JPH0711776B2 - Display screen controller - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a display screen control device for controlling display on a display screen by a computer system, and particularly to display so that an operator can perform input by an interactive method. The present invention relates to a display screen control device that displays a menu on a screen.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an example of a display screen in a conventional device of this type, (1) is a display screen, (2) is a cursor,
(3) is a document display area on the display screen, (4) is a system display area on the display screen, (5) is a menu display area on the display screen, and (6) is a scale display area on the display screen. However, in FIG. 5, the display in the areas (3) and (4) is omitted in order to make the drawing easy to see. In the conventional device, the characters and figures displayed in the areas (3), (4), (5) and (6) are stored in the refresh memory in the form of codes (collectively referred to as character codes). The address position of each character code in is defined in correspondence with the display position on the display screen (1).

Further, the display control device is equipped with a character generator including a font memory, and for all kinds of characters and graphics to be displayed in the font memory, a dot pattern of a character graphic corresponding to the character code is stored with the character code as an address. The display screen control device scans the refresh memory in the order of addresses, inputs the character code read by this scanning into the font memory, and outputs a dot pattern of characters and figures corresponding to the character code. Are displayed on the display screen (1) by raster scanning synchronized with the scanning of the refresh memory. At this time, in many cases, the dot pattern of the cursor (2) is controlled to be displayed in a superimposed manner. Cursor (2)
The information indicating the position is stored in the cursor position register in the display screen control device, and the contents of this register are read to control the position on the screen where the cursor (2) is displayed. The content can be changed by an input from a function key of the keyboard or an input from a pointing device. Input from function keys or pointing devices such as a mouse is position increment information,
This is the updated position information added to the current position in the register. There is also a device such as a light pen that directly inputs position information. In this specification, such devices are collectively referred to as a pointing device.

While observing the display screen (1), the operator moves the cursor (2) according to the input from the pointing device, matches the display position of one of the menus displayed in the menu display area, and
When the push button switch attached to the device is clicked (pressed and released), the command corresponding to the menu selected by the cursor (2) is input.

There is also a method of inputting a command by pressing the function key corresponding to the command, but this method has a problem that the operator has to look at both the display screen (1) and the keyboard. The method of displaying and selecting this with a cursor is more popular.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

The conventional device is configured as described above, the menu display area (5) always occupies a part of the display screen (1), the document display area (3), the system display area (4), the scale display area ( There is a problem that the area such as 6) is narrowed as much.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to obtain a display screen control device that does not narrow the other information display areas by the menu display area.

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, the menu is displayed in the menu display area only when the operator inputs a specific signal, and when the signal is not input, other information is displayed in the menu display area.

[Action]

The menu is displayed only when the operator needs to see the menu, and in all other cases, the entire area of the display screen can be used for display other than the menu, so that the use efficiency of the display screen is improved.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, (10) shows a display screen control device comprehensively, (11) shows a refresh memory, (12) shows a character generator,
(13) is video RAM, (14) is save register, (15)
Is a menu register, (16) is an arithmetic processing circuit, (17)
Is a cursor position register, (18) is an OR circuit, (19) is a timing signal generating circuit, (20) is a control program,
(21) is the menu display program in the control program,
(22) is a display device (abbreviated as CRT), (23) is a keyboard, (24) is a pointing device, (25) is a first specific switch attached to the keyboard (23), (26)
Is a second specific switch attached to the pointing device.

The output of the OR circuit (18) is used as the specific signal and the specific switch (2
When either 5) or (26) is turned on, it is assumed that the specific signal becomes logic "1". However, in order to make the drawing easier to see, FIG. 1 shows only a portion of the display screen control device necessary for explaining the present invention. The part omitted in FIG. 1 is similar to the conventional device, and its configuration is well known.

Writing to the refresh memory (11) is performed by a conventionally well-known method, but generally, the writing to the refresh memory (11) is controlled so as to be performed within the vertical blanking period of the CRT (22). (11)
Does not cause the display on the display screen (1) to flicker.

The character code sequentially read from the refresh memory (11) according to a read address (not shown) generated by the timing signal generation circuit (19) is converted into a character dot pattern by the character generator (12), and then the video RAM
Displayed on CRT (22) after going through (13). OR circuit (18)
While the specific signal, which is the output of, is "0", the characters and symbols representing the menu are not stored in the refresh memory (11). FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of the display screen in this state, and the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 5 indicate the same or corresponding portions,
In the menu display area (5), the menu is not displayed and the scale is displayed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the scale display area does not exist, and the document display area is widened accordingly. The cursor (2) is displayed in a superimposed manner on the display screen (1) (in FIG. 2, the display of the areas (3) and (4) is omitted so that only the cursor appears to be displayed). Cursor position register (17) by input from pointing device (24)
The cursor display position can be moved by changing the contents of.

In this state, the operator operates the switch (25) or (26) to set the specific signal to "1". Control programs (20)
When this is detected, the menu display program (21) is started to save the character code in the menu area (5) from the refresh memory (11) to the save register (14), and then the menu register (15) Write the content in the menu area (5). Figure 3 shows the menu register (15)
Screen (1) after the content of is written in the menu area
FIG. That is, the menu is displayed at the position where the scale was displayed in FIG. The operator operates the pointing device while observing this menu to move the cursor (2) to the position of the menu to be selected, and clicks the push button switch attached to the pointing device to move the cursor (2).
Inputting a command corresponding to the menu instructed by the computer system to the computer system is similar to the conventional device.

When the desired menu is selected in this way, it is not necessary to display the menu on the display screen (1) until it becomes necessary to select the menu next time. The operator operates the switches (25) and (26) to set the logic of the specific signal to "0". The menu display program (21) that detects that the logic of the specific signal has become "0" is the save register (14).
Write the contents of the above into the menu area (5) in the refresh memory (11). The display on the display screen (1) becomes the display shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the above-mentioned control by the menu display program, and (40) to (46) are program steps, and the operation shown in the flow chart of FIG. 4 has already been described with reference to FIGS. It is as follows.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, other information can be displayed during the time when it is not necessary to display the menu in the menu display area (5) of the display screen (1). Can be used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 and FIG. 3 are views showing a display screen in the apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows the case where the logic of the specific signal is “0” and FIG. 3 shows the case where the logic of the specific signal is “1”. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the menu display program shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a view showing a display screen of a conventional device. (1) is a display screen, (2) is a cursor, (3) is a document display area, (4) is a system display area, (5) is a menu display area, (11) is a refresh memory, (12) is a character generator, (13) video RAM, (14) save register, (15) menu register, (17) cursor position register, (20) control program, (21)
Is a menu display program. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display screen control device for controlling a display screen for displaying characters and graphics by an electronic computer system, wherein a code representing a character or graphic is placed at an address position corresponding to the display position of the character or graphic on the display screen. A refresh memory to be stored, a means for reading the contents of the refresh memory, generating a dot pattern of characters / figures corresponding to the read code and displaying the dot pattern on the display screen, a predetermined graphic at an arbitrary position on the display screen Means for displaying the cursor in a superimposed manner, a pointing device used for inputting information for controlling the display position of the cursor on the display screen, and the display screen for supplying information for command selection to the operator A menu register that stores the code that represents the menu displayed in the upper menu display area The change of the specific signal input by the data from the logic "0" to the logic "1" is detected, and the data in the menu storage area in the refresh memory corresponding to the menu display area is written in the save register. Means for writing the contents of the menu register in the menu storage area, detecting the change of the specific signal from logic "1" to logic "0", and storing the contents of the save register in the menu storage area. A display screen control device comprising: writing means.