JPH0415812A - Keyboard control method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a keyboard control method for controlling input from each keyboard by connecting a plurality of computers through communication interfaces.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, with the increase in computer usage.

One operator has come to perform various tasks such as document creation, program development, and graphic processing by alternately using a plurality of computers.

In such a case, since input to each computer is performed using each keyboard provided on each computer, the operator has to use as many keyboards as there are computers, which reduces work efficiency.

Therefore, in order to reduce the number of keyboards that need to be handled by allowing input from any keyboard to the desired computer, the conventional method was to connect multiple computers using a network system such as a local area network (LAN). there were.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, as mentioned above, when a network system such as a LAN is used to connect multiple computers, the system becomes large in both software and hardware, resulting in high costs. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to connect a plurality of computers to each other through a simple communication interface so that they can be controlled using any one keyboard.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention connects a plurality of computers, each equipped with a keyboard, through a communication interface, and also enables at least one computer to set a master flag, and when the master flag is set. A keyboard control method is provided in which the keyboard of the computer is used to control the keyboards of computers connected to the computer other than this computer.

[For production]

In the keyboard control method according to the present invention, from among a plurality of computers connected through a communication interface, keys of a computer whose master flag is set can be used to input keys to computers other than that computer.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a computer system to which the keyboard control method according to the present invention is applied.

In this computer system, n computers C1 to Cn each having a keyboard 1, a data processing device 2, a display 3, etc., use an 8-bit or 16-bit parallel communication interface circuit or a serial communication interface circuit (see Fig. 3). They are each connected by an interface cable 12 through the nine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of each computer shown in FIG. 2 together with the internal configuration of the data processing device 2. As shown in FIG.

The data processing device 2 of this computer includes a hard disk device (HDD) 4 and a floppy disk device (FDD) 5 as storage devices.

Then, the keyboard control circuit section 6°CPU7.
RAM8. ROM9. Communication interface circuit 10. and a display control section 11.

The keyboard 1 is an input device for characters and numbers.

Inputs instructions for various functions, keys, etc. for the computer.

The display 3 is a display device such as a CRT or LCD, and displays characters and numbers entered manually, work screens for executing various functions, and various messages.

A hard disk device (HDD) 4 and a floppy disk device (FDD) 5 are external storage devices, and store data that is the result of various functions executed by this computer.

The keyboard control circuit section 6 is in charge of controlling the keyboard 1, detects the human input of a key from the keyboard 1, and generates a key code (character code, control code, etc.) for that key.
The CPU 7 is running.

The CPU 7 is a central processing unit that is in charge of controlling the entire device, and also detects the occurrence of a keyboard interrupt using a key manually, and inputs the key code of that key to the computer depending on whether the master flag is set. or sending it to another computer by the communication interface circuit 10, and when the ID code of the key code sent from the other computer is dispersed with the ID code of the computer concerned, the key code is received and received. It performs processing and various functions realized by this computer.

RAM8 is a writable and readable memory, and C
This is a working memory that temporarily stores data used for various processing by the PU 7.

The ROM 9 is a read-only memory, and stores processing programs for various functions realized by this computer, a processing program for a keyboard interrupt routine, a processing program for a communication interface interrupt routine, and the like.

The communication interface circuit 10 constitutes a communication interface with other computers together with an interface cable 12, and in response to instructions from the CPU 7, sends key codes and the like to other computers connected by the interface cable 12, and receives data from the other computers. Receive the sent key code etc.

The display control unit 11 controls the display 3 and displays a character corresponding to the input key code.

Next, C
Processing related to keyboard control of the PU 7 will be explained.

FIG. 1(a) is a flowchart showing the processing of a keyboard interrupt routine on the computer side that sends out a key code.

When the occurrence of a keyboard interrupt is detected in step 1, the process proceeds to step 2, where the key code sent from the keyboard control circuit section 6 is read, and the process proceeds to step 3.

In step 3, it is determined whether the master flag is raised (set) or not. If it is set, the process proceeds to step 4; if not, the process proceeds to step 5.

Note that the master flag can be arbitrarily set or canceled by operating a predetermined key on the keyboard 1.

In step 4, the key code is sent as a communication code to each other computer via the communication interface, and the process ends.

On the other hand, in steps 5 and 6, the key code is written into the keyboard buffer and displayed as a character on the display 3 of the computer, and the process ends.

FIG. 1(b) is a flowchart showing the interrupt routine processing of the communication interface on the computer side that receives the key code.

The computer that has received the key code determines whether or not a communication interface interrupt has occurred in step 10,
If it occurs, proceed to step 11.

The header code of the received key code is read and the process proceeds to step 12.

In step 12, the ID code of the read header code is compared with its own ID code to determine whether they match. If they match, the process proceeds to step 13, but if they do not match, the process ends.

In step 13, the key code data of the communication code is read, the process proceeds to step 1.4, the key code is written to the keyboard buffer, and in step 15, the character corresponding to the key code is displayed on the display 3 of the computer and processing is performed. finish.

In other words, if the ID code of the destination computer is added to the key code of the key input from the keyboard of the computer on which the master flag is set, then the ID code of the destination computer is sent.
Only computers that match the D code will read that key code.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the format of the communication code when transmitting the key code to each computer.

This communication code uses the first byte to indicate the ID code of the destination computer, which is the header code, and the next 1 byte.
Character codes, which are key code data, are sent out in the form of ASCII codes, for example, using bytes.

Therefore, the character code is manually input to the computer with the matching ID code, so that keyboard control (key input) from the keyboard of a computer other than that computer becomes possible.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the keyboard control method according to the present invention connects multiple computers through a simple communication interface, and allows input to each computer from the keyboard of a single computer with a master flag set. Therefore, work efficiency can be improved when one operator performs various tasks by mailing multiple computers alternately.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram showing the process of transmitting and receiving key codes in each computer to realize the keyboard control method according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is an external view of a computer system to which the keyboard control method according to the present invention is applied; FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of each computer shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the format of a communication code when transmitting a key code to each computer. C1 to Cn... Computer 1... Keyboard 2... Data processing device 3... Display 4... Hard disk device (HDD) 5... Floppy disk device (FDD) 6... Keyboard control circuit Section 7...CPU 8...RAM
9...ROM 10...Communication interface circuit 11...Display control section 12...Interface cable 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Ikeno = Nbu No. 4 (1st byte) Header code (2nd byte) Key code data character code

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Connect multiple computers, each equipped with a keyboard, through a communication interface, and set a master flag on at least one computer, and use the keyboard of the computer on which the master flag is set to A keyboard control method characterized by performing keyboard control of each computer connected to the computer other than the computer.