JP3467283B2 - Automatic window number adjustment system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-window system, which is a display system of a computer display, in which (1) a new window is created, and (2) an existing window. (3) The size of the window has changed, (4) The window has changed to an icon state (iconized), (5) The icon state has returned to the window, etc. When the display status of the window changes, the optimal number of windows for display (optimal number of windows) is calculated, taking into account the size of the display and the size and display ratio of each window. Automatically operate windows to effectively utilize the display, which is a limited resource, and reduce the burden of user window operations. The present invention relates to a system for automatically adjusting the number of windows, which reduces the number of windows and makes it easier to see the windows. 2. Description of the Related Art In a multi-window system in which one computer display can be divided into a plurality of superimposable rectangular areas called windows, a window generally uses a mechanism called a "window manager". The user can arbitrarily perform window operations such as moving, iconifying / uniconifying, changing the order of superposition, changing the size, and the like by using a mouse or the like. [0003] Through the above operation, the user can change the display state of the window, such as the number, display ratio, size, and position of the window, as desired. However, since the physical area where windows can be arranged is generally limited by the size of the display, the user cannot freely and independently set all window display states. For example, when a large number of windows are displayed, the display ratio of the windows is reduced because the windows are placed close to each other. In some cases, it is necessary to reduce the window size. When increasing the window size,
The number of windows must be reduced. In this way, the user executes operations such as iconification / deiconification, change of the order of superposition, change of size, and movement, and changes the display state such as the number of windows, display ratio, size, and position. I always work to adjust the balance according to the situation. Almost all of the work of changing the display state of such a window is performed by a user's manual operation. However, the manual operation of a window by a user using a conventional window manager has the following disadvantages. (1) Window operation must be performed while taking into account the balance of the number, display rate, size, position, etc. of windows while taking into account the effective display area. However, once any window operation is performed, the balance is lost, and a new operation is required. Such a situation imposes an excessive burden on the user, and becomes more difficult as the number of windows displayed at one time increases. (2) The above (1) can be overcome to some extent by the user's operation skill when the user is allowed to operate the window. However, even when a plurality of users are viewing a single display as typified by a communication conference or a presentation, the operation may not be performed as desired. (3) It is expected that the window system will be mounted not only on computers but also on household electric appliances in the future. In such a usage situation, with the simplification of the operation device and the operation, it is expected that the operation that can be selected by the user is more limited than in the current window system. However, the current system employs a mechanism that allows the user to perform all the arrangements, and thus cannot easily cope with this. (4) The above-mentioned (1) is a problem derived from the fact that the display is used effectively in consideration of the balance between the window display states.
Therefore, there is no problem if the visibility of the window and the effective use of the display are abandoned. However, as presented in the above (2), especially in view of the visibility of a person other than the operator, abandoning this is a problem and is not allowed. An object of the present invention is to focus on the number of windows that affect the visibility of windows and the effective use of a display, and to automatically display as many windows as the display size permits, thereby limiting limited resources. It is possible to effectively utilize the display, reduce the burden on the user for operating the window, and make the window easier to see. In order to achieve the above object, an automatic window number adjusting system according to the present invention comprises: (1) an event monitoring means for monitoring an event generated by a window system; ) Display size, number of currently displayed windows, size of all displayed windows,
A display status collection unit that collects information about display status such as the order of overlapping and the classification of window attributes such as icons / window status, and creates a window display status table. (3) What is the window display rate? (4) a target display ratio based on the target display ratio held in the target value table and a window display state table obtained by the display state collecting means and a target display ratio held in the target value table. The window display state
Cumulatively sums the product of the sizes of each window in the table
And the cumulative sum does not exceed the display size.
Window number calculating means for calculating a large number of windows as the number of displayable windows ; and (5) an arrangement for allocating windows to be arranged on a display based on data obtained from the display state collecting means and the window number calculating means. Having position calculating means,
The window can be displayed based on the size of the display, the size of each window, and the display ratio required for the window, when the display status of the window changes due to window operation, creation of a new window, or disappearance of the window. <br/> Calculate the number of windows and optimize this for the user.
