JPH07121345A - Multiwindow display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a multiwindow display device capable of confirming the contents of a non-active window without moving an active window. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 4 to which selection information relating to additional synthesis is inputted from a mouse 1 or the like stores the information in a window management table 8, also stores the image data of the respective windows in a logical window memory 7 and inputs the display signals of the plural windows to an overlapping control part 9. Then, the overlapping control part 9 stores display information in the respective windows or the like in a display control memory 10 while referring to the window management table 8, a window display part 11 performs the read or the like of area data from the logical window memory 7 based on the contents of the display control memory 10, then the additional synthesis corresponding to the synthesis ratio of the respective windows of the display control memory 10 is performed in a window additional synthesis part 12 and display on a CRT 3 is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-window display device, and more particularly to a multi-window display device in which a plurality of windows in a screen display of a computer or the like overlap each other.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a multi-window display device of this type, a plurality of windows are simultaneously displayed on one CRT.
What is displayed on the monitor is already known.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional multi-window display device, when a plurality of windows are displayed in an overlapping manner, inactive windows other than so-called active windows are active on the screen. All or part of it may be hidden under the window. For example, when you want to input data in the active window while referring to the data displayed in the inactive window, the data is displayed. Since it is necessary to move the inactive window on the screen so that it does not overlap with the active window and then perform the input work by referring to the data displayed in the inactive window, the input work is troublesome. was there. That is, in the above-mentioned conventional multi-window display device, there is a problem that it takes time for manual operation using a mouse at the time of input, and it takes time for rearranging the windows after moving the windows, resulting in poor usability. Further, there is a problem that the display space of the active window cannot be sufficiently obtained to obtain the display space of the inactive window, which may hinder the desired input work.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a multi-window display device capable of confirming the contents of an inactive window without moving the active window. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a multi-window display device that displays a plurality of windows in the same screen so that they can be superimposed, and the displays of the plurality of windows are additively combined. It is characterized in that it is provided with an adding and synthesizing means and, when these plural windows are superposed, a display means for adding and synthesizing and displaying the superposed portion.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that selection means for selecting the number of windows to be additively combined by the additive combining means is provided, and that the window displayed by additive combining by the additive combining means includes a video window. It is also preferable to be characterized.

Further, preferably, the addition and synthesis means is
The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with an addition composition ratio setting means for setting the ratio of addition composition for each window when performing additive composition of a plurality of windows.

[0008]

According to the above construction, the superimposed windows are added and displayed, and by further providing the selecting means,
You can display any number of windows.

Further, a video image can be displayed by including a video window in the adding and combining means.

Further, it is possible to arbitrarily set the ratio of addition and synthesis for each window.

[0011]

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

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a multi-window display device according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a mouse as a simplified coordinate input device, which includes a button switch (not shown), and when the button switch is pressed, the mouse 1 corresponds to switch information indicating that the button has been pressed and the amount of movement of the mouse 1. The selected data is input to the mouse controller 2. Mouse control unit 2 is CR
The display position coordinate of the mouse cursor displayed at T3 is changed corresponding to the movement data of the mouse 1, and the changed display position coordinate data is input to the CPU 4.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a keyboard, which is provided with cursor movement keys in addition to keys for various characters, etc. By operating these various keys, the coordinate position of the cursor is changed, and C
The cursor on RT3 can be moved. And
Various key code information from the keyboard 5 is input to the CPU 4 via the keyboard control unit 6.

Therefore, the CPU 4 manages the position information of the current active window and other inactive windows based on the cursor position information and the button pressing information from the mouse 1 and the keyboard 5, and also stores the image data of each window. Input and store in the logical window memory 7. Further, the CPU 4 stores window information indicating the display position of each window and the front-back relation of the window display, information on the addition and synthesis of windows, etc. in the window management table 8, and further, displays signals of a plurality of windows in the overlap control section 9. input. Information regarding the additive composition of windows is input to the CPU 4 by selecting the mouse 1 or the keyboard 5 from the menu displayed on the CRT 3.

When a plurality of window display signals are added from the CPU 4, the overlap control section 9 refers to the window management table 8 to divide the display screen in each window and displays which window in each divided area. The display information for instructing whether or not and the additive synthesis information indicating the composition ratio of another window to the window when performing the additive synthesis are supplied to the display control memory 10, and the display control memory 10 receives the display information and the additive synthesis information. To store. When the display information and the additive composition information are stored in the display control memory 10 so that a plurality of windows are displayed in one area, the additive composition display of the plurality of windows is performed. Then, the window display unit 11 reads out the area data designated by the display control memory 10 from the logical window memory 7 based on the content of the display control memory 10, and also causes the display control memory 10 to display a plurality of windows. If instructed, the window addition / synthesis unit 12 causes the display control memory 10
Additive synthesis is performed according to the synthesis ratio of each window and stored in the corresponding display position of the display memory 13. on the other hand,
When the display control memory 10 is not designated to display a plurality of windows, the window addition and synthesis unit 12 does not perform addition, and the data read from the logical window memory 7 is stored in the display memory 13 as it is.

In this way, the display data in which the plurality of windows are overlapped or the display data in which the plurality of windows are added and combined are displayed on the CRT 3 from the display memory 13 via the display control unit 14.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the window management table 8. The window management table 8 is provided for each window.

BPW15 stores information indicating the width of the window, BPH16 stores information indicating the height of the window, BPPX17 stores the X coordinate information of the center of the window, and BPY18 stores Y coordinate information of the center of the window. Is stored. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, for window A, width information BPW15, height information BPH16, X coordinate information BPX17, and Y coordinate information BP.
Y18 is stored.

