JPH02181253A - Input method for computer instruction - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select an instruction optimum to the flow of instructions of users by forming the different instruction hierarchies that can execute the same instruction and selecting one of these hierarchies to facilitate the input operations of instructions. CONSTITUTION:The LINE instructions a1-a3 to instruct to plot straight lines on a screen belong to a higher rank hierarchy X, and the DATA instructions b1-b3 to instruct to process data belong to a higher rank hierarchy. These instructions of both hierarchies are sorted in terms of functions into the instructions a1 and b1 as the input PUT instructions, the instructions a2 and b2 as the movement MOVE instructions, and the instructions a3 and b3 as the deletion DEL instructions. Furthermore, a higher rank hierarchy Z1 is prepared in addition to both hierarchies X and Y for selection the PUT instructions a1 and b1 since these instructions are used repetitively. Thus the repetitive and alternate input is attained for both instructions a1 and b1 with no selection of the hierarchies X and Y.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a computer command input method, and in particular,
The purpose of the present invention is to improve a method for inputting instructions to a computer, which is suitable for use when a user inputs instructions (also referred to as commands) to cause various computers to execute various processes.

[Conventional technology]

When using various computers, users input instructions (commands) defined by software to cause the computer to perform desired processing. Here, the "command" includes, for example, file copy = C0py
, Delete file = del , Display list of file names =
basic commands for file operations such as "dir", and other specially defined commands in any software (application software) that the user has created or purchased and input (loaded) into the computer. There is. The former basic instructions have a fixed number and function, so there is no problem, but the latter specially defined instructions vary in number and function depending on the application software, and if the application software has advanced functions. The more the number of commands increases, the larger the number of commands becomes. The usability and usability of application software is related to how these instructions are organized. No matter how advanced the functions of application software are, if it requires complicated command input methods and cumbersome operations, it will not stimulate demand and will hinder its widespread use. For example, suppose there is application software that can execute 100 processes. At this time, if the instructions for executing the process are not all organized independently, 100 instructions will be required. If the user wants to execute all of the above processes, he must refer to the instruction manual one by one until he memorizes the 100 instructions.
It becomes cumbersome to operate. Furthermore, in this case, even if the computer displays guidance (menu) for the 100 instructions, it takes time to find the necessary instruction. In order to solve this kind of problem, it is necessary to organize the instructions.
) is being carried out. This "hierarchy (structure: 5t
"structure" is a design method when creating software. In other words, the hierarchy of functions such as commands is a structure in which functions descend from sophisticated and complex upper-level functions to simple lower-level functions that constitute them, so that lower-level functions can be seen from higher-level functions. Simply put, it is functional classification. For example, in application software that can execute 100 processes, there are 10 related upper instruction layers (
Each lower layer of the group (hereinafter referred to as lower layer) includes 10 instructions. When a user wants to input an instruction to a computer, he or she first selects a desired upper hierarchy from among the upper hierarchy group, and then selects an instruction belonging to the upper hierarchy. If this is done, the operation will be in two stages compared to when the commands are all independent, but the commands will be easier to remember and operate. Furthermore, when the computer displays instruction guidance (menu), it first displays the upper hierarchy group, and then displays the instructions included in the lower hierarchy selected by the user. At this time, since 10 options are displayed in each display, the user can easily select the command he wants to execute from among the options. The hierarchy of instructions will be further explained using FIG. 5. FIG. 5 schematically shows instructions in a simple two-layer hierarchical structure. In FIG. 5, symbols X and Y are instructions in the upper hierarchy, and a1 to a3 and b1 to b3 are instructions in the lower hierarchy. When inputting a command, the user first selects the upper layer X or Y. When this selection is made, the instructions in the lower hierarchy will not be executed. For example, if you select the upper hierarchy X, then one of the lower hierarchy instructions a1 to a3 included in the upper hierarchy X will be selected. The instruction is executed at the time of the selection. That is, the process corresponding to the command is executed at the time when a lower order command is selected. Further, the upper layer instruction X+Y is not an instruction for actually executing a process, but indicates a group of lower order instructions.

