JP2001005584A - Multiwindow display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make referable to the information of lower side windows without moving a window carefully watched by a user when plural windows are displayed mutually overlapping on a display screen. SOLUTION: In the display device 4, the position of a window specified by a user on a display screen among plural windows displayed on the display screen is maintained, and the positions of the windows other than the specified window on the display screen are changed. Thus, the relative positions of the specified window and the other windows can be changed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a window display device, and more particularly to a multi-window display processing device suitably used in a multi-window system for performing processing by opening a plurality of windows on a display screen. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, processing of a plurality of application software is performed in parallel by one computer, and therefore, it is common to simultaneously display windows for each application on a display screen. In such a computer device, when a plurality of windows are opened on the display screen, the windows may be displayed completely or partially overlapped with each other. I cannot see the information that is displayed. In the conventional device, the upper window is moved on the display screen in order to view the information displayed below the overlapped portion.

[0003]

However, usually,
The user is operating the upper window, and if the upper window is moved on the display screen, the window that the user is gazing out of the display screen may be inconvenient. Further, even if the window under operation stays within the display screen, the window being watched by the user (the window under operation) moves on the display screen, so that it is difficult for the user to concentrate on the window. There are also problems.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 5-61628 discloses a technique in which an upper one of overlapping windows is viewed through to see information hidden below. According to this technique, the lower window can be viewed without moving the position of the window being operated, but the user refers to the upper window for a portion that is in a transparent state while viewing the lower window. There is an inconvenience that you cannot do it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and a window being watched by a user is not moved on the display screen, but the position of another window is changed on the display screen. It is another object of the present invention to provide a multi-window display device capable of simultaneously referring to information on both windows.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems,
The window display device of the present invention is a multi-window display device capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen, wherein the position of the specified window on the display screen is maintained as it is, The relative position between the specified window and the other windows can be changed by changing the position of the window on the display screen.

[0007] With this configuration, it is possible to refer to the display contents of other overlapping windows without changing the position of the window on which the user is performing processing on the display screen.

[0008] The window display device of the present invention can change the relative position between the specified window and the other windows by changing the position of the specified window in a virtual coordinate system and changing the position of the specified window. And changing the range to be displayed on the display screen, and displaying the result on the display screen.

With this configuration, relative movement between the specified window and other windows can be realized. Note that this virtual coordinate system does not depend on physical limitations on the display screen.

Further, the change of the range to be displayed on the display screen is performed by the same amount in the opposite direction to the change of the position of the specified window. In other words, in the virtual coordinates, the specific window moves and the display range on the display screen moves in the opposite direction by the same amount as the movement amount of the specified window, so that the position of the specified window on the display screen does not change. , The positions of the other windows on the display screen are changed and relative movement is made.

The virtual coordinate system may be two-dimensional coordinates or three-dimensional coordinates.

Further, the window display device of the present invention comprises:
A window position storage unit that stores position information of all windows in the coordinate system; a display range storage unit that stores a range to be displayed on the display screen; Window selecting means for selecting the specified window, window moving amount specifying means for specifying the moving amount of the window specified by the window selecting means, and window specifying means for specifying the moving amount of the window specified by the window selecting means and window moving amount specifying means. Depending on the location information and the amount of movement,
This can be realized by providing a display range changing unit for changing a range to be displayed on the display screen stored in the display range storage unit.

This window display device further comprises:
Generating display information of a window actually displayed on the display screen from the position information of the specific window selected from the window position storage unit by the window designating unit and the display range information changed by the display range changing unit It is preferable to provide a display information generating unit that performs actual operation of the display screen based on the information generated here. By generating display information of a window to be actually displayed on a display screen from the position information and display range information of the specific window in the virtual coordinates, and operating the display screen based on the display information, the position of the specific window is changed. This is because the relative movement can be performed without moving on the display screen.

The number of specific windows is not necessarily one, and a plurality of specific windows may be specified.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a window processing apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the window display device of the present invention includes an input device 1 for inputting a user's instruction, a storage device 2, a data processing device 3 operated by program control, and a display device 4 such as a CRT. It is configured.