Further, pointer information to the next window is stored in the FP 19 of FIG. 2, pointer information to the previous window is stored in the BP / AWC 20, and information of the number of added and combined windows AWC of the window of the area corresponding to the pointer information BP
Is stored.

Further, the SWSP 21 stores pointer information to the first subwindow, and the SWEP 22 stores
The pointer information to the last subwindow is stored,
Furthermore, PARENT P23 has a parent window (CR
The pointer information for the entire T screen) is stored.

By having such a window management table 8, as shown in FIG. 4, with respect to the parent window, a plurality of sub-windows (WI) are included in the window.
NA, WIN B, ..., WIN N) can be provided, and pointer information SWSP21 of the window management table 8 of the first subwindow in the parent window table.
Indicates the first subwindow A (WIN A), and the pointer FP19 to the next window in the subwindow A indicates the subwindow B (WIN A).
The start address of the window management table 8 in B) is designated. Then, the head address of the subsequent window management table 8 is designated by the pointer FP19 to the next window of the sub window B (WIN B). Similarly, WIN N, which is the final window, is linked by the pointer information SWSP21. Also,
As the pointer information to the next window of the final window WIN N, NULL data indicating the final sub window is stored. On the contrary, these window management tables 8 are related to each other by tracing the connection from the rear by sequentially tracing the pointer information BP20 from the last sub-window pointer information SWEP22 of the parent window to the previous window. ..

In most cases, the parent window represents, for example, one screen. However, when additional windows are provided in a plurality of windows, the parent window similarly causes mutual relationships between the parent windows. The date is made. At this time, a higher-level window management table is provided. In addition, sub-windows A, B, ...,
N is provided with pointer information PARENTP23 to the parent window as shown in FIG. 4, and it is possible to determine which parent window the subwindow belongs to from these pointer information PARENT P23. it can.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing three window displays when two composite displays are selected as the additive composite number of windows from the menu on the CRT 3.

In FIG. 5, in the conventional window display, the current active window is the window A, and the window B and the window C are excluded except the non-overlapping portion.
However, in the case of the present embodiment, the display data of the windows A and B are added and displayed with respect to the common portion of the windows A and B (the hatched portion in the drawing). Therefore, it is possible to easily perform an input operation from the keyboard 5 in the window A while checking the contents of the window B.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the multi-window display device of the present invention. In the second embodiment, in addition to the first embodiment, A video input unit 24 and a video window synthesizing unit 25 are provided so that a video signal can be processed.

That is, the video input section 24 converts the composite video signal input from the outside into R (red), G (green), and B (blue) color signals by a known decoder circuit. R, G, B converted by the video input unit 24
In the video window synthesizing unit 25, the respective color signals of are embedded in the display data of the display memory 13 based on the information from the window management table 8 regarding the video window from the CPU 4 and the video image is fitted into the window. This time,
Similar to the first embodiment, the display data of the video window is added and combined according to the number of windows to be added and combined according to the combination ratio of the windows of the display control memory 10. In this case, the video window is a window for displaying full-color data, which is different from the normal window, and the management of this window is performed by the CPU 4, and the video window and the normal window are added and combined. In this case, the number of added and combined images relating to the normal window is reduced by the amount corresponding to the video window. Further, after the video window synthesizing unit 24 synthesizes the video window and the normal window, the display on the CRT 3 is performed via the display control unit 14.

FIG. 7 shows a display example when a video window and an ordinary window are added and combined.

That is, the normal window in which the text display of the window A is occurring is shown, and the window B is the video window in which the video image is displayed. In FIG. 7, the window A is in the foreground, followed by the windows B and C, and the current window addition and composition number is set to two. As can be seen from FIG. 7, in the second embodiment, it is possible to confirm a video image while displaying a normal window on the screen and working, and construct a videophone / conference system in a window environment. It becomes extremely effective when doing.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a plurality of windows are displayed in an overlapping manner, the overlapping windows can be added and displayed, and the number of windows that can be added is active. It becomes possible to arbitrarily select the window including the window, and the contents of the inactive window can be confirmed without moving the active window even if a plurality of windows overlap.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a multi-window display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the contents of a window management table.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing window position information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a mutual relation of pointers between windows.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing additive synthesis of windows.

FIG. 6 is a second multi-window display device according to the present invention.
It is a block diagram showing an example of.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing addition synthesis of windows in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 mouse (selection means) 3 CRT (screen) 5 keyboard (selection means) 9 overlap control section (addition synthesis ratio setting means) 11 window display section (window) 12 window addition synthesis section (addition synthesis section) 14 display control section (Display means) 24 Video window composition section (video window)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window display device for displaying a plurality of windows in a superimposable manner on the same screen, wherein an adding and combining means for adding and combining the displays of the plurality of windows is provided, and the plurality of windows are overlapped. Is a multi-window display device, comprising display means for adding and synthesizing and displaying superimposed portions. 2. The multi-window display device according to claim 1, further comprising selection means for selecting the number of windows to be additively combined by the additive combining means. 3. The multi-window display device according to claim 1, wherein the window displayed by the addition and synthesis by the addition and synthesis means includes a video window. 4. The addition / combination means comprises addition / combination ratio setting means for setting a ratio of addition / combination for each window when the addition / combination of a plurality of windows is performed. The multi-window display device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.