JP2000250518A - Character processor and processing method for character data, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To process a character data of high quality fast without causing the increase in storage capacity. SOLUTION: Character codes and font data are previously stored on a disk drive, and an initializing process (S2) copies and saves the character codes and a specific character group of high use frequency in a cache area secured in a RAM and also secures a general cache area where characters other than the specific character group are saved in the cache area. For an input character of high use frequency, a fixed cache hit process is performed (S3→S4). For an input character of low use frequency which is not stored in the general cache area, on the other hand, its font data are loaded from the disk drive and stored at the head of the general cache area (S3→S5→S6→S7) and for an input character which is already stored in the general cache area, a general cache hit process is performed (S5→S8).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character processing device, a character data processing method, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to a character processing device for displaying and printing a character font, particularly an outline font, and an outline font. The present invention relates to a method of processing character data, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a processing procedure of the character data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Outline fonts represent character shapes by outlines, so that high-quality character data can be output without depending on the character size. Since processing takes time, there is a drawback that the printing speed is slow.

For this reason, in a conventional character processing apparatus, frequently used character data is stored in a memory in advance as bitmap data together with a font size, or a recently used character font is stored as a cache in an output image state. In this case, a document is created by temporarily storing the character font stored in the memory as needed.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional character processing apparatus, although a sufficient function can be exhibited when a document is created by using characters of the same font size, a recent word processor or DTP (Desk Top Pub
In a document processing device that creates a document in a so-called multi-point, multi-font environment, such as a text processing device, when displaying and printing using characters having a font size different from the font size stored in the memory, the Even if they were the same, new characters had to be recreated according to the font size.

That is, in the conventional character processing apparatus, a new character is created even if the character is infrequently used, and the newly created character is stored in the memory. As a result, a memory having a large storage capacity is mounted on the apparatus. In addition, since the characters with low use frequency are stored in the memory in the same manner as the characters with high use frequency as described above, there is a problem that the so-called cache efficiency is low.

[0006] Furthermore, the development of character data itself has become considerably faster with the recent increase in the processing speed of the CPU. However, when character data is stored in a disk device such as a hard disk, character data is input. Each time the disk device is accessed, there is a problem that the time required for searching and reading character data is relatively long.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and a character processing apparatus and a character data processing apparatus capable of processing high-quality character data at high speed without increasing the storage capacity. It is an object to provide a processing method and a storage medium.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a character processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: storage means for storing a predetermined character code and font data corresponding to the predetermined character code; Storage means for copying and storing storage information stored in the storage means, wherein the storage means includes a character code registration area for registering a predetermined character code stored in the storage means, and a predetermined character group frequently used. Has a first storage area copied and stored from the storage means and a second storage area in which characters other than the predetermined character group can be copied and stored from the storage means. It is characterized by.

Further, in the character data processing method according to the present invention, a predetermined character code and font data corresponding to the predetermined character code are stored in advance in a storage unit, and the predetermined character code and a predetermined character group frequently used are stored. Are copied from the storage means and stored, and a predetermined number of characters other than the predetermined character group are stored in the fixed-length buffer in order from the latest used font data in the order of use history.

Further, a storage medium according to the present invention is a computer-readable storage medium, wherein a character code registration procedure for registering a predetermined character code stored in storage means in a character code registration area, A first storing procedure of copying a high predetermined character group from the storage means and storing the same in the first storage area; and a character other than the predetermined character group being copied from the storage means and storing it in the second storage area A second storage procedure, a first determination procedure for determining whether or not an input character is stored in the first storage area via the character code, and the input procedure based on the first determination procedure. A data size calculating step of calculating a data size of the input character based on a character code of the input character and a next character code when it is determined that the character is stored in the first storage area; When it is determined that the input character is not stored in the first storage area according to the first determination procedure, a second determination is performed to determine whether the input character is stored in the second storage area. And when the input character is determined not to be stored in the second storage area by the second determination procedure, the font data of the input character is copied from the storage means and stored. It is characterized by storing procedures.

