JP2003271375A - Information display device and information display control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display a plurality of windows to be displayed so as to be overlapped in a master/slave relation with high fidelity. <P>SOLUTION: When generating a slave dialog 12 from a master dialog 11 (master window 10) on a display, a skid dialog 13 in the same size as that of the slave dialog 12 is generated, and the slave dialog 12 is generated at almost the same position as that of the skid dialog. Thus, focus movement to the master dialog 12 (master window 10) or the flicker of a picture due to the re-plotting of the master dialog 12 (master window 10) can be prevented by means of the skid dialog 13. Also, data sharing between each dialog can be performed via the skid dialog 13. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information display device and an information display control method for displaying information by displaying a plurality of windows that can be overlapped by using image display means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a multi-window system capable of overlapping display has been used as a display system for information terminals such as computers. In such a multi-window system, a plurality of windows can be displayed on the screen. The windows can overlap each other, and keyboard and mouse operation information is input to the focused window (currently selected as an input target). There are several types of window focus methods, but the most popular focus method used in Microsoft Windows (trade name) is to select the desired window by clicking the mouse and display it in the foreground. It will focus the next window until another window is selected.

As a user interface in a multi-window system capable of overlapping display, a configuration is known in which a child window is derived from a parent window in order to display additional information and interact with the user.

A so-called dialog window is used as a kind of such child window. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when the parent dialog 11 of an application inputs a file name or specifies options regarding information processing, a child dialog 12 is generated. In the child dialog 12, a text input field, a button operated by a mouse, and the like are arranged as needed.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, the parent dialog 11 is first constructed, and while the child dialogs 1 to n are constructed / disappeared on the parent dialog 11, the dialogs are switched to display the next dialog. Arrows in FIG. 1B indicate transitions of child dialogs, and child dialogs 1, 2, ... N-1, n.
Child dialogs are generated in this order. The dialog n-1 is a dialog before the dialog n, and when the process of the dialog n is completed, the dialog n is erased and the focus is returned to the previous dialog n-1.

When the child window is derived from the parent window as in the case of the above dialog, the child window is automatically given the focus so that the child window is displayed at the front. And the display position of the child window is
It is usually above (in front of) the parent window from which the child window is derived.

Once the child dialog has disappeared, the focus points to the dialog behind the child dialog (parent dialog), displays its contents, and then the desired dialog is constructed.

In order to display the previously hidden area of the window by disappearing (erasing) the window,
The hidden area is redrawn (constructed) and then the target window is constructed (drawn) to redisplay the screen.

[0009]

As described above, in the multi-window system capable of overlapping display, the child dialog is switched and the next dialog is displayed (constructed).
In that case, the focus is once moved to the parent dialog, and then the next child dialog is displayed (constructed).

Conventionally, when this child dialog is switched, depending on the display (construction) state of the parent dialog at that time (it is not uniform because there are bright places and dark places), it takes a short time to display (construct) the child dialog. There is a problem that flicker occurs on the screen, which puts a burden on the user's eyes.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to display a plurality of windows which are overlapped and displayed in a parent-child relationship in a high quality without flickering.

[0012]

In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, an information display device and an information display device for displaying information by displaying a plurality of windows that can be overlapped by using an image display device. In the control method and the information display control program, when a child window is generated from a parent window, an underlay window having substantially the same size as the child window is generated, and the child window is generated at substantially the same position as the underlay window. Adopted.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the basic configuration of the window control of the present invention. In the present invention, the construction is such that the underlay dialog 13 is inserted between the child dialog 12 and the parent dialog 11 as a dummy window having the same or substantially the same size as the child dialog 12 (1 to n).

The underlay dialog 13 is generated in the same procedure as a normal window using a system call or library routine for generating a normal window. In the example of FIG. 2, when the child dialog 12 (1 to n) is generated from the parent dialog 11, first, the underlay dialog 13 is generated from the parent dialog 11 and the child dialog 12 (1 to n) is generated as its child. .

The underlay dialog 13 has the same color tone (for example, gray) as the base color of the dialog used in the application, and (basically) does not display other characters or images. This is the underlay dialog 13
This masks the display information of the parent window (dialog) below it, thereby preventing screen flicker due to redrawing of the parent window (dialog) when the child dialog 12 (1 to n) is erased.

Thereafter, the child dialog 12 (1 to n) is
As shown in FIG. 2B, it is generated as a child window of the underlay dialog 13.

