multiple overlapping rectangular windows, and characters, figures, and
In a display system capable of displaying image information, a first processor that controls the entire screen creates a screen partitioning table that manages the entire screen and stores it in the main memory, and when displaying in a specific window, the screen partitioning table is created and stored in the main memory. The second processor, which transfers the contents of the table to local memory in advance and performs high-speed display control, refers to this window partitioning table and configures the display so that it is displayed only in the displayable area. This enables memory savings and optimal load distribution.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a multi-window display control device that divides a screen into a plurality of partial screens, or windows, and controls the display of characters, graphics, and image information independently for each window.

In systems that perform multi-window display, multiple windows are displayed on the screen, and when editing a document in one window, for example,
By opening other windows to reference related data, work efficiency can be improved. Furthermore, by displaying messages sent asynchronously, such as messages from a host computer, in a separate window, it is possible to receive messages without interrupting the original work.

In such display systems, it is necessary to be able to freely set the positions and sizes of the windows, which may result in overlapping with each other. In such a case, it is necessary to control the overlapping portions so that the hidden portions are not displayed, taking into consideration the priority order.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 5 shows an example of a conventional method, and FIG. 6 shows a diagram for explaining screen division on which the present invention is based.

In FIG. 5, 101 is a first processor that performs overall control, 102 is a main memory, 104 is a second processor that performs high-speed display control, 105 is a local memory, and 107 stores display information in pixel units. A frame memory 108 represents a display unit such as a CRT display, and 501 represents a screen division table for managing the entire screen as a set of displayable rectangular areas for each window.

In the multi-window display control on which the present invention is based, as shown in _FIG .
It is divided by _Y5 , and further divided by x-axis coordinates _X0 to _X5 of the starting and ending ends of each partial screen. According to this classification, items belonging to the same partial screen are grouped together to cut out rectangular areas, and the entire display screen is divided by the cut out rectangular areas. Displayable/disabled control is performed by managing information on the divided areas in consideration of the display priority of each partial screen. A table that holds information on this divided area is a screen division table 501 shown in FIG.
It is.

In the conventional method, the local memory 105 has a screen partitioning table 501, and when displaying in a certain window, the second processor 104 searches the screen partitioning table 501, checks the window display area, and determines whether the screen can be displayed. It is displayed only in the relevant parts.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

According to the above conventional method, the screen partition table 501 is placed in the local memory 105, which requires high speed, so when the number of windows increases, the required memory capacity increases and costs increase. There was a problem.

Furthermore, the second processor 104 is generally a dedicated processor and often uses microprogram control to perform high-speed display control.
Since the processing is performed by the second processor 104, there is a problem in that the microprogram memory increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide a method that enables saving of local memory and reduces the burden on the second processor.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 is a principle block diagram showing the basic configuration of the present invention.

In Figure 1, the same numbers as in Figure 5 are numbered 5.
Corresponds to what is shown in the figure. 103 is a screen division table;
Reference numeral 106 denotes a window partitioning table that holds displayable rectangular area information regarding the window that is currently the drawing target, and 110 stores the screen partitioning table 103 in the main memory 102.
111 is a window information notification unit that notifies the second processor 104 of displayable rectangular area information regarding the window to be drawn; 112 is a drawing unit that sends drawing data to the second processor 104; An instruction unit 120 is a window contingency table setting unit that sets the window contingency table 106 on the local memory 105, and 121 is a displayable rectangular area determination unit that checks the displayable rectangular area based on the window contingency table 106.

The screen partitioning table creation unit 110, the window information notification unit 111, and the drawing instruction unit 112 are composed of a group of instructions executed by the first processor 101, and the window partitioning table setting unit 120 and the displayable rectangular area determination unit 1
21 consists of a group of instructions executed by the second processor 104.

The first processor 101 is a general-purpose processor that performs overall control such as display control and input/output control.The first processor 101 is a general-purpose processor that performs overall control such as display control and input/output control. Set above and screen split table 103
Create.

When displaying a certain window, the window information notification unit 111 extracts definition information regarding the displayable rectangular area for that window from the screen division table 103 in advance and sends it to the second processor 104. In the second processor 104, the window contingency table setting unit 120 stores the displayable rectangular area information in the local memory 105.
Set the window partition table 10 to the specified area above.
Generate 6. Thereafter, when the drawing instruction unit 112 issues a drawing request, the second processor 104
The displayable rectangular area determining unit 121 refers to the window partitioning table 106 to determine whether display is possible or not, and develops the data into the frame memory 107.

[Effect]

In general, in multi-window display, the frequency of changing the display target window is not so high. The present invention has been made with attention to this point. In the present invention, only the information regarding the displayable rectangular area of the currently displayed window, which is frequently accessed, is placed on the high-speed local memory 105, and the entire division information is placed on the main memory 102, so that the memory 1
05 can be reduced.

Furthermore, the process of creating the screen division table 103 is generally infrequent and complicated to control. In the case of the present invention, such processing is executed by the general-purpose first processor 101, and processing that is relatively simple but requires high speed, such as displaying only in the displayable area of a specific window, is performed by the first general-purpose processor 101. dedicated second
This is executed by the processor 104 of. Therefore,
The processing load on the second processor 104 is reduced, and the load on the processors can be distributed optimally.