By automatically adjusting the number of windows as the number of windows, it is possible to make effective use of the display, which is a limited resource, to reduce the burden of window operations on the user and to make the windows easier to see. . According to the present invention, an optimum number of windows can be displayed by taking into account the effective area of the display and the display ratio and size of the windows, instead of changing the number of windows only by the manual operation of the user. By performing such automatic operations, the user's visibility, operability, and utilization of the display are improved. As shown in FIG. 1, an automatic window number adjusting system according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises an event monitoring unit 110, a display state collecting unit 120, a window number calculating unit 130, a target value table 140, an arrangement position calculating unit. Means 150. This system exists separately from the window system 100 that controls the window, and has a configuration in which the display device 160 is indirectly controlled by communicating with the window system 100. First, the definition and calculation method of the display ratio, which is a unique variable used in the present system, will be described. For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that there are two windows w and W on the display, the window W is superimposed on the window w, and a part of the window w is invisible. . The area of the window w is s. The display ratio v of the window w is defined by the ratio of the area s _visible of the _visible portion to the entire area s of the window. That is, v = s _visible / s (Equation 1). s and s _visible can be calculated from the window w and the coordinate values of the upper left and lower right corners of the window W. In addition, when the window w protrudes from the screen, the display ratio may be reduced irrespective of the window W to be superimposed. In this case, v is calculated in consideration of the influence. The window display ratio v is an index indicating how much the window is visible, and the index can define the visibility of the window. For example, v =
If 1, indicates that the window can be seen at a glance, if v = 0, the window is not visible,
That is, this indicates that the window is completely covered by another window. Next, the system configuration of the present invention and the description of each part of the system will be described with reference to FIG. In this system, an event generated from the window system 100 is monitored by an event monitoring unit 110. When an event that changes the display state of the window occurs, such as when a new window is created, the window disappears, or the window size is changed,
The event monitoring unit 110 activates the display state collection unit 120 in the standby state. Note that the events that trigger the activation include events that notify the occurrence or disappearance of windows,
It is preferable that the event be a notification of the state transition of the window ← → icon. This is a guideline for avoiding a situation in which the automatic operation of the window is started by a slight window operation by the user, and the display state of the display is frequently changed and the display flickers. FIG. 2 shows the internal structure of the display state collecting means 120. The display state collecting means 120 collects the display states of the windows required by the arrangement position calculating means 150,
It also processes the collected data to make it easier to use. These data are the display size, the number of windows, the size of each window, and the division of the icon / window state (the division of the state of each window as an icon or displayed as a window) as shown in FIG. Is stored in the appropriate window display state table 125. First, the window number collector 121 collects the number of currently displayed windows from the window system 100 and stores this in the window display state table 125. The window number collector 121 acquires the display size by simultaneously collecting the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the display, and stores the result in a table. Next, the window size calculator 122 collects the width and height of all windows from the window system 100, and calculates the size based on the collected data. Window system 100
If can provide size information directly, only the size needs to be collected. Next, the icon / window state determiner 123 similarly inquires of the window system 100 whether each window is displayed as an icon or a normal window.
The inquiry result is displayed in the window display state table 12
5 is stored. When all the entries are filled in the window display state table 125, the next sorter 124 is displayed.
Passed to. The sorter 124 sorts the entries in the window display state table 125 according to the overlapping order of the currently displayed windows. FIG.
In the example, if the window with the window ID 654321 is at the top in the overlapping order, it is replaced at the top of the table. When the sorting in the overlapping order is completed, the sorter 124 separates the icon in the window display state table 125 and the entry of the window. Specifically, the entries in all the windows are sorted so as to be placed above the icon entries without changing the order in the table between the windows. FIG. 4 shows an example of this operation. FIG. 4 (a)
FIG. 4B shows an example of the window display state table 125 before the icon / window is separated, and FIG. 4B shows an example after the separation. When the storage of the data in the window display state table 125 and the sorting of the data have been completed, the display state collection means 120 transmits the window display state table 125 to the window number calculation means 130 and starts up. Notice. The number-of-windows calculating means 130 calculates the number of windows that can be displayed based on the display rate target value stored in the window display state table 125 and the target value table 140. The target value table 140 shows how much the window display rate (see (Equation 1) above) should be. For example, if it is specified that an average display rate of 80% is required for windows,
The target value table 140 holds a value such as v = 0.80. The calculation method of the number of displayable windows is based on the following equation. ΣvS _i ≦ D (Equation 2) where Σ is the sum of i = 1 to N: Number of displayable windows v: Display rate (refer to the above (Equation 1)) S _i : i-th window Size D: The display size (Equation 2) indicates that the sum of the substantially visible areas obtained by multiplying the size of each window by the display ratio is smaller than the size of the display. As a result, the number N of displayable windows indicating how many windows can be physically displayed can be calculated. Since N cannot be directly derived from (Equation 2), the algorithm shown in FIG. 5 is used. In the process 131 shown in FIG. 5, first, the display use area d is set to 0, and the entry number i of the window display state table 125 to be read is set to 1.
Next, in process 132, the size of the i-th window in the window display state table 125 is collected, multiplied by the target display ratio v obtained from the target value table 140, and the result is added to the display use area d (process 133). If it is determined in step 134 that d is larger than D, a window can still be displayed on this display, and the process returns to step 132. This loop processing is repeated until the display use area d becomes larger than the display area D. After exiting the loop, a window number N such that d is less than or equal to D is obtained (process 13).
5). The number-of-windows calculating means 130, based on the number N of displayable windows obtained by the above-mentioned window number collecting means 121 and the window display state table 125 obtained by the display state collecting means 120, together with an activation command, Is transmitted to the arrangement position calculating means 150. The arrangement position calculating means 150 calculates the coordinate values of N windows. The arrangement position calculation means 150
The N entries are sequentially taken out from the top of the window display state table 125, and are sequentially allocated to empty display areas. If an iconified window is included in these N items,
This icon is also returned to a normal window (windowing). Similarly, when the number N is smaller than the number of currently existing windows, the number of windows is reduced by converting the surplus windows into icons. This operation status is displayed in the window display state table 125.