In the generation of this kind of dialog, there are cases where the operation of moving the dialog with a mouse or the like is allowed and cases where it is not allowed. When the operation of moving the child dialog is allowed, the child dialog moves. Then, the underlay dialog 13, which is the parent window, is moved so as to follow the movement of the child dialog so that the underlay dialog 13 cannot be seen by the user. In such dialog movement control, the display control routine (35)
When the child dialog is moved by, the underlying dialog is moved in the same manner. For example, the X and Y coordinates of the child dialog moved by mouse operation are notified to a program module such as a process or thread that controls the display of the underlying dialog by an appropriate method, and the notified program module moves the child dialog. Move the underlay dialog to the same coordinate position.

As described above, when the child dialog is disappeared, the focus once shifts to its parent dialog. However, in the present invention, the focus does not shift to the parent dialog 11 as in the conventional case, and FIG. When a child dialog is erased, the focus shifts to the parent dialog 13 as shown in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when displaying the child dialog 12 (1 to n), the underlay dialog 13 is once generated, and the next child dialog is displayed (constructed) via this underlay dialog 13.

With such a configuration, when the child dialog is erased, redrawing of the parent dialog (or the parent window of the application) on which various information is displayed does not occur, so that the flicker of the screen is greatly reduced. be able to.

In FIG. 2A, the child dialogs 12 (1 to n) and the underlay dialog 13 are shown at different positions for easier understanding, but in reality, the child dialogs 12 (1) are not shown. To n) are displayed / disappeared at a position (almost the same position) immediately above the underlay dialog 13 (the underlay dialog 13 is not visually recognized by the user while the child dialog is displayed).

FIG. 4 shows an example of a control procedure for creating / erasing (displaying (constructing) / disappearing) a child dialog according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 shows an example of a system configuration for executing the processing of FIG. Show. First, the system configuration of FIG. 5 will be described.

FIG. 5 shows the system configuration of an apparatus for performing window display control according to the present invention. The configuration of FIG. 5 shows a configuration common to information processing terminals such as personal computers and machine tool control terminals. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 25 is a display unit for displaying by the above-mentioned multi-window system, and this display unit 25 is composed of a CRT display or an LCD display.

Reference numerals 23 and 24 are display circuits each including a video memory and a drive circuit for driving the display unit 25. Video memory 23 and display circuit 24
Is usually configured as a graphic I / F connected to a bus circuit for a computer such as an AGP bus or a PCI bus.

Reference numeral 30 is a main memory composed of a semiconductor memory such as a RAM (or virtual memory using a hard disk). On the main memory 30, an application program 31 and a window system 3 are provided.
2. The software such as the OS (operating system) 33 and the library routine 34 is expanded, and the CPU
21.

The display control routine 35 of the present invention is implemented as an API (application interface) or system call of the window system 32 or OS 33, or as a library routine 34 (or.
The display control routine of the present invention may be statically linked to the binary of the application program 31).

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 21 is a CPU, which controls the overall operation of the system of FIG. 5 by executing each software on the main memory 30. The CPU 21 constitutes the display control means in the present invention together with the display control routine 35. Reference numeral 22 is a mouse used for switching window focus, operating buttons, and other operations in a user interface using the multi-window system.

Next, the flow of the display control routine 35 executed by the CPU 21 will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 4, the application program 3
It is assumed that the parent dialog is constructed from 1 and is waiting for an instruction from the operator.

When it becomes necessary to generate a child dialog,
First, in step S1, an underlay dialog 13 to be placed below each child dialog to be subsequently created is created and displayed. The display position of the underlay dialog 13 is almost the same as the display position of the child dialog to be created immediately after, so that the child dialog to be created immediately after hides the underlay dialog 13, and its size is also approximately the same as the child dialog. .

Then, in step S2, a first child dialog is generated on the underlay dialog 13 and waits for user input. The user transmits information to the application by inputting a character string using the generated child dialog (see FIG. 6) or operating a button on the child dialog.

Then, in the child dialog, a button (for example, a button such as "Next" or "Return") defined as a trigger for deactivating the child dialog is activated by the mouse 22 (or a keyboard (not shown)). When operated, the child dialog is deleted in step S3.

As a result, the underlay dialog 13 already generated as the parent of the child dialog is re-displayed in step S4. As a result, the focus shifts to the parent dialog box 13 as described above. This allows
Since the redrawing of the parent dialog (or the parent window of the application) in which various information is displayed does not occur, the flicker of the screen can be greatly reduced.

In step S5, the next child dialog is generated, and the input waits again. In step S6, the button operation defined as a trigger for deactivating the child dialog again is detected.

Here, in the case where a plurality of child dialogs are continuously generated and various kinds of information are sequentially input, in step S6, for example, the button operation of "next" or "return" returns to step S3. The button operation such as "end of setting" moves to step S7.

When the next child dialog is generated by a button operation such as "Next" or "Return", the process returns to step S3 and the above process is repeated. Unless it is finished (Yes) in step S6, the processes of steps S3 to S5 for constructing / disappearing the child dialog by "next" or "return" are continued.

