JPH0664526B2 - Multi-window display control method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a display control method for a multi-window system in which one display screen is divided into a plurality of window areas for display.

[Conventional technology]

In a multi-window system in which a screen is divided into a plurality of window areas for display, it is necessary to control which window is to be preferentially displayed when multiple windows overlap each other. Methods for performing this control efficiently and at high speed are disclosed in JP-A-63-680, JP-A-62-298882 and JP-A-62-
As shown in 291692 etc., the processing of display requests for each window on the screen is all scheduled equally.
Even if a display request for another window occurs while the display processing for one window on the screen is being performed, the processing is waited until the display processing being executed is completed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The problems in the above conventional technique will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, process 1 displays a graphic in window 1 and process 2 displays in a window 2, and an operator inputs data to window 2 from an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse to perform interactive processing. I shall. Here, when the process 2 tries to display a graphic on the window 2 as a response to the input data from the operator at the timing when the process 1 is performing some graphic drawing processing on the window 1, the display processing on the window 2 is performed. Is kept waiting until the display processing on the window 1 is completed, and as a result, the start of response to the operator's operation is delayed. Considering that both processes 1 and 2 are displaying a large amount of graphic data for windows 1 and 2, processing of display requests to windows 1 and 2 is equally scheduled, so that the operator operates As a result, the processing capacity for updating the display of the inside window 2 is halved. As described above, the conventional technique has a problem that when a display request is issued to a plurality of windows at the same time, the responsiveness to the window being operated by the operator is deteriorated and the display performance is deteriorated.

An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-window display control method that does not cause deterioration in display responsiveness and display performance in the window being operated by the operator even when display requests for a plurality of windows are simultaneously generated.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The above object is to provide first storage means for storing a window number indicating a window currently being operated by the operator, and second storage means for storing the level of the display request currently being processed by the drawing processor, When a display request is issued from the processor and the number of the window to be displayed matches the window number stored in the first storage means, the display request is stored in the first display request queue. The level is set as the first level, and when they do not match, the display request is stored in the second display request queue and the level is set as the second level, and the level of the generated display request is the first level. When the level of the second storage means is the second level, the currently executed process by the drawing processor is interrupted to execute the first level process, and the drawing processor further When the display request processing is completed it is accomplished by executing the display requests stored into the first display request queue priority.

[Action]

If there is a display request for the first level, that is, the operator is operating during the display processing of the second level, that is, the window that is not being operated by the operator, the former process is interrupted and the latter process is started. The response of the display is fast, and the display request of the first level is preferentially processed even at the end of the processing. Therefore, even when there are many display requests, the processing of the operating window is prioritized, and the display performance thereof is not deteriorated.

〔Example〕

Examples of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of a multi-window system that realizes the method of the present invention. In terms of hardware, a drawing processor 3 for drawing figures, characters, etc. on a CPU 1, a display 2, a display 2 and a CPU 1 are used for drawing. It comprises a memory 4 that can be referenced and updated by both processors 3. The CPU 1 operates a display control process 6 that receives a user program such as the processes 7 and 8 and a display request requested from the processes 7 and 8 and performs start response control for the drawing processor 3. The display control process 6 includes a display request management table 13 that manages display requests that are currently in the waiting state, an lvl field 14 that indicates the level of the display process that is currently being executed by the drawing processor,
A display control table 9 including a wno field 15 indicating the window number currently being operated by the operator, a display request reception process 10, a display execution process 11, a timer interrupt process 12,
It consists of window pop processing 26 (processing that brings the window on the back side to the front). A drawing command storage area 18 is provided on the shared memory 4, and drawing command strings 19 to 21 interpretable by the drawing processor 3 are arranged in response to a display request from a process. For example, when a straight line is represented, the drawing command sequences 19 to 21 are command sequences as shown in FIG. 4, which have start points and end points. In the display request management table 13, entries 22 to 25 that manage individual display requests from processes are displayed in the display request list for the operator operation window (hereinafter referred to as level 1 queue) 16.
And a display request list (hereinafter referred to as a level 2 queue) 17 for other windows. Each of the entries 22 to 25 of the display request lists 16 and 17 is composed of the fields shown in FIG. 3, the list 51 is the level queue list field, and the execution status 52 is the display request corresponding to the corresponding entry (not executed or executed). Field, which indicates whether the display request is received, the time stamp 53 is the time when the display request is received, and the drawing command address is the drawing command string.
The start address of 19 to 21, the interruption address 55 is the execution state 52 =
Address of the drawing command to be executed next when it is suspended,
The window number field 56 indicates the window number targeted by this display processing. The lvl field 14 is 1 when the drawing processor 3 is currently executing a level queue display request, 2 when a level 2 display request is currently being executed, and id when nothing is being done.
has one of the states le.

Next, the operation of this configuration will be described. First, process 7,
The operation when the display requests 31 and 32 are issued from the display request receiving process 10 to the display request receiving process 10 is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, and this is controlled by the display request receiving process 10 and the display executing process 11. It

(1) Interpret the contents of the display request, expand the display request 31 into a form that the drawing processor can interpret, and add a new drawing command sequence 19
(Step 501) (2) Create entry 22 or 24 in the display request table. Here, as the values of the fields of the entry, the execution state 52 = not executed, the time stamp 53 = current (request acceptance) time, the drawing command address 54 = the start address of the drawing command string 19 are set. Also, the display request 31, 32
Indicates which window is requested, sets this window number in the window number field 56, compares the window number to be displayed with the contents of the wno field 15, and if they match, , Level 1 cue
An entry is queued at the end of 16 and at the end of the level 2 queue 17 if they do not match (step 502).