The other features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a character processing apparatus according to the present invention. The character processing apparatus includes a keyboard 1 for inputting character data and the like,
A display device 2 such as a CRT for displaying input character data, a printer 3 for printing out the input character data, and a read-only memory (ROM) 4 storing a system startup program and a predetermined character pattern.
And a disk device 5 such as a hard disk device or a flexible disk device in which a character processing program and a font file map described later are stored, and the character processing program and the like are loaded and used as a work area to temporarily store a predetermined calculation result. A random access memory (RAM) 6 which is temporarily stored and a central processing unit (CPU) 8 which is connected to the above components via a system bus 7 and controls the entire apparatus. Although the character processing program and the font file map are stored in the disk device 5 in the present embodiment, they may be stored in the ROM 4 in advance.

FIG. 2 is a format diagram of a font file map stored in the disk device 5. The font file map corresponds to an index entry area 9 in which a storage position of a character code is registered and a character code. A font data storage area 10 in which font data is stored. The font file map is
The area from the start address to the address A is an index entry area 9, and the area after the address A is a font data storage area 10. Then, in the font data storage area 10, according to the character code number conforming to JIS,
The data “(space)” of the character code 2121H, the data “, (reading point)” of the character code 2122H,.
Font data corresponding to each character code is sequentially stored.

In the index entry area 9, as shown in FIG. 3, an offset address indicating an offset value (relative value) from the head address of the font file map is stored for each font data. That is, the entry area 9a corresponding to the character code 2121H
Stores the address A which is the head address of the font data storage area 10 as an offset address. Similarly, in the order of JIS character codes, 2122H and 2123H
Are sequentially entered in the entry areas 9b and 9c.
... is stored.

That is, the index entry area 9
Is one entry area 9a, 9 for one character.
, and each entry area 9a, 9b,... has a size of 4 bytes.

In this embodiment, no offset address is registered in the index entry area 9 corresponding to a character code of xx7fH to xx20H in which no character data exists. For example, in the index entry area 9, the offset address of the character code 2221H is stored next to the offset address of the character code 217eH so that unnecessary data is not registered.

Also, for character codes of xx21H to xx7eH, character data corresponding to the character code may not exist. In such a case, the offset address of the character code having no character data is registered. Instead, the offset address of the next existing character data is registered in the index entry area 9, whereby the data size of the character having no character data is calculated as “0”, and the character data is inserted between the character codes. It is determined that it does not exist. That is, since the data size of each character is variable, the data size of the character is calculated based on the difference between the offset address of the character and the offset address of the next character, as described later. Since the offset address of the character code is not registered between the character codes having no character data, the data size of the character is "0", and it is confirmed that no character data exists between these character codes.

In the present embodiment, as described above,
Since the data size of the outline font is calculated from the difference between the entry areas 9a, 9b,..., The data size of the character corresponding to the final character code is calculated. The offset address is stored.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a method of processing character data according to the present invention. This program is stored in the disk device 5 in advance, loaded into the RAM 6 and executed by the CPU 8.

First, at step S1, the flag F is set to "1".
Is determined, and whether or not the initialization process has been completed is determined.

If the flag F is set to "1", that is, if the initialization process has been completed, the process proceeds to step S3. If the initialization process has not been completed, the process proceeds to step S2. After performing the processing and completing the initialization processing, the process proceeds to step S3.

The initialization process is specifically executed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG.

That is, in step S11, a memory area for the cache is secured on the RAM 6 (hereinafter, referred to as a cache area).
This secured memory area is called a “cache area”. As will be described later, the cache area includes an index entry cache area in which items registered in the index entry area 9 are stored, and a fixed cache area in which font data that is frequently used empirically is stored. And a general cache area in which font data other than the font data stored in the fixed cache area is appropriately stored.