The input device 1 is, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a pen tablet or the like, and the user can use the input device 1 to select a window displayed at the top of windows overlapping on the screen (a processing target). Window)
And the desired amount of movement, i.e., an amount sufficient to separate the overlapping windows and view the lower window.

The storage device 2 includes a window position information storage unit 21 for storing position information of all windows that can be displayed on the display device 4 and a display for storing an actual display range on the display screen of the display device 4. And a range storage device 22. The window position information storage unit 21 stores positions of all windows including windows not displayed on the display device 4 as position information at virtual coordinates that do not depend on physical limitations of the display device 4. In addition, the display range storage unit 22 includes a position information storage unit 21.
The information (display range information) about the range from which of the coordinates formed by the data to which data is actually output to the display device is stored.

The data processing device 3 includes a window selecting means 31, a window moving amount specifying means 32, and a display information generating means 33. In the window selecting means 31,
Window designation information S1 for designating the window selected by the user is provided from the input device 1, and the window selection means 31 searches the position information storage unit 21 based on the window designation information S1, and retrieves the virtual information of the designated window. The position information S3 on the coordinates is obtained and sent to the window movement amount designating means 32 and the display information generating means 33.

The window moving distance designating means 32 is provided with moving distance information S2 for designating the moving distance of the window selected by the user from the input device 1, and is sent from the moving distance information S2 and the window selecting means 31. Based on the window position information S3, the position information of the designated window in the window position information storage unit 21 is changed. Further, the window moving unit 32 changes the display range on the display screen stored in the display range storage unit 22 in the direction opposite to the direction in which the designated window is moved, and by the same distance as the distance in which the designated window is moved. change.

The display information generating means 33 is stored in the position information storage unit 21 and is used to specify the window moving amount specifying means 22.
The information S4 to be actually displayed on the display device 4 is generated based on the position information of the designated window changed by the above and the display range stored in the display range storage unit 32 and changed by the window moving amount specifying means 22. And sends it to the display device 4. The display device 4 receives the information S4 and changes the display of the window on the screen.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the multi-window display processing device shown in FIG. First, the process starts when the user specifies a window to be processed via the input device 1. A plurality of windows are displayed in an overlapping manner on the display screen of the display device 4, and the user selects the window displayed at the top here.

The window selecting means 31 searches the position information storage section 31 based on the window specification information S1 sent from the input device 1 (step A1), and the specified window exists in the position information storage section 21. It is confirmed whether or not to perform the process, and a window to be processed is specified (step A2, YES). If the window specified by the user does not exist in the position information storage unit 21 and the window to be processed cannot be specified (steps A2 and N
O), the process ends as it is.

Next, the window moving amount designating means 32
Window moving distance information S sent from input device 1
2, based on the position information S3 of the specific window sent from the window specifying unit 31, the position of the specific window in the position information storage unit 21 is changed by the moving distance in the direction in which the user has moved ( Step A
3).

The window moving amount specifying means 32
Window moving distance information S sent from input device 1
2, the display range actually displayed on the display device 4 stored in the display range storage unit 22 is changed in the direction opposite to the moving direction of the specific window by the moving distance (step A4). .

The display information generation unit 33 searches the position information storage unit 21 and the display range storage unit 22 based on the position information on the specific window sent from the window movement amount designation unit 32, and
The position information (obtained from the position information storage unit 21) of the specific window changed as described above, and the information (from the display range storage unit 22) on which range of the virtual coordinates is displayed on the display device 4. ) To generate new display information S4 on the display device 4 and send it to the display device 4 (step A5) to end the process.

[0026]

FIG. 3 is a diagram specifically showing the movement of the window on the display 4 by the processing performed according to the flowchart of FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of windows A, B, and C are displayed on the display 4. In this example, the windows A and B partially overlap, and the user cannot see a part of the window B as it is. In addition, a mouse is used as an input device.

Here, the user designates a window A located on the upper side to be processed by a click operation or the like.
The window designation information S1 is sent to the window selection means 31. The window selecting means 31 specifies the window A selected by the user based on the designation information (steps A1, A2).