After the above processing ends, the display request reception processing 10 is the display execution processing.
Transfer control to 11. In the display execution processing 11, (3) the value of the lvl field, which is the current execution level, is determined (step 503). Based on this judgment result, the following (i) to (ii
i) is executed.

(i) When lvl = idle: Since the drawing processor 3 is not used at this time, the drawing command sequence 19 of the arrived display request
Is used as a parameter to start the drawing processor 3 (step 504). Then, the lvl field 14 is set to the level of the activated display request (step 505).

(ii) lvl> level 1 of arrival display request: This is the case where a process having a higher priority than the process currently being executed has arrived, and the drawing processor 3 suspends the drawing process currently being executed. When the interrupt response, that is, the interrupted address (address of the drawing command to be executed next) is returned from the drawing processor 3, the display execution process 11 executes the display request entry (currently being executed) of the display request management table 13 ( The execution state 52 shown in FIG. 3) is suspended, and the suspension address 55 is set (step 506). Thereafter, the drawing processor 3 is activated for the newly arrived request (step 507), and l
The newly started drawing processing level is set in vl14 (step 508).

(iii) If lvl ≦ arrival display request level: This is when the level of the display request that has arrived is lower than the level of the drawing process that is currently being executed. In this case, the process ends without doing anything.

The above is the display request reception processing. The operation when the drawing request is received by this processing, the drawing processor 3 finishes the drawing processing, and the drawing processor 3 detects the END command (FIG. 4) in the drawing command sequence 19 Is shown in the flow chart of FIG. 6, and the contents are as follows.

(1) The display execution process 11 deletes the completed display request entry from the display request management table 13 when an end interrupt is issued from the drawing processor 3 that has detected the END command. Then, the display request management table 13 is searched (step 601). If the level 1 queue 16 is not empty, the display request is fetched from the head of the level 1 queue, and if it is empty, the display request is fetched from the head of the level 2 queue, and the drawing processor 3 is set. Start (step 602). At this time, the activated display processing level is set in the lvl field 14 (step 603). Level 1,
If both level 2 queues are empty, idle in the lvl field
Is set (step 604).

Finally, timer interrupt processing 12 and window pop processing 26
Will be described. First, the timer interrupt processing 12 is shown in FIG. Although the responsiveness and the display performance for the window being operated by the operator can be ensured by the processing of FIGS. 5 and 6, the level 1 queue is used as it is, for example, when the display requests for the window being operated by the operator are continuously made. , There is always a display request, and the display of the level 2 queue is never processed. Therefore, the display request management table 13 is searched by the timer interrupt process activated at a certain fixed period, and the difference between the time stamp value and the current time is obtained for each entry connected to the level 2 queue 17, After the display request time from the process, if there is a display request that has passed a certain time (about 1 second), it is taken out from the level 2 queue (step 701) and reconnected to the level 1 queue 16 (step 702).

Next, the window pop processing 26 is shown in FIG. Wind pop
Is performed by the operator instructing the window that brings one of the overlapping windows on the screen to the front (viewed by the operator). Wind for this
In the pop processing 26, first, the screen is updated so that the window of the instructed window number = i comes to the front of the screen (step 801). Next, set wno field = i (step 80
2) Further, in the display request management table 13, all the entries of the level 1 queue 16 are connected to the level 2 queue 17, and among the entries of the level 2 queue 17, the entries of the window number field 56 = i are connected to the level 1 queue. (Step 803). As a result, the consistency between the operator operation window and the display request management table 13 can be maintained. According to this processing, the window during the operator operation is the window that was last subjected to the window pop processing, but the window on the back of the operator as seen from the operator, such as the keyboard and mouse for window 1 in FIG. In a multi-window system in which data can be entered, it is possible to set the window in which the data was last entered as the operator-operated window. In this case, when inputting data from the mouse, keyboard, etc., the above-mentioned window pop
It can be realized by performing the same processing as the processing.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, even when display processing is simultaneously performed on a plurality of windows in a multi-window system, the responsiveness and display performance of the display processing for the window being operated by the operator are Compared to the case where it is not done, it is almost the same,
It has become possible to provide a display control method with good man-machine characteristics.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system for implementing the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of multi-window, FIG. 3 is an entry configuration diagram of a display request management table,
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a drawing command sequence, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display request processing method from a process, and FIG. 6 is a display request control method when one display request processing is completed by the drawing processor. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the timer interrupt processing, and FIG. 8 is a window po.
It is an operation | movement flowchart of p process. 3 ... Drawing processor, 13 ... Display request management table, 14 ...
lvl field, 15 ... wno field, 10 ... display request acceptance processing, 11 ... display execution processing, 12 ... timer interrupt processing, 26 ...
pop processing.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window display control method for a multi-window system in which a display screen is divided into a plurality of window areas for display, and when a display request is issued from a process, the display request is sent according to a level indicating its priority. When the level indicating the priority of the display request being displayed by the drawing processor is lower than the level of the generated display request, the display process is temporarily suspended and the above occurs. It is characterized in that the display processing of the display request is started by the drawing processor, and when one display processing is completed by the drawing processor, the display processing stored in the queue with a higher level is preferentially started by the drawing processor. Multi-window display control method. 2. The multi-window display control method according to claim 1, wherein the level indicating the priority of the display request is the highest level of the display request for the window being operated by the operator. . 3. If there is a display request stored in the low level queue that has elapsed time after being connected to the queue exceeds a predetermined time, the display request is higher. 3. The multi-window display control method according to claim 1, wherein the multi-window display is stored in the level queue again. 4. A pop processing means for displaying the window designated by the operator as a screen closest to the operator's visual field is provided, and the window being operated by the operator is the window popped most recently by the pop processing means. The multi-window display control method according to claim 2. 5. The display control method according to claim 2, wherein the window being operated by the operator is a window in which data is most recently input from a data input device such as a mouse or a keyboard.