On the other hand, in the case of proceeding to step S7, all child dialogs are erased, and the focus is returned to the parent window (parent dialog or application main window). Therefore, in step S7, the child dialog is deleted first, and then in step S8, the underlay dialog 13 is deleted.

By performing the window display control as in the above embodiment, the following advantages can be obtained.

(1) It is possible to prevent the focus from moving to the parent window and reduce the flicker on the screen when the dialog is constructed / disappeared. In the conventional configuration, the focus is lost when the dialogs are successively constructed / disappeared as described above. For example, when a child window is launched from the parent window and multiple dialogs are displayed in the child window, the focus moves to the parent window for a moment (depending on the PC specifications), but the screen flickers due to redrawing of the parent window. Occurs. However, in the present invention using the underlay window (dialog), since the child window (dialog) is generated via the underlay window (dialog), when deleting the child window, the child window (dialog) Flicker caused by redrawing of the parent window because the focus does not move to the parent window
Can be prevented, and the burden on the user's eyes can be reduced.

(2) Data transfer / sharing between dialogs can be facilitated through the underlying window (dialog). Depending on the configuration of system calls and library routines used for window creation / deletion, interface means for data transfer and data communication between windows (dialogs) having a parent-child relationship may be provided (usually programming Provided in the form of a function). Underlay window (dialog)
According to the configuration using, the data used in the child window (dialog) (for example, the data input by the user or the data generated by the input operation) is transferred to the underlying window of the parent using the interface means as described above,
It becomes easy to hold or transfer to the parent window, and data can be easily shared and managed when child windows (dialogs) are successively generated one after another.

In the above description, the "dialog" is used as the name of the child window for convenience. However, the window display control of the present invention is not used only for the display control of the "dialog" used for interactive processing, but the parent window. It can be widely used for creating and deleting child windows from. Normally, the window system controls to display the (child) window used by the application on the first root window (parent window) that covers the entire display.
It goes without saying that the technique for creating / erasing a window according to the present invention can also be used for display control of a window having such a parent-child relationship.

In FIG. 2, the parent dialog box 11 is first generated from the parent window 10 of the application, and the child dialog box 12 is generated from the parent dialog box 11. However, the parent window 10 of the application is directly connected to the child dialog box ( Underlay dialog (window) 1
It goes without saying that display control using 3 can be performed.

2 and 3, one parent window (dialog) to a child window (dialog)
In the above description, the display is sequentially displayed one by one, but it goes without saying that a child window (dialog) can become a parent window (dialog) and a child window (dialog) can be generated. Even in such a case, FIG.
It goes without saying that the control shown in FIG. 4 can be applied.
That is, the first (some) child window (dialog)
When newly generating a second (different) child window (dialog), the first child window (dialog) may be treated as the above-mentioned “parent window (dialog)” and the above control may be applied. .

[0045]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a child window is generated from a parent window when information is displayed by displaying a plurality of windows that can be overlapped by using an image display means. When doing
Since an underlay window of almost the same size as the child window is created, and the child window is created at the almost same position as this underlay window, the underlay window prevents focus movement to the parent window and redraws the parent window. Prevents screen flicker, can display multiple windows that are displayed in an overlapping manner in a parent-child relationship with high quality without flicker, and can reduce the burden on the user's eyes. The excellent effect that data can be easily shared between them is obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a problem of conventional window display control.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of window display control of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a transition state of a dialog in window display control of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a flow of window display control of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a system configuration capable of implementing window display control of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a dialog.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Parent Dialog 12 child dialog 13 Underlay dialog 21 CPU 23 Video memory 24 display circuit 25 Display 30 main memory 31 Application Program 32 window system 33 OS 34 Library Routine 35 Display control routine

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information display device for displaying information by displaying a plurality of windows which can be overlapped by using an image display means, and when a child window is generated from a parent window, an underlay having substantially the same size as the child window. An information display device comprising a control means for generating a window and generating the child window at substantially the same position as the underlying window. 2. The information display according to claim 1, wherein the underlay window displays the display information of the parent window in a maskable color tone when the focus moves to the underlay window when the child window is erased. apparatus. 3. An information display control method for displaying information by displaying a plurality of windows that can be overlapped by using an image display means, and when a child window is generated from a parent window, the child window is of substantially the same size as the child window. An information display control method comprising a control step of generating an underlay window and generating the child window at substantially the same position as the underlay window. 4. The information display according to claim 3, wherein the underlay window displays the display information of the parent window in a maskable color tone when the focus moves to the underlay window when the child window is erased. Control method. 5. The information display control method according to claim 3, wherein the underlying window is moved along with the movement of the child window.