[Problem to be achieved by the invention]

However, by layering instructions as described above,
As will be explained next, there were cases where the complexity of the operation could not be avoided. That is, first, let us consider a case where a computer user repeatedly uses lower-order instructions a1 to a3 and b1 to b3 in the instructions shown in FIG. In this case, if the instructions that are used repeatedly belong to the same upper layer, such as al and a2 or b2 and b3, there is no need to change the upper layer when changing the instructions. However, when repeatedly executing instructions belonging to different upper layers, such as instructions a1 and bl, the upper layer is
It is necessary to change from Y to Y or from Y to X. That is, instruction a1 → change of upper layer (X → Y) → instruction b1
A repeated operation involving a change in the upper layer is required, such as → change in upper layer (Y-X) → instruction a1 → change in upper layer (X-Y) - instruction b1. Also, change the command from a1 to b3-+
The same applies to the case where execution is repeated such as a2→b1→a3. In this way, when it is necessary to change the upper layer by repeating commands, the operations and procedures are approximately twice as many as when there is no need to change the upper layer, making the operation complicated, time-consuming, and troublesome. It is. Furthermore, as the number of instruction hierarchies increases to three or four layers, it becomes more troublesome to repeatedly use instructions belonging to different upper hierarchies. When inputting instructions a1 and 01 repeatedly, the command a1 → Move control to the top layer → Change the top command layer (hereinafter referred to as the top layer) (x-y
) → Selection of intermediate instruction hierarchy (middle hierarchy) (C) → Instruction C
1 → Move control to the top layer → Change the top layer (Y →
X) → Selection of intermediate layer (A) → Instruction a1 → Move control to top layer - Change of top layer (X-+Y) → Selection of intermediate layer (C) → Instruction C1... Repeat This requires a lot of operations and is very complicated. Therefore, although the hierarchical structure of commands has the advantage of making it easy to select commands, it has the disadvantage of making operations complicated and troublesome depending on the flow of commands that the user intends to use, as described above. In particular, the command hierarchy of conventional application software is set solely by the designer of the application software, and if the designer's way of thinking (design policy) and the user's usage conflict, the operation becomes extremely difficult. It was complicated and troublesome. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it simplifies the operation and allows the user to quickly select the command that most closely matches the flow of commands, thereby reducing the complexity of computer operation. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for inputting instructions to a computer that can be prevented and simplified.

[Means to achieve the task]

The present invention provides a method for inputting a plurality of instructions into a computer by classifying them into instruction hierarchies. The above-mentioned problem has been achieved by selecting a simple command hierarchy and inputting commands. Further, the present invention achieves the above-mentioned problem by storing the usage frequency of the command and selecting the command hierarchy based on the stored usage frequency when selecting one of the command hierarchies. be.

[Operation and effects of the invention]

In the present invention, when inputting instructions to a computer by classifying a plurality of instructions into instruction hierarchies, the instruction hierarchy is configured such that the same instruction can be executed under different instruction hierarchies, and the configured instruction hierarchy Select the command hierarchy that makes the input operation easier and input the command. The present invention will first be explained using an example in which a group of instructions is hierarchically divided into two layers as shown in FIG. The command hierarchy shown in FIG. 1 corresponds to the command hierarchy shown in FIG. The instructions a1 and bl belong to the lower hierarchy of the instruction hierarchy (upper hierarchy) Z. As a result, two instructions, for example, the upper layer X with different al.
, Z becomes available for input. Therefore, the instructions a1 and b
When inputting l repeatedly, the user only needs to select the upper hierarchy Z, which simplifies the operation, without changing the upper hierarchy X and Y as in the conventional command hierarchy shown in FIG. Can be input. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, an example will be explained in which the instruction group is hierarchically divided into three layers. The instruction hierarchy shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the instruction hierarchy shown in FIG.
In order to deal with the possibility that 1 and C1 may be repeatedly input and executed, the instructions a1 and C1 are assigned to a lower hierarchy of the highest hierarchy Z without going through an intermediate hierarchy. As a result, when inputting commands a1 and 01 repeatedly, the user inputs commands a1 and 01 as shown in the conventional command hierarchy shown in FIG.
→Move control to top layer - Change top layer (X-Y
) -> Selection of intermediate hierarchy (C) - +Instruction C1 . . . can be repeatedly input and executed by simply selecting the highest hierarchy 2 without repeating the operations of (C) - +instruction C1 . In this case, the configuration and selection of the intermediate hierarchy can also be omitted, so the complexity is greatly reduced compared to the conventional method. Therefore, the most suitable command for the user's command flow can be quickly selected, which prevents the operation of the computer from becoming complicated and simplifies the operation of application software with advanced functions. Note that when selecting one of the 11 instruction layers, the frequency of use of the instruction layer can be stored, and the instruction layer can be selected based on the stored frequency of use. In this way, the most frequently used command hierarchy is selected regardless of the user's selection, thereby further simplifying the operation of the computer.

【Example】

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, when a computer (not shown) executes various functions of application software, the present invention is employed to input instructions to the computer. The commands input in this embodiment are for software used to perform graphic processing to display figures and data on the screen, and the commands are hierarchical as shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, LINE commands a1, a2, and a3 related to drawing a straight line on the screen belong to X in the upper layer,
The upper layer Y contains DATA related to data processing.
Instructions b1, b2, and b3 belong thereto. These upper tiers
, Y are instructions a1 in their respective functions.
, bl are input (PUT) commands, commands a2 and b2 are gestures (MOVE> command, commands a3 and b3 are deletion (DEL)
) is a command. Furthermore, since the PUT instructions a1 and bl need to be used repeatedly, an upper layer Z1 is provided for selecting the PUT instructions a1 and bl, separately from the other upper layers X and Y. If this upper layer Z1 is selected, the upper layer
, Y, commands a1 and bl can be input repeatedly and alternately. Furthermore, as shown by the broken line in Fig. 3,
An upper layer Z2 may be provided for executing the MOVE instruction.Selection of this upper layer Z2 simplifies the operation when repeatedly executing the MOVB instructions a2 and b2. Next, as a second embodiment, a plain method that automatically selects the hierarchy most suitable for the flow of the user's commands in the hierarchical commands shown in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 4. Here, reference numeral 10 in FIG. 4 indicates each instruction a1, a2, bl,
It is a koto memory part that counts and stores the number of times b2 is used.
is an automatic instruction hierarchy selection unit for selecting an upper hierarchy in which frequently used instructions can be quickly executed based on stored instruction usage frequencies. In the above configuration, after some instructions are used, the number of times the instructions are used is counted and stored in the storage unit 10,
The stored number of uses is input to the instruction IWN automatic selection section 12. The instruction hierarchy automatic selection unit 12 knows the instruction usage frequency from the input instruction usage number, and for example, the instruction hierarchy a1 and bl
If the frequency of repeated use of instructions a2 and b2 is high, the upper layer Z1 is selected, and on the other hand, if the frequency of repeated use of instructions a2 and b2 is high, the upper layer z2 is selected. In the automatic instruction hierarchy selection section 12, appropriate conditions (algorithms) for selecting the frequency of instruction and selection of upper hierarchy can be used. In the embodiment, the number of all instructions used during a certain period of time T is N, and the number of uses of instruction a1 = nal
, the number of times instruction 82 is used = na2, the number of times instruction b1 is used = nb1, and the number of times instruction b2 is used = nb2, the following formula (
1) and (2), the usage frequencies S1 and S2 of the instructions are calculated every fixed time T. Sl = <nal + nb1 )/N −(
1) S2 = (na2 + nb2) /N
-(2) Select the upper layer from the instruction usage frequencies S1 and S2 calculated from equations (1) and (2). That is, when 81 is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the upper layer Z1 is selected, and when 82 is greater than or equal to the predetermined value, the upper layer Z2 is selected. For example, when either of the calculated instruction usage frequencies S1 or S2 becomes 75% or more, the upper hierarchy Z1 or Z2 corresponding to that frequency can be automatically selected. In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where instructions are classified into two instruction layers is illustrated, and in the above-mentioned FIG. The present invention is not limited to these, but can be applied to other command hierarchies of four or more layers to prevent and simplify computer operations.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows 2vIfX for detailed explanation of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the instruction hierarchy of the 3 layers.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a two-layer command hierarchy according to an embodiment of the present invention; Section 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a three-layer command hierarchy; FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional two-layer instruction hierarchy. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a three-layer instruction hierarchy. 10...Storage unit, 12...Instruction hierarchy automatic selection unit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a method of inputting instructions to a computer by classifying a plurality of instructions into instruction hierarchies, the instruction hierarchy is configured such that the same instruction can be input under different instruction hierarchies, and input operations within the instruction hierarchies are performed. 1. A method for inputting commands for a computer, characterized by inputting commands by selecting a hierarchy of commands in which the command is simplified. (2) According to claim 1, when selecting one of the instruction hierarchies, the usage frequency of the instruction is stored, and the instruction hierarchy is selected based on the stored usage frequency. How to input instructions to a computer.