JPH07113882B2 - Window selector - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a window selection device for selecting a desired window under a multi-window system that displays a plurality of windows.

[Prior Art] Under a multi-window system, a plurality of windows are managed by a window management table, and this window management table indicates the position of each window.
It stores attribute information such as size.

Then, the plurality of windows are controlled to be displayed on the CRT display by the control based on the window management table.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when a plurality of windows are displayed by the control based on the window management table, there are cases where all the open windows cannot be displayed on the CRT display.

In other words, it is a case where a part of the plurality of windows is hidden behind other windows,
Or, when the window itself is open but the display of that window is suppressed (when it is in the hibernation state)
Thus, windows that are dormant or that are hidden by other windows are not displayed on the CRT display.

By the way, in such a conventional multi-window system, a desired window may be designated and selected from the plurality of windows with a mouse or the like, and display data of the selected window may be output to, for example, a printer or the like. .

In such a case, under the conventional multi-window system, for a window that is not displayed, the window itself is not displayed on the display screen, so it is not possible to select the window by specifying it with the mouse or the like. It will not be possible.

Therefore, in the past, in order to be able to select a window that is not displayed, it is necessary to move or shrink the window that covers it to search for hidden windows. The fact that such an operation is necessary makes the window selection operation complicated.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily select a window that is not currently displayed on the display screen.

[Means for Solving the Problem] The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows.

Input means, a plurality of windows to be displayed, display control means for controlling to display on the display a window indicator corresponding to each window, and input with reference to the window indicator displayed on the display A window selecting means for designating a desired window indicator among the window indicators by an input signal from the input means 1 and selecting a window corresponding to the designated window indicator, and the window selecting means 3
Output means for outputting the data of the window selected by.

[Operation] The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows.

The display control means includes a plurality of windows to be displayed,
The window indicator corresponding to each window is controlled to be displayed on the display. A desired window indicator of the window indicators is designated by an input signal input from the input means that is input with reference to the window indicator displayed on the display, and a window corresponding to the designated window indicator is displayed. Selected,
The data of this selected window is output.

Therefore, when selecting a desired window from multiple windows, the window indicator corresponding to that window is displayed even if the window is not currently displayed on the display screen. Then, the desired window can be selected immediately.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a window selection device of the present invention.

In the figure, 11 is a mouse and 12 is a keyboard. An operation signal for screen control of the CRT display 13, a window generation signal, a hard copy signal of the window to the printer 14 or the like is input from an input device such as the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12. The processor 15 is a ROM (not shown)
It is controlled according to the program stored in. The processor 15 receives an input signal from the mouse 11 as a mouse control device.
The input signal from the keyboard 12 is received via the keyboard controller 17. The processor 15 stores in the window management table 18 information regarding each window among signals input from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12, and stores display data in the window memory 19. In addition to the display data of the windows, the window memory 19 stores window indicators for window selection as will be described later, for example, icon data. In order to display overlapping windows on the CRT display 13, the window management table 18 stores information about the position, size, pause flag, and other attributes of the windows and the relationship between the windows. You need to manage the state.

FIG. 2 shows the information stored in the window management table 18. The information in the window management table 18 is the window width bpw, the window height bph, and the X of the screen.
Coordinate bpx, screen Y coordinate bpy, character size csize, line pitch, next window pointer fp, previous window pointer bp, first subwindow pointer
swsp, last subwindow pointer swep, parent window pointer parent, title bar data title,
It consists of the active title bar pointer atbp, the inactive title bar pointer dtbp, and the icon data pointer iconp.

Now, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), for example, three windows
When winX, winY, and winZ are overlapped and displayed on the screen, the processor 15 creates a list structure between windows as shown in FIG. 3 (b) based on a window generation signal from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12. create. In FIG. 3 (b), the pointer swsp of the base window management table points to the first subwindow, that is, the frontmost window of the screen, and the pointer swep of the base window management table points to the last subwindow, that is, the end of the screen. It points to the window of the surface. When the window winX is displayed in the foreground and the window winY is displayed in the last as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the management table pointer bpx of the window winX and the management table pointer of the window winZ are displayed in FIG. 3 (b). f
At the beginning, the end mark NILL is stored in pz, and the processor 15 sets the pointer bp of the management table of the window winX.
x and window winZ management table pointer fpz is NILL
Then, a list structure is created so that the pointer swsp of the base window management table points to the management table of the window winX and the pointer swep points to the management table of the window winZ.