Next, in step S12, the entry information registered in the index entry area 9 of the font file map (FIG. 2) is read into the index entry cache area, and the offset address of the head position is stored. This entry information must be referred to once for each character in order to access each character data. In this embodiment, however, a cache area is secured in the RAM 6 and stored in the index entry area 9. By loading the entry information into the index entry cache area, it is possible to avoid sequential access to the disk device 5 and speed up the processing.

Next, at step 13, a predetermined group of frequently used characters is loaded into the fixed cache area. That is, font data corresponding to character codes of frequently used characters that occupy 60 to 70% of general documents such as hiragana characters, katakana characters, and alphanumeric characters, for example, font data corresponding to character codes of 2321H to 257eH are converted into fonts of a font file map. The data is loaded from the data storage area 10 to the fixed cache area. Thus, it is possible to avoid sequentially accessing the disk device 5 for frequently used font data, and it is possible to greatly improve the processing speed. Note that, in the present embodiment, the predetermined character group that is frequently used is not loaded into the cache area for each character, but is loaded into the cache area at once, and the leading address of the predetermined character group is read. Is stored in the offset address of the head position stored in step S12, so that it is not necessary to separately hold cache information. Further, by loading the variable-length font data directly into the cache area, it is possible to avoid waste in the memory area unlike a fixed-length buffer.

Next, in step S14, the general cache area is initialized. That is, the head and the tail of the general cache area are initialized to “0”, and the item counter for counting the number of font data stored in the general cache area is initialized to “0”. The item counter is built in the CPU 8 in advance.

In this way, for general characters other than the frequently used characters, a fixed-length buffer for several hundred characters is secured as a general cache area, and font data is stored in the general cache area in accordance with the reliability of use. Can be stored in That is, since the font data is of variable length,
Although it is considered that the use efficiency of the cache area is improved by making the buffer variable, the deletion of old font data and the management of the empty area become complicated when there is no empty area in the cache area. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the general-purpose cache area is managed by the fixed-length buffer.

The larger the storage capacity of the general cache area is, the more the font data of any character can be stored. However, if the storage capacity is excessively large, it is necessary to increase the storage capacity of the RAM 6 in order to secure the cache area. Therefore, the general cache area has an area that can store about 80% of characters in general characters.
The use time of the font data is learned and updated with new font data in the use history, whereby a predetermined amount of font data can be stored in the general cache area.

Next, in step S15, the flag F is set to "1", the initialization process is terminated, and the process returns to the main routine (FIG. 4).

Next, the process proceeds to step S3 in FIG. 4, and the character code of the input character (input character) is stored in the fixed cache area.
321H to 257eH).

The input character is a hiragana character "a".
If the font data is stored in the fixed cache area as in (character code: 2422H), the answer is affirmative (Yes), and the process proceeds to step S4 to execute fixed cache hit processing.

Hereinafter, the fixed cache hit process in the case where the input character is the hiragana character "a" will be described.

First, it is calculated where the index of the hiragana character "A" is registered in the index entry cache area.

That is, since character codes are sequentially registered for every 94 characters from the character code 2121H in the index entry cache area, if the index is registered at the i-th position from the head, the registration position is represented by the formula (1) ). i = (higher 8 bit value of character code−21H) × 94 + (lower 8 bit value of character code−21H) (1) Therefore, if the input character is “A”, the character code is 2
Since it is 422H, i = 283. That is, the index of the character code 2422H is registered at the 283rd position from the head address of the index entry cache area. Since one index is composed of 4 bytes as described above, 1132 (= 1) from the head position of the index entry cache area
4x283) The 4th byte after the byte is character code 24
The index is 22H.

Next, the index of the character code 2423H immediately after the character code 2422H is obtained, and the font data size of the character code 2422H is calculated based on the difference between the character code 2423H and the character code 2422H.

Next, a data position to be actually accessed is calculated based on the index information (step S12) read in the initialization processing. In the present embodiment, since the head index is the character code 2321H, the index of the character code 2321H and the character code 2422H
Is the offset address from the head of the font data in the fixing cache area. Then, the font data is read into the RAM 6 from the offset address by the font data size described above, and the fixed cache hit processing is completed.

