JP2008516359A - Displaying information on the display screen of a computing device - Google Patents

Abstract

The text that the application places on the screen of the computing device is determined not just when the application is built or installed, but rather when it is displayed by the operating system that controls the device. The application passes the string ID to which the many possible candidate strings are attached to the operating system. The OS should then display which possible candidates should be displayed in the middle of execution, taking into account many possible display variables such as language in use, available space on the screen, device configuration, etc. To decide.

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of displaying information on a display screen of a computing device, and in particular, a method used by an interactive computing device to place an appropriate textual message in a specific area on the display screen. About.

  The term interactive computing device has both screens and other methods for displaying information and keyboards, keypads, button arrays, touch screens and other methods used as input for selecting information, etc. Should be construed as including devices. Today it includes personal devices such as desktop computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile phones, smartphones, digital cameras, digital music players. Many other industrial and household appliances are included as well, from ATMs to household appliances (for example, washing machines and televisions), automobiles (including all types), railroads, boats and airplanes. The transport mechanism is also included.

  The development of inexpensive visual display units (VDUs) in the 1970s enabled the growth of interactive computing. As a result, a single unit includes a keyboard and screen and provides real-time input and output capabilities. Interactive computing requires a user interface that is enabled and executed by the computing device displaying information and prompting the user for input. While modern screens capable of processing high resolution graphics increase the use of visual images (eg, icons), much information is still displayed in text format.

  However, the inclusion of text prompts always poses a particular problem for programmers writing code for user interfaces.

  One main reason that has always been to date is that text is position-dependent and language-dependent. When a program is internationalized so that it can be used by people in different countries, changes to text with a user interface are generally required, but changes to the program itself are not required.

  Traditionally, programmers try to solve position-dependent problems by removing position-dependent information, including the text string that defines the text prompt, from the body of the code and replacing it with another module (typically , Resource files). Also, the position dependent information can be retrieved by some kind of indexed search mechanism.

  One implementation proven in recent documents can be found in the GEM operating system from Digital Research. According to the 1985 GEM programmer's guide:

  “The purpose of the resource file is device-specific and user-specific for the application, and is to separate country-specific data from the code. Such separation provides the following advantages:

-Portability of e-machine code In order to port applications across different environments, programmers need only change resource file data.

-Appearance customization Non-programmers can change the application menu structure, dialog box layout, and error message text. In most cases, programmers do not need to be involved.

• Internationalization of text messages To change a text message from one language to another, it is only necessary to change the body of the resource file.

Device-independent raster graphics GEM AES icons and other bitmap images are stored as resources and can be adjusted to various resolution characteristics. In all such cases, the application code is not changed.

  In summary, the advantage of the above method of processing text strings is that no software or application changes are required when internationalizing software for different languages, only appropriately customized resource files. Needed. Many operating systems can adjust screen controls (eg, dialog boxes and menus) at runtime to account for different text strings. However, for localization and display customization, the above standard solution is not sufficient when applied to computing devices with small screens and resource constrained, such as mobile phones. It has been.

  The essential problem with such devices is that the area of the screen is too small to give enough flexibility in the size of the displayed dialog boxes and menus. Text strings that are suitable in one dialog box on the screen will not become suitable in other dialog boxes without being truncated.

  UI designers can adapt each text string to the required location of the user interface by defining a separate text string for each location where the text string would be used in the past. I was trying to guarantee that.

  However, such “static” techniques rely on the assumption that the designer is fully aware of all possible screen parameters. Not only is it agnostic about the size of the screen, but for advanced devices running operating systems that allow users to dynamically change and reconfigure the screen, such a static approach is not practical. Absent. It is also not very economical, making localization very expensive and, at best, very large amounts of memory on such resource constrained devices in meeting configuration requirements that would only be used occasionally. Is wasted.

  The GEM technology quoted above suggests other reasons (shared with icons and other graphical information) about why including textual information in the user interface can cause problems. Yes. This is a difference in display characteristics. The correct format of the text used is not only what needs to be communicated to the user, but also items such as screen size and display resolution. It is dependent. Such display differences generally exist only between devices. In the event of problems, these devices were typically addressed by configuring the software either at build time or at install time. However, it should be noted that many modern desktop computing devices do not require special provisions in the field. The reason for this is that, for example, a relatively large, standard screen resolution such as 640 × 480 pixels or 1024 × 768 pixels can be assumed, and if the text is not suitable for the appropriate space, the runtime technology This is because use of (for example, a scroll bar) can be recognized. Obviously, such a method is unsuitable for a device having a small screen such as a mobile phone.

  In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for displaying information on a display screen of a computing device.

  An invention corresponding to the first aspect of the present invention is provided.

  An invention corresponding to the second aspect of the present invention is provided.

  An invention corresponding to the third aspect of the present invention is provided.

  The underlying understanding of the present invention is that it is identified at runtime instead of constructing different strings for each possible device at build time.

  In the present invention, the same unique text string identifier (or string ID) each time it is necessary to provide the same individual message to the device user without considering the available display size. Is used. Each string ID has one or more text strings attached to the string ID, and these text strings are desirable for most possible screen sizes and use cases that are expected for a device. Is configured to take everything into account. Those text character strings may be stored in a database in the memory of the device, for example. This is relatively easy to implement, and as described above, the text string defining the text prompt is separated from the body of the program code and stored in a separate module (typically a resource file). ing. Such text strings can also be retrieved as needed by some sort of indexed search mechanism.

  The display area of the device is generally controlled by the part of the operating system known as the Windows Manager. Such a Windows® manager knows the size of all screen boxes to which the text string fits. Thus, for example, if the display changes from portrait to landscape between one program and another, the wraparound text is displayed in a dialog box with a size and format that can store the wraparound text. Windows Manager recognizes that a unique user message in a vertical format conforming to two lines must be stored in a dialog box that can only store one line of text. . Therefore, when the character string ID for a specific message is selected according to the present invention, the text character string related to the character string ID becomes valid for the Windows (registered trademark) manager. Also, the Windows® manager can select a text string that can fit as a line of text at the location of the activated box. Therefore, the character string actually displayed on the screen at runtime is a character string most adapted to the screen in consideration of the screen size, font, font size, style, space, and the like. A part of the operating system that controls the screen is configured to select the most suitable character string from all the character strings attached to the character string ID.

  The present invention has several advantages over the prior art.

  • Developers do not have to worry about software being properly configured. The reason for this is that development efforts and investment in maintenance would be absolutely minimal, which would need to support flexible configurations such as variable screen size and resolution, various zoom levels, and screen formats. It is because it is reduced to a value. Even devices with two screens (eg, some types of mobile phones) do not require extra development effort.

  -Users of devices with small screens, such as mobile phones, do not have to worry about purchasing the correct version of the software. And don't worry about installing it correctly.

  Thus, the present invention allows text that an application places on the screen of a computing device to be written by the application designer when the application is being built or by the owner when the application is being installed. Rather, it provides a method that is determined when trying to be displayed by the operating system that controls the device. In the mechanism for realizing the method, the application provides the operating system with a character string ID to which a large number of possible candidate character strings are attached. The OS should then display any possible candidates in the middle of execution, taking into account a number of possible display variables such as language in use, available space on the screen, device configuration, etc. To decide.

  Although the invention has been described with particular reference to the embodiments, it may be modified as appropriate within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (9)

  While the application is running, what text string is shown on the screen or other display device is not displayed by the application's components when trying to display it, not when the application is built, An interactive computing device characterized by being determined by a component of the system.   The application attempting to display text provides a string ID to the operating system, and the operating system selects the most appropriate text string for display from a plurality of text string candidates provided by the application. The interactive computing device of claim 1, wherein the interactive computing device is selected. The most appropriate text string to display is
A language used during operation of the application;
The size of the space on the screen where the string should fit,
A device on which the application runs;
An input method available on the device during operation of the application;
Screen resolution at the time of operation of the application;
The zoom level of the screen during operation of the application;
The aspect ratio of the screen during operation of the application;
Any other elements of the configuration of the device during operation of the application;
The zoom level of the screen,
The interactive computing device of claim 2, wherein the interactive computing device is selected by at least one of the device or a network to which the device is connected.   4. An interactive computing device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the application is configured to provide a string candidate to be attached to each string in an individual file.   While the application is running, what text string is shown on the screen or other display device is not displayed by the application's components when trying to display it, not when the application is built, A method of operating an interactive computing device, characterized in that it is determined by a component of the system.   The application that wants to display text provides a string ID to the operating system and the most appropriate text string is selected for display from a plurality of candidates for the text string provided by the application The method of operating an interactive computing device according to claim 5. The most appropriate text string to display is
A language used during operation of the application;
The size of the space on the screen where the string should fit,
A device on which the application runs;
An input method available on the device during operation of the application;
Screen resolution at the time of operation of the application;
The zoom level of the screen during operation of the application;
The aspect ratio of the screen during operation of the application;
Any other elements of the configuration of the device during operation of the application;
The font, pitch, style of the text to be displayed,
The method of operating an interactive computing device according to claim 6, wherein the method is selected by at least one of the device and a network to which the device is connected.   7. The method of operating an interactive computing device according to claim 6, wherein the application provides character string candidates to be attached to each character string in an individual file.   An operating system for operating a computing device according to the method of any one of claims 5-8.