In addition, the management table pointer fpx of the window winX points to the management table of the window winY, and the management table pointer fpy of the window winY is the window winZ.
So that the pointer bpy of the management table such as window winY points to the management table of window winX and the pointer bpz of the management table of window winZ points to the management table of window winY. , Create a list structure between winZ. The pointers parentx, parynty, and parentz of the management tables of the windows winX, winY, and winZ point to the base window management table.

When displaying each window on the screen of the CRT display 13, control is transferred from the processor 15 to the overlap controller 20. The overlap control device 20 is for taking out information such as the display position of each window from the window management table 18 and preparing the control data for adjusting the display procedure and displaying it on the screen. Further, the bit mover 21 takes out the display data of the window from the window memory 19 according to the control data created by the overlap control device 20, that is, the display procedure, and outputs it to the CRT display 13.

FIG. 4 (a) thus shows, for example, the window winA.
And winB are displayed on the screen of the CRT display 13 in an overlapped state, the window winC is paused, and the window winD is hidden behind the window winA.

When a hard copy signal (not shown) is input from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12 in this state, the processor 15
Is a window indicator of the window winA and winB actually displayed from the window management table 18 as well as the window doC currently hidden and the window winD hidden behind the window winA, as will be described in more detail later. , Eg, icon display window management table
18 icon data pointers iconp1, iconp2, iconp3,
iconp4 (in the example shown in Fig. 3 (b), windows winX, wi
nY and winZ are icon data pointer iconpx,
iconpy and iconpz are provided. In this example, iconp1 and
Although not shown, iconp2, iconp3, and iconp4 are displayed on, for example, the lower side of the screen as shown in FIG. 4 (b) based on the respective icon data pointers of windows winA, winB, winC, and winD.

If you now select any of these icons with the mouse 11 or keyboard 12, control is given to the processor 15
To the hard copy controller 22. The hard copy controller 22 takes out the selected window data from the window memory 19, performs vertical and horizontal image conversion (not shown), and transfers control to the printer controller 23. The printer control device 23 uses the printer 14 to convert the vertically and horizontally converted window data.
And the printer 14 is adapted to print window data. In FIG. 1, the window management table 18, the window memory 19, the overlap control device 20, and the bit mover 21 constitute the hardware of the window display means 2, and the hard copy control device 22 is the hardware of the window data selection means 3. Ware,
The printer control device 23 and the printer 14 constitute the output means 4.

The operation of the window selection device having the above configuration will be described. The description of the operation of displaying a window on the CRT display 13 by inputting a predetermined signal from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12 is omitted because it has been described above. In the following, as shown in FIG. The overlapping windows winA and winB are displayed on the screen,
Also, window winD is hidden behind window winA,
If there is a window winC that is dormant then all
The icons of winA, winB, winC, winD are shown in Fig. 4 (b).
The operation for displaying on the CRT display 13 as indicated by 30, 31, 32, and 33 will be described.

The windows winA and winB are displayed on the CRT display 13, and the window winD is hidden behind the window winA.
Mouse 11 when window winC is in a dormant state
Alternatively, when a hard copy signal (not shown) is input from the keyboard 12, the processor 15 activates the icon display program stored in the ROM (not shown). FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a program for displaying icons. By executing this program, the icons of all windows winA, winB, winC, winD can be displayed on the CRT display 13.

In the flow chart of FIG. 5, in step ST1, the pointer to the icon data of the first window is searched first in order to retrieve the pointer to the base window management table.
The top address of the window management table of the frontmost A pointed by swep (window winA in the example shown in FIG. 3B) is stored in the register P.

Then, the pointer iconp1 to the icon data of this window management table is stored in a predetermined position of the register r based on the start address position of the window management table pointed to by the register P (step ST2). In this case, the pointer iconp1 to the icon data of the window winA is stored at the position of the first address of the register r.