Next, the user moves the mouse 1 by a distance such that the overlapping windows A and B are separated and the contents of the lower window B can be sufficiently viewed. Here, the movement of the mouse is not directly reflected as the movement of the window A, but the moving direction and the moving distance are sent to the window moving amount specifying means 32 as window distance information S2.

The window movement amount designating means 32 changes the position information on the virtual coordinates of the window A stored in the position information storage unit 21 based on the window movement distance information S2, and stores the display range. The display range stored in the unit 22 is changed by the same distance in the direction opposite to the moving distance information S2 sent from the mouse 1 (steps A3 and A4). At this stage, the window on the display screen 4 does not change at all at this stage, as shown in the display device in the middle part of FIG.

When the display information generation means 33 fetches the changed information from the position information storage unit 21 and the display range storage unit 22 and sends the newly generated display information S4 to the display device 4 (step A5), the display information generation unit 33 executes the virtual operation. On the coordinates, window A
Moves in a predetermined direction (right direction in FIG. 3), but the entire display screen moves in a direction opposite to the moving direction of the window A (left direction in FIG. 3, indicated by an arrow). Since it moves by the same distance as the distance, as shown in the lower part of FIG. 3, the position of the window A does not change on the display screen 4 as a result, and the other windows B and C move substantially. Become.

In the above embodiment, the case where there is one specific window has been described as an example. However, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, windows A and B and windows C and D are displayed in an overlapping manner. When it is desired to view the contents of the windows B and D on the side, the windows A and C may be specified, and the windows B and D may be moved substantially on the display 4.

In the above-described embodiment, a two-dimensional image has been described. However, a three-dimensional image can be substantially moved by relatively moving the position of the selected specific window and the screen display. It is possible to move the other window and see the contents of the hidden window without moving it.

[0033]

According to the multi-window display processing device of the present invention, the position of the window being watched by the user is displayed on another window hidden under the window without moving on the display. You can check the information. Therefore, the user can be prevented from being distracted from the window being watched, and can prevent disadvantages such as the window being watched protruding from the display and losing information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a multi-window display processing device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the multi-window display device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a movement of a window on a display screen executed by the operation shown in FIG. 2;

4 is a diagram showing movement of a window on a display screen executed by the operation shown in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 input device 2 storage device 3 data processing device 4 display device 21 position information storage unit 22 display range storage unit 31 window selection unit 32 window movement amount designation unit 33 display information generation unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] In a multi-window display device capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen, a position of a specified window on a display screen is maintained as it is, and a window other than the specified window is displayed. A multi-window display device wherein the relative position between the specified window and another window can be changed by changing the position on the display screen. 2. A change in the relative position between the specified window and another window is displayed on the display screen in the coordinate system and a change in the position of the specified window in a virtual coordinate system. 2. The multi-window display device according to claim 1, wherein the change is performed by changing a power range, and the result is displayed on the display screen. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a range to be displayed on the display screen is moved in the coordinate system by the same amount in a direction opposite to the change of the position of the specified window. The multi-window display device as described in the above. 4. The multi-window display device according to claim 2, wherein the coordinate system is two-dimensional coordinates. 5. The multi-window display device according to claim 2, wherein the coordinate system is three-dimensional coordinates. 6. The multi-window display device, wherein: a window position storage means for storing position information of all windows in the coordinate system; a display range storage means for storing a range to be displayed on the display screen; A window selecting means for selecting the specified window from the windows stored in the storage means, a window moving amount specifying means for specifying a moving amount for the window specified by the window selecting means; Display range changing means for changing a range to be displayed on the display screen stored in the display range storage means, according to the position information of the specified window specified by the window moving amount specifying means and the moving amount thereof; The multi-window according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising: Display device. 7. The multi-window display device further comprises: a position information of a specific window selected from the window position storage means by the window selection means; and a display range information changed by the display range change means. A multi-window display device comprising display information generating means for generating display information of a window actually displayed on the display screen. 8. The multi-window display device according to claim 1, wherein the number of the specific windows is plural.