FIG. 6 shows an example schematically showing a part of the above. In FIG. 6, when N = 2, up to the second () window of the window display table 125 is displayed, and the third window is iconified. If N = 3, no icon / window operation is performed. N
When = 4, the fourth icon is windowed in addition to the first to third windows. The arrangement position calculating means 150 only determines the positions of the N windows and whether or not to return to the window if the icon, the actual arrangement is not performed. The actual arrangement is performed by the window system 100.
The arrangement position calculating unit 150 transmits the calculation result in a data format or a request accepted by the window system 100. The window system 100 performs the actual window arrangement according to this. When the window operation is completed, the processing of the present system is passed again to the event monitoring means 110, and the present system enters a standby state until the next event occurs. As described above, an automatic window number adjustment system having an automatic arrangement means for calculating an optimum number of windows based on the display ratio and size of the window and the size of the display and thereby enabling effective use of the display is described. Have been. Here, only limited items have been specifically described, but the present system can be easily expanded by making some modifications. An example of the extension is shown below. (1) In this embodiment, a system is designed assuming an event-driven window system. For this reason, the operation mode is based on the transmission and reception of events. However, if necessary information can be obtained from a mechanism for generating and managing windows, there is no need to stick to events. (2) The event detected by the event monitoring means 110 is not limited to the event of notifying the change of the display state. For example, an interface for rearranging directly from a menu is added, and thereby the user operation can be performed. You may make it operate at the opportunity. (3) The sorter 124 sorts the table based on two items, the current overlapping order of the windows and the state difference between the icon state and the window state. It is not necessary to stop at this, and the windows only need to be arranged in the order of importance in the window display state table 125. For example, the windows are classified into several types according to the attributes of the windows, such as a text-based window, a window displaying a moving image, and a window displaying a still image, and the window display state table 125 for each of these types. You can also determine the order within. FIG. 7 shows a reference example of such a sort situation. In this case, the type of window must be able to be determined based on the data collected by the display state collecting means 120, and a table for determining which type is preferentially assigned to the window display state table 125 is separately provided. Required. (4) When the number-of-windows calculating means 130 calculates the number of windows (N) as many as can be displayed on the display, it is determined whether the N windows are icons in the original state according to the calculation result. It is displayed regardless. If the user does not want the icon to be returned to the window by the system, an algorithm can be implemented such that the value of N does not exceed the number of windows. That is, in the above-described window number determination algorithm shown in FIG. 5, if the acquired data is an icon, a determination formula for canceling the loop may be incorporated in the process 134. (5) The data held in the target value table 140 may be a fixed type which is fixed in the system and does not change, or may be an input type which can be changed by the user in some way. (6) In the target value table 140, the display rates are given equally to all the windows, but it is also possible to give separate display rates to individual windows. For example, windows may be classified into several types, such as a text-based window, a window displaying a moving image, and a window displaying a still image, and a display rate may be provided for each of these types.
In this case, the display state collecting means 120 must be able to determine the type of the window. As described above, according to the present invention,
Conventionally, the operation of changing and adjusting the display state of the window was performed only by manual operation of the window by the user. In contrast, the above configuration allows the number of windows, especially the display area, window display rate, and window size to be reduced. It has the advantage of realizing automatic operation that takes into account the ideal state in consideration of it, and improving the visibility and operability of the user and the utilization of the display.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an automatic window number adjustment system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal structure of a display state collecting unit according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a window display state table used in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a window display state table sort state according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a window number determination algorithm for calculating the number of windows by the window number calculation means in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an operation example of iconizing / windowing for each optimum number of windows according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a window display state table sort state according to another embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Window system 110 Event monitoring means 120 Display state collecting means 121 Number of windows collector 122 Window size calculator 123 Icon / window state determiner 124 Sorter 125 Window display state table 130 Number of windows calculating means 140 Target value table 150 Arrangement position calculation means 160 Display device

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-214927 (JP, A) JP-A-3-245188 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3 / 00,3 / 14-3/153 G09G 5/00-5/40

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] On a multi-window system capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a computer display, based on a display size, a size and a display ratio of each window. An automatic window number adjustment system for controlling the number of windows to be displayed, an event monitoring means for monitoring an event generated by the window system, a display size, the number of windows, a size of all displayed windows, and a window. A display state collecting means for collecting a display state including a category of attributes and creating a window display state table; a target value table for holding a specified value for determining a target display ratio of a window; Held in the window display state table and the target value table Target display rate and the window display status based on the target display rate
Cumulatively sums the product of the sizes of each window in the table
And the cumulative sum does not exceed the display size.
And window number calculating means for calculating a large number of windows as displayable window number, on the basis of data obtained from said display state collecting unit the windows number calculating means, the calculated viewable WE <br/> Means for displaying only windows for the number of windows on a display.