Then, after the fixed cache hit processing is completed, character expansion is performed in step S9, and the character processing ends.

On the other hand, the kanji character "ai" (character code 3026)
If a character that is not included in the character codes (2321H to 257eH) stored in the fixed cache area is input as in H), the answer to step S3 is negative (No).
And proceed to step 5.

Hereinafter, the kanji character "Ai" (character code 3026)
Processing when H) is input will be described.

In step S5, it is determined whether or not the font data "love" of the input character code (3026H in this case) is already stored in the general cache area. If the answer is negative (No), the process proceeds to step S6, in which the font data "love" of the input character is loaded from the font file map of the disk device 5. In the subsequent step S7, the general cache area is read according to the flowchart of FIG. Perform save processing to

That is, in step 21, the input data size is compared with the maximum data size Dmax that can be stored in the general cache area, and it is determined whether or not the input data size is smaller than the maximum data size Dmax.
When the answer is negative (No), the process returns to the main routine (FIG. 4), and when the answer is affirmative (Yes), it is determined whether or not there is an empty area in the general cache area (FIG. 4). In step S22, if there is an empty area, the item counter is incremented by "1" and the number of items stored in the general cache area is updated (step S2).
3), and proceed to step S25.

On the other hand, if the answer in step S22 is negative (No),
That is, if there is no empty area in the general cache area,
After deleting the font data of the item with the oldest use time (step S24), the process proceeds to step S25.

Next, in step S25, the head address of the general cache area is stored again to update the latest item information. In the following step S26, the font data is stored in the updated latest item position, and the main routine is executed. Return to FIG.

Then, character expansion is performed in step S9 in FIG. 4, and the process is terminated.

On the other hand, if the answer to step S5 in FIG.
In the case of es), the process proceeds to step S8, and a general cache hit process as shown in FIG. 7 is executed.

That is, in step S31, it is determined whether or not the character code of the input character is the character code of the font data stored in the general cache area. If the answer is negative (No), the search is performed up to the last code. It is determined whether or not this is the case (step S32). And the answer is affirmative (Y
In the case of (es), the process returns to the main routine (FIG. 4), while if the answer is negative (No), the item counter is set to "1".
Increment only and compare the contents of the next item with the input character. In this way, the number of items in the general cache area is incremented, the input character is compared with the stored content of the item, and if the corresponding character code cannot be detected even when the last code is searched, the main routine ( On the other hand, when the corresponding character code is detected, the answer to step S31 is affirmative (Yes), and the process proceeds to step S34.

In step S34, the font data stored in the general cache area is stored in the RAM.
6 and then temporarily deletes the item from the general cache area (step S3).
5) Thereafter, the font data of the item is stored as the latest font data in the head address of the general cache area together with the item (step S36), and the process returns to the main routine (FIG. 4).

After the general cache hit processing is completed, the process proceeds to step S9, where predetermined character expansion is performed, and the character processing ends.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the character codes stored in the disk device 5 are copied and stored in the index entry cache area, so that the number of accesses to the disk device 5 can be reduced. Can,
It is possible to speed up character processing.

Further, since a predetermined group of frequently used characters (hiragana characters, katakana characters, alphanumeric characters, etc.) are copied from the disk device 5 to the fixed cache area and stored, highly efficient character processing with variable-length data is possible. Can do
Further, characters other than the predetermined character group can be stored in the general cache area and are sequentially updated so that efficient character processing can be performed only by installing a fixed-length buffer having a relatively small storage capacity. .

[0052]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the number of accesses to the storage means can be reduced by copying and storing the predetermined character code stored in the storage means in the storage means. And the speed of character processing can be increased.

