JPH1063464A - Window display - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to grasp the display states of respective windows when the windows are displayed by displaying the respective windows one over another according to their display priority. SOLUTION: Data needed for rearranged display are written in a window management table 16. When the data are written in a necessary area of the window management table 16, the data in the window management table 16 are sent out to an overlap controller 17. The data sent out to the overlap controller 17 are displayed on a CRT display 23 by a window display device 19, a bit mover 20, etc. Namely, the respective windows are displayed one over another according to the display priority in response to an indication for the rearranged display of the windows. Therefore, what kind of window is displayed can be grasped from the rearranged display state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a window display control device for controlling the display of a plurality of windows displayed on a display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A multi-window is a function for simultaneously displaying a plurality of images on a display screen. Normally, a cursor on the display screen is controlled by an operating device such as a mouse to display necessary images. For example, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, various processing menus 2 are displayed on the CRT display 1 by pressing a switch provided on a mouse (not shown). Then, as shown in FIG. 11B, the cursor 3 is moved to a required menu position in the menu 2 (in this case, “generate”), and the above-mentioned switch is released. One window 4 is displayed as shown. In addition, another window is
When displaying on the T display 1, FIG.
Menu 2 is displayed as shown in (a) and (b), cursor 3 is moved to a required menu position in menu 2,
By releasing the switch, a new window 5 is displayed before the above-mentioned window 4 as shown in FIG.

[0003] As described above, in the conventional multi-window control device, when windows overlap, the overlap processing (superimposition processing) in which a newly generated window is brought to the foreground is performed. This overlap processing is performed not only in the above-described window generation processing but also in processing such as enlargement, reduction, and movement of each window.

[0004]

In the conventional multi-window control device as described above, for example, as shown in FIG.
When the windows 7 and 8 are displayed, the window 8 shown in FIG. 13B is displayed in the foreground.
The window 6 is completely invisible as shown in FIG.
Such a problem easily occurs in the case of window generation and other processing, and it is difficult to understand at a glance the CRT display 1 what windows exist on the display 1.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily grasp the display state of each window when displaying a plurality of windows.

[0006]

Means of claim 1 is a window display device for displaying a plurality of windows,
Instructing means for instructing to arrange and display the plurality of windows in a display screen area; identifying means for identifying a window having the lowest display priority among the windows in response to the instruction; First display position determining means for determining the display position of the specified window so that the display position of the specified window is the predetermined display position in the display screen area; and each of the windows higher than the window specified by the specifying means A second display position determining means for determining a display position such that the windows are arranged in accordance with their display priorities at respective display positions shifted from the predetermined display position at predetermined intervals in a predetermined direction; Each window corresponding to each display position determined by the first and second display position determining means is superimposed on the display position according to its display priority. It is characterized in that comprising a display control unit for displaying, the in.

A second aspect of the present invention is a window display device for displaying a plurality of windows, wherein the instructing means instructs to arrange and display the plurality of windows in a display screen area. Means for specifying a window having the lowest display priority among the windows, and a display position of the window specified by the specifying means is set to be a predetermined display position at the upper left corner in the display screen area. For the first display position determining means for determining the display position, and for each of the windows higher than the window specified by the specifying means, at least the title display area of each window can be identified in the lower right direction from the predetermined display position. Each display position is shifted so that the windows are arranged according to their display priorities. Second display position determining means for determining, and display control for displaying each window corresponding to each display position determined by the first and second display position determining means in a superimposed display state according to the display priority order. Means.

Therefore, it is possible to easily understand how many windows are opened and displayed on the display screen and what windows are displayed by simply giving a predetermined instruction.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of the multi-window display control device of the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, a mouse 10 is configured to be movable, and the mouse 10 is provided with a switch 10a. The movement data of the mouse 10 and the operation signal of the switch 10 a are output to the CPU 12 via the mouse control device 11. An operation signal when a character key or function key (not shown) of the keyboard unit 13 is operated is output to the CPU 12 via the keyboard control unit 14.

The CPU 12 receives graphic window display data and window control data via an input / output (I / O) interface (not shown) in addition to operation signals from the mouse 10 and the keyboard 13. CPU1
2 operates according to the built-in program, and the keyboard 1
3 and the window display data input from the I / O interface are output to the window memory 15, and the window control data is output to the window management table 16. The window memory 15 stores all input window display data. Window management table 1
Numeral 6 stores data in areas to be described later in accordance with the contents of the input window control data.

Further, the overlap control device 17 has a CP
It is driven in accordance with a control signal from U12, extracts data on the display position of each window from the above-described window management table 16, and creates control data to be displayed on a CRT display 23 described later.