〔Example〕

Fig. 2 is an example of a window arrangement for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an example of a screen division table for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 4 is an example of an embodiment of the present invention. An example of a window contingency table is shown below.

In FIG. 2, windows 201 to 203 are set on the display screen, and are arranged in the order of A, B, and C from the lowest display priority. That is, the window 201 is a background screen, has the lowest display priority, and has display contents B or C.
The display of the part that overlaps with is suppressed. Of the display content B cut out by the window 202, only the portion that overlaps with the display content C is hidden. The display content C cut out by the window 203 has the highest priority and is displayed in its entirety.

Information on the displayable rectangular area of the entire screen based on the window arrangement as shown in FIG. 2 is managed, for example, by a screen division table as shown in FIG. 3.

In FIG. 3, 301 is a management table for each window, in which information such as the position, size, number of divisions, etc. of each window is set. Further, a pointer pointing to a list of displayable rectangular area tables is provided. 302 is a table provided for each displayable rectangular area.

In the case of the window arrangement shown in FIG. 2, the areas _{to be displayed for A are six rectangular areas a0 to a5 .} Also, the areas to be displayed for B are two rectangular areas b ₀ and b ₁ , and C
The display area of is the entire c ₀ . The displayable rectangular area table 302 has coordinate information of each displayable rectangular area, for example, as shown in FIG. 3B. Displayable rectangular area tables 302 belonging to the same window are connected by pointers.

When the window arrangement shown in FIG. 2 is specified, the illustrated screen division table creation unit 110 in FIG. 1 analyzes the displayable rectangular area and stores the screen division table 103 shown in FIG. 102.

For example, when changing the display target for the window 202 shown in FIG. 2, the illustrated window information notification unit 111 in FIG.
"SET" uses the information read from the
-WINDOW" and sends it to the second processor 104.
Notify. On the other hand, the window contingency table setting unit 120 provides a window contingency table 106 as shown in FIG. 4A on the local memory 105.

In the window division table 106, the number of divisions is written at the beginning, followed by coordinate information regarding the displayable rectangular area of the window to be displayed. This coordinate information consists of the coordinates (X _i1 , Y _i1 ) of the upper left corner and the coordinates (X _i2 , Y _i2 ) of the lower right corner of the rectangular area, as shown in FIG. 4B, for example.

In such a window setting state, when a drawing request is issued from the drawing instruction unit 112, the displayable rectangular areas b ₀ and b ₁ in the window 202 are
The displayable rectangular area determining unit 121 selects and displays the data of only the portion. When changing the display of another window, the window partition table 106 is re-created.

Screen division table 10 shown in Figures 3 and 4
3. The data structure of the window partitioning table 106 is an example, and any data structure having substantially similar contents can be implemented in the same manner.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, only the window contingency table related to the window currently being processed is placed in the local memory.
It is possible to reduce the amount of local memory used, which requires high speed. Furthermore, the processing load on the second processor can be reduced, the number of microprogram steps can be reduced, and the load can be optimally distributed with respect to the first processor.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a principle block diagram of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an example of a window arrangement for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an example of a screen division table for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows an example of a window division table for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 shows an example of a conventional method, and FIG. 6 shows a diagram for explaining screen division on which the present invention is based. In the figure, 101 is a first processor, 102 is a main memory, 103 is a screen partitioning table, 104 is a second processor, 105 is a local memory, 106 is a window partitioning table, 107 is a frame memory, and 108
1 is a display section, 110 is a screen division table creation section, 111 is a window information notification section, 112 is a drawing instruction section, 1
20 represents a window partitioning table setting section, and 121 represents a displayable rectangular area determination section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A first processor 101 that requests a second processor 104 (described later) to display an image using a multi-window, and performs image display processing in response to a request from the first processor 101. 2nd thing to do
a main memory 102 that is readable and writable by at least the first processor 101;
, a local memory 105 that can be read and written by the second processor 104, a frame memory 107 that holds display information in units of pixels, and a display section 108 that can display the contents of the frame memory 107 pixel-by-pixel. , a multi-window display control device that divides a display screen into a plurality of overlapping windows and performs display processing for each window, in which the first processor 101 displays the entire screen on the display screen. The screen is divided into displayable rectangular areas that do not overlap each other based on the overlapping relationship between the windows, and a screen division table 103 is created on the main memory 102 as a set of information regarding the divided displayable rectangular areas. Table creation means 110, when drawing in a certain window displayed on the display screen, from the screen division table 103,
Window information notification means 111 extracts information on a displayable rectangular area constituting the window and notifies it to the second processor 104; Drawing instruction means 112 sends drawing data to the second processor 104 and instructs it to draw. The second processor 104 is notified from the first processor 101.
a window contingency table setting means 120 for setting information on a displayable rectangular area constituting a window to be drawn in the local memory 105 as a window contingency table 106; A multi-window display control device comprising means 121 for referring to the window division table 106 set in a local memory 105 and displaying only within a displayable rectangular area.