Also, by copying a predetermined group of frequently used characters (hiragana characters, katakana characters, alphanumeric characters, etc.) from the storage means to the first storage area and storing them, high-efficiency variable-length data can be obtained. Character processing,
Further, characters other than the predetermined character group can be stored in the second storage area and the stored data is sequentially updated, so that efficient character processing can be performed only by mounting a fixed-length buffer having a relatively small storage capacity. It becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a character processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a format diagram of a font file map.

FIG. 3 is a map showing details of an index entry area.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a character data processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an initialization processing routine.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a save processing routine showing a save processing to a cache.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a general cache hit processing routine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 RAM (storage means) 5 Disk device (storage means) 8 CPU

Claims (13)

[Claims] A storage unit for storing a predetermined character code and font data corresponding to the predetermined character code; and a storage unit for copying and storing storage information stored in the storage unit. Means for registering a predetermined character code stored in the storage means, a first storage area in which a predetermined frequently used character group is copied and stored from the storage means, and A second storage area in which a character other than a character group is copied from the storage unit and can be stored. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second storage area is constituted by a fixed-length buffer, and is capable of storing a predetermined number of font data sequentially from the latest used font data in the order of use history. 2. The character processing device according to 1. 3. A first judging means for judging whether or not an input character is stored in the first storage area by referring to a registered item in the character code registration area, and the first judging means. A data size calculator configured to calculate a data size of the input character based on a character code of the input character and a next character code when the input character is determined to be stored in the first storage area; 3. The character processing device according to claim 1, wherein: 4. A first judging means for judging whether or not an input character is stored in the first storage area by referring to a registered item of the character code registration area, and a first judging means. A second determination unit configured to determine whether the input character is stored in the second storage area when it is determined that the input character is not stored in the first storage area; When the second determination means determines that the input character is not stored in the second storage area, the font data of the input character stored in the storage means is stored in the second storage area. 4. A character processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a data storage means for copying and storing the data. 5. The character processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined character group includes at least a hiragana character, a katakana character, and an alphanumeric character. 6. The character processing device according to claim 1, wherein said storage means is a disk device. 7. The character processing device according to claim 1, wherein said storage means is a random access memory. 8. A predetermined character code and font data corresponding to the predetermined character code are stored in a storage means in advance, and the predetermined character code and a group of frequently used characters are copied from the storage means and stored. A character data processing method characterized by storing a predetermined number of characters other than the predetermined character group in a fixed-length buffer in order from the latest used font data in the order of use history. 9. A determination is made as to whether or not an input character is stored in the first storage area by referring to the predetermined character code which is copied from the storage means and stored, and the input character is stored in the first storage area. 9. The character data according to claim 8, wherein when it is determined that the character data is stored in the first storage area, the data size of the input character is calculated based on the character code of the input character and the next character code. Processing method. 10. A determination is made as to whether or not an input character is stored in said first storage area by referring to said predetermined character code which is copied from said storage means and stored, and said input character is stored in said first storage area. When it is determined that the input character is not stored in the first storage area, it is determined whether or not the input character is stored in the second storage area, and the input character is stored in the second storage area. If you decide not to
10. The font data of the input character is copied and stored from the storage unit.
How to process the described character data. 11. The character processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined character group includes at least a hiragana character, a katakana character, and an alphanumeric character. 12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the storage unit is a disk device. 13. A character code registration procedure for registering a predetermined character code stored in a storage means in a character code registration area, and copying a predetermined frequently used character group from the storage means to a first storage area. A first saving procedure for saving;
A second storage procedure for copying characters other than the predetermined character group from the storage unit and enabling the characters to be stored in a second storage area;
A first determining step of determining whether or not an input character is stored in the first storage area with reference to a registration item of the character code registration area; and A data size calculating step of calculating a data size of the input character based on a character code of the input character and a next character code when it is determined that the input character is stored in the first storage area; When it is determined that the input character is not stored in the first storage area, a second determination procedure of determining whether the input character is stored in the second storage area; When it is determined by the second determination procedure that the input character is not stored in the second storage area, data storage for copying and storing the font data of the input character stored in the storage unit Computer-readable storage medium characterized by storing the order.