For example, when one window is displayed on the CRT display 23, the screen is divided into six rectangular areas S1 to S6 as shown in FIG. For each S6, the coordinates of the area, the coordinates of the logical area (not on the actual screen), the data of the title display area provided in each window, and the like are created. If the windows overlap, the screen is divided into 12 rectangular areas S1 to S12 as shown in FIG. The coordinates of the upper area, the data of the title display area provided in each window, and the like are created.

The screen control data created in this manner is transmitted from the overlap control device 17 to the display control memory 1.
8 is output. The above-described control data is sequentially written into the display control memory 18, and when the control data for one screen is written, the control data for one screen is stored in the window display device 1.
9 is output.

The window display device 19 outputs the control data for each rectangular area divided as described above to the bit mover 20 for each area. The bit mover 20 takes out the window display data from the above-mentioned window memory 15 for each rectangular area and outputs it to the display memory 21. When the bit mover 20 outputs the display data (display data for one screen) of all the divided rectangular areas to the display memory 21, the display control device 22 displays the display data for one screen written in the display memory 21 on the CRT display. 23. The CRT display 23 displays one or a plurality of windows according to display data to be input.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned window management table 16
Is composed of a management table area as shown in FIG.
In addition, the management table area having this configuration is provided for each window stored in the window memory 15 described above. The management table includes a window width, a window height, a screen X coordinate, a screen Y coordinate, a character size, a pitch between characters, a pointer to a next window when a plurality of windows are displayed, and a previous window. Pointer, first subwindow, last subwindow, parent window pointer, title bar data (tit
le), active title bar (atbp), and inactive title bar (dtbp) data are written. For example, in the above description, the window width to the line pitch will be described in comparison with a specific position on a display. As shown in FIG.
The width of A) is indicated by bpw and the height of the window is bph
And the X coordinate on the screen of the point a of the window A is pb
x, the Y coordinate of the point a on the screen is indicated by bpy, and the size of the characters b and b ′ in the window A is csi
ze, and the interval between the characters b and b 'is indicated by pitch.

The relationship between the pointer at the next pitch and the last subwindow will be specifically described with reference to FIG. 5 showing the relationship between the windows (parent windows winA to winC). The data of the window located after the window is written.
For example, if windows A → B → C are displayed in this order as shown in FIG. 4, address data (pointer position) of window B is stored in the pointer area (fp) of the window next to window A. ) Is written, and the address data (pointer position) of the window C is written in the pointer area (fp) of the window next to the window B. Further, since there is no window after the window C, the pointer area of the window next to the window C is NILL.

On the other hand, the pointer area (b
Contrary to the above, data of the window located before the window is written in p). For example, if windows A → B → C are displayed in this order in the same manner as described above, the data of window A is stored in the pointer area (bp) of the window before window B as shown in FIG. The data of window B is written in the pointer area (bp) of the window before window C. Further, since there is no window before the window A, the pointer area of the window before the window A is NILL.

In the area (swsp) of the first sub-window of the parent window (CRT), which has the entire screen of the CRT display 23 as one window, the data of the window on the front displayed on the CRT display 23 is written. Is embedded. On the other hand, parent window (CRT)
The data of the last window displayed on the CRT display 23 is written in the area of the last sub-window. For example, according to the example of FIG.
The address data of window A is written in the first subwindow area (swsp), and the address data of window C is written in the last subwindow area (swep).

Further, address data of the parent window (CRT) is written in the pointer area (parent) of the parent window of windows A to C.

The operation of the multi-window display control device of the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described below.

First, it is assumed that windows D to G (window G is hidden by windows D to F) are displayed on the CRT display 23 as shown in FIG. In such a state, not only is the title of the window G unknown, but also the title of the window F is almost hidden and cannot be clearly confirmed.

From this display state, first, the mouse 10
Is moved, and an operation signal is sent to the CPU 12, so that the mouse cursor 2 is controlled by a control signal from the CPU 12.
4 is moved to a position on the CRT display 23 where the windows D to G are not displayed. Next, the control signal is transmitted from the CPU 12 by operating (pressing) the switch 10a, and the processing menu 25 is displayed on the CRT display 23 as shown in FIG. Further, the mouse 10 is operated while operating the switch 10a, and the mouse cursor 24 is moved to the position of the organizing display processing in the processing menu 25 as shown in FIG. Then, the organizing and displaying process in the process menu 25 is selected, and the switch 10a is released.

When the organizing and displaying process is selected in this manner, the CPU 12 sets the window D on the CRT display 23
G is sequentially arranged and displayed. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing of the CPU 12 in this arrangement display mode. In the figure, for the sake of explanation of the flow, the upper left end of the screen of the CRT display 23 is defined as the base point (0, 0) of the coordinate system, the right direction is defined as the positive direction of x, and the downward direction is defined as the positive direction of y.