Then, in order to judge whether this window is the last window or apricot (this judgment is made by the pointer of the management table of the last window winZ as shown in FIG. 3 (b)).
It is made by wearing that the end mark NILL is stored in fpz. ) It is confirmed whether or not the pointer fp is the end mark NILL in the window management table stored in the register P (step ST3). In this case, the first window winA is not the last window, and the end mark NILL is not stored in the pointer fp1 of its management table, so step ST4 is performed to search for the pointer to the icon data of the next window winB. Proceed to. In step ST4, the pointer fp1 in the window management table currently pointed to by the register P, that is, the start address of the window management table of the next window is stored in the register P. This causes register P to have 2
The start address of the window management table of the second window winB is stored. Then, the process returns to step ST2 again, and the pointer iconp2 to the icon data of the management table of the window winB is stored in the next address position of the register r with reference to the start address position of the window management table pointed to by the register P. As a result, the pointer iconp2 to the icon data of the window winB is stored at the next address position of the register r.

By repeating the above procedure, pointers iconp3 and iconp4 to the icon data of windows winC and winD are sequentially stored at predetermined address positions of the register r. After storing the pointer iconp4 to the icon data of the window winD in the register r, it is determined in step ST3 whether the pointer fp4 of the management data of the window winD is the end mark NILL. Window winD is the last window and pointer
Since the end mark NILL is stored in fp4, the storage of the pointers iconp1, iconp2, iconp3, and iconp4 to the register r is completed, and the process proceeds to step ST5 to display the icon on the CRT display 13. At step ST5, a pointer ic to the icon data sequentially stored in the register r
Search the icon data storage position of each window winA, winB, winC, winD from onp1, iconp2, iconp3, iconp4, extract the icon data of each window from this icon data storage position and store it in the window memory 19, for example. Under the control of the bit mover 21, it is displayed on the CRT display 13 as shown by reference numerals 31, 31, 32 and 33 in FIG. 4 (b), and the icon display processing is ended. In this process, it is assumed that a certain link relationship is formed between the icon data stored in the window memory 19 and the display data of the window corresponding to this icon data.

After such an icon is displayed on the CRT display 13, the operator selects the icon for the window for which a hard copy is to be made with the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12, and the processor 15 transfers control to the hard copy controller 22. The copy control device 22 searches the window memory 19 for the display data of the window corresponding to the selected icon and takes it out. Next, the display data of the extracted window is converted into a vertical / horizontal image and passed to the printer controller 23, and the printer controller 23 outputs the result to the printer 14.

In the above embodiment, icons are displayed on the CRT display 13 as window indicators of each window, and desired window data is printed on the printer 14 by selecting one of the icons from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12. However, as a modification, instead of displaying the icon of each window on the CRT display 13, the title bar of each window is displayed, and the operator selects one of the title bars from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12 so that it is desired. The window data of 1 may be printed by the printer 14. CR
By displaying the title bar on the T display 13, it is possible to select a desired window to be hard-copied without making a mistake even if a large number of windows exist.

Further, in the above embodiment, the hard copy signal is input from the mouse 11 or the keyboard 12 when displaying the icon data or the title bar data on the screen, but the window is displayed without inputting the hard copy signal or the like. The icon data or the data of the title bar may be automatically displayed on the screen without the intervention of the operator's operation.

[Effect of the Invention] According to the present invention, when a desired window is selected from a plurality of windows, a window indicator corresponding to the window is displayed even if the window is not currently displayed on the display screen. Therefore, only by designating and selecting the window indicator, the desired window can be selected immediately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a window selection device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a window management table, and FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) are a plurality of windows. For explaining the relationship between the window management tables of FIG. 4, FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b) show windows and icons on the CRT display, and FIG. 5 shows icons displayed on the CRT display. It is a flowchart. 11 …… Mouse, 13 …… CRT, 15 …… CPU, 18 …… Window management table, 19 …… Window memory, 21 …… Bit mover

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display control means for controlling to display on a display an input means, a plurality of windows to be displayed, and a window marker corresponding to each window, and the window marker displayed on the display. Window selecting means for designating a desired window indicator among the window indicators by an input signal from the input means inputted with reference to, and selecting a window corresponding to the designated window indicator; A window selection device comprising: an output unit that outputs data of the window selected by the selection unit.