First, the CPU 12 captures the data written in the last subwindow (sweep) of the parent management table (CRT) into the pointer (p) in the CPU 12 (step ST1). The data written in the area of the management table (CRT) is the management table of the window G as in the case shown in FIG. Therefore,
The CPU 12 selects the management table of the window G in the window management table 16 as the last window.

Next, initial coordinates (X, Y) for displaying a window on the CRT display 23, a screen width W and a screen height H are initialized (step ST).
2). With this setting, the initial position of the pointer is X = 0,
Y = (csize + pitch).

Next, the CPU 12 outputs the X coordinate data (bpx) and the Y coordinate data (bpy) of the screen to the management table of the window G selected as described above.
The start point g of the window G on the last plane is set as shown in (3) (step ST3). At this time, the data sent to the management table of the window G is the X and Y data set as described above. Therefore, the X coordinate (bpx) of the window G on the screen is 0, and the Y coordinate (bpy) is C siz
e + pitch.

Next, the CPU 12 takes out the data of the pointer area (bp) of the previous window in the management table of the window G, and selects the window F. Then, the starting point f of the window F for displaying the positions X and Y of the pointer next
(Step ST4). The position of the start point f is obtained by adding C size to the X coordinate of the start point g, and adding C si to the Y coordinate.
This is the sum of ze + pitch width.

Next, the coordinates of the right end of the window G are set to CRT.
It is checked whether or not the width (W) of the display has been exceeded (step ST5). If it has been exceeded (W <bpx + bp)
w) Correct the width of the window G (step ST)
6) Similarly, the lower end of the window G is also checked (step ST7).
(bpy + bph) The height (H) of the window is corrected (step ST8).

Next, it is determined whether the pointer (bp) of the window before the window G is NILL (step ST).
9) In this embodiment, since the window F exists, the pointer is set to the address of the window management table F on the front (step ST10). Similarly, the numerical values of X and Y are substituted for the window F in step ST3.
Similarly, steps ST4 → ST5 →... → ST10 are repeated by the number of windows displayed on the CRT display 23. Accordingly, as shown in FIG.
The start points f, e, and d of E and D are designated, and data necessary for organizing and displaying are written in the window management table. When data is written in a necessary area of the window management table in this way, the data in the window management table 16 is sent to the overlap control device 17 described above. The data sent to the overlap control device 17 is displayed on the CRT display 23 by the window display device 19, the bit mover 20 and the like as shown in FIG.

When icons and menus are provided in the title bar, the icons and menus of the target window can be easily operated by displaying the title bar of each window.

[0032]

According to the present invention, the display position of the window having the lowest display priority among the windows is automatically determined in the display screen area in accordance with the instruction to arrange and display a plurality of windows. The upper-level windows are also automatically determined at the respective display positions displaced at predetermined intervals in the predetermined direction based on the display position, and the respective windows are displayed in a superimposed display state according to their display priorities. When displaying multiple windows on the display screen, how many windows are displayed in the display screen and what kind of windows are displayed It can be grasped from the organized display state, and furthermore, the state of the display priority of each window can be easily grasped from the arrangement order. It is possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a multi-window display control device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a method of dividing overlap control of the multi-window display control device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a window management table.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a window management table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between windows.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a multi-window according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a multi-window according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a multi-window according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a multi-window according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the multi-window display control device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram illustrating the operation of a conventional example.

FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram illustrating the operation of a conventional example.

FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram illustrating an operation of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 CPU 15 Window memory 16 Window management table

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A window display device for displaying a plurality of windows, comprising: instruction means for instructing to arrange and display the plurality of windows in a display screen area; Specifying means for specifying a window having the lowest display priority, and a first display position for determining a display position of the window specified by the specifying means so as to be a predetermined display position in the display screen area Determining means; and for each window higher than the window specified by the specifying means, the windows are arranged at display positions shifted from the predetermined display position by a predetermined interval in a predetermined direction in accordance with the display priority. Display position determining means for determining each display position as described above, and each table determined by the first and second display position determining means. A position, corresponding window display control apparatus and display control means for displaying on the display superposed state in accordance with the display priority order of each window, and characterized by including the to. 2. A window display device for displaying a plurality of windows, an instruction means for instructing to arrange and display the plurality of windows in a display screen area, and among the windows in response to the instruction. Specifying means for specifying a window having the lowest display priority; and first determining the display position such that the display position of the window specified by the specifying means is a predetermined display position at the upper left corner in the display screen area. Display position determining means, and for each window higher than the window specified by the specifying means, each window is shifted from the predetermined display position in the lower right direction by at least a constant interval enough to identify the title display area of each window. A second display for determining each display position so that the windows are arranged in the display position in accordance with the display priority order Position determining means, and display control means for displaying each window corresponding to each display position determined by the first and second display position determining means in a superimposed display state according to the display priority order. A window display control device, characterized in that: