JP2544452B2 - Multitasking processor - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a data processing device such as a Japanese word processor and a personal computer, and more particularly to a multi-processing device suitable for a data processing device for editing an integrated document on multiple windows. Regarding the task processing method.

[Conventional technology]

When realizing the editing of an integrated document that has various data such as sentences, tables, figures, and images in one document, consider the document as a set of areas having attributes such as sentences, figures, and individual areas. It is conceivable that the entire document editing process is performed by a combination of a region editing process for editing text data and graphic data in the document and a layout editing process for editing the position and size of each region in the document.

In this case, since the editing processing for each area is independent processing, and the layout editing processing and the area editing processing are also different processings, the processing program also corresponds to the attribute of the area according to the processing content. Separated into multiple area editing programs and layout editing programs. Also, as a multi-window display consisting of multiple windows on the screen, windows and tasks are assigned to each processing target, and processing is performed as a multi-tasking / multi-window system. By doing so, it is possible for the user to perform editing processing in multiple areas at the same time, and for the system, the independence of individual programs is high.
The advantage is that maintenance is easier. An example of such a system is the Japanese word processor Wordpal SUpER1000 system manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd., for example.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

In the above-mentioned conventional system, operations on the entire document such as printing, registration, and end of editing can be performed only while the window displayed by the layout editing program is in use. It is desirable for the user to be able to perform the above document operation regardless of which window is being used, but in the above conventional system, different windows are controlled by different tasks. Therefore, in order to be able to perform the above document operation, it is necessary to add the processing program to all tasks. As a result, the total amount of programs is greatly increased, and the capacity of the program storage area on the secondary storage device is exceeded, which is not possible.

An object of the present invention is to realize a document processing system with improved usability by enabling operations on the entire document such as printing, registration, and editing to be performed from an arbitrary window while suppressing an increase in the amount of programs to a minimum. is there.

[Means for solving the problem]

As a means for solving the above problems, the present invention provides an instruction input from the outside in a multi-task processing method in a data processing apparatus that displays a plurality of windows and operates different tasks for each window to perform processing. Performs processing of the corresponding individual task and displays the result in a window corresponding to the task, a plurality of individual task processing means, and a processing common to each individual task processing means by an instruction from the individual task processing means. Is executed for each individual task, and the common task processing means for notifying the processing result to the corresponding individual task processing means is provided, and the instruction input from the outside is the processing in the individual task processing means or the common task processing means. It is determined whether the processing is performed by the task processing means, and if the processing is the common task processing means, the common task processing means It is characterized in that the individual task processing means is provided with a determination means for instructing execution of the processing.

A data processing device according to the present invention includes a central processing unit, a main storage device, a secondary storage device, a display device and an input device, displays a plurality of windows on the display device, and operates different tasks for each window. Those configured to perform the treatment are preferably used.

The individual task processing means and the common task processing means are
For example, it is configured by loading a program stored in each secondary storage device into the main storage device and executing the program by the central processing unit.

Further, it is preferable that the common task processing means has a common data area for storing information necessary for performing the processing. This area can be provided in the main storage device, for example.

The individual task processing means processes an editing task such as a layout editing task or a region editing task. Further, the common task processing means is capable of operating the entire document from each individual task, and performs, for example, printing, registration, or editing end processing of the document.

[Action]

According to the present invention, in each of the individual task processing means, it is determined whether an instruction input from the outside is processing in the individual task processing means or processing in the common task processing means. The processing means performs processing such as layout editing and area editing, and updates the common data if necessary according to the processing result. On the other hand, if the instruction is the latter, the common task processing means is notified and processed.

The common task processing means executes processes relating to operations of the entire document such as printing, registration, and editing end of the document in response to an instruction from the outside. In each processing, if necessary, the common data is referred to and the common data is updated.

In this way, according to the present invention, processing such as operation of the entire document can be directly executed from the window of each individual task, and the usability of the data processing device can be greatly improved. Moreover, there is an advantage that the amount of programs can be smaller than that in the case where each processing task is individually provided to each individual task.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an example of hardware that constitutes an embodiment of the present invention.

The hardware of this embodiment is a CPU that performs editing processing and the like.
It drives a central processing unit 1, a main memory 2 for storing tasks to be executed by the CPU 1 and various management data, a hard disk 3 and a floppy disk 4 as secondary storage devices for storing programs and document data. It comprises a device, a keyboard 5 for inputting characters and editing functions, a display 6 for displaying editing results and the like, and a printer 7 for printing the editing results.

The operating system (hereinafter
(Abbreviated as OS) and tasks are placed. These are CP
It is a program that is interpreted and executed by U1. The tasks include layout editing task 21, area editing tasks 22a, 22b,
There are individual tasks such as 22c ..., and common tasks 30. For these tasks, the program is a hard disk (HD
3), which is read into the main memory 2 by the OS and executed. Note that the multitask processing method in which the execution of tasks is time-divisionally controlled by the OS and a plurality of tasks are executed in parallel is a method well known as a computer control method, and a description thereof will be omitted here. .

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of tasks in one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the document editing process is realized by one layout editing task 21, one or more area editing tasks 22a, 22b, 22c ... And a common task 30 for each document.

The layout editing task 21 and the area editing task 22a executed by the CPU 1 respectively display windows on the display 6. At most one window is selected from among the plurality of windows, and the editing instruction from the user is passed to the task displaying the selected window for processing.

Layout editing task 21
When instructed to start the edit processing of the area, a new area edit task 22b is activated, the activated area edit task 22b displays a new window on the screen, and the user instruction can be accepted. Simultaneous editing processing of a plurality of areas is realized.

The layout editing task 21 and the region editing task 22 (hereinafter, these tasks are collectively referred to as an editing task) perform the processing by themselves if the user instruction is the content to be processed by the user instruction, and the content that the common task 30 should process. If there is, the common task 30 is activated and the processing is requested.

The common task 30 receives the instruction content from the editing task, processes the instruction content, and notifies the requesting task of the result. The edit task that receives the result performs a process according to the result and completes the process for the user instruction.

The common data 40 is placed on the main memory 2 and stores information necessary for the common task 30 to perform processing. Common data
The structure of 40 is shown in FIG.

The common data 40 includes the name of the document being edited 401 and the number of editing tasks 4
There are three types of fields, 02 and one or more editing task numbers 403. The in-editing document name 401 stores the name of the document currently being edited, and is used in the printing and registration processing of the common task 30.

The edit task number 402 is the total number of edit tasks of the document being edited that is activated at that time, and the edit task number 403
Is also the number.

The edit task number stores, for each edit task, a task number assigned by the OS to uniquely identify the task. Edit task number 402 and edit task number 403
Is used in the edit end processing of the common task 30.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing of the editing task. The editing task is executed by the CPU1. That is,
In step 201, an editing instruction from the user is input, and in step 202, it is determined whether the editing instruction is an internal process executed by its own task. Step 20 if it is internal processing
2 and if not, that is, the user instruction
If the print / registration / editing has been completed, the process proceeds to step 206, and processing is performed by the common task.

In step 203, processing according to the user's instruction is performed. Next, in step 204, the common data 40
It is determined whether or not the contents of (1) need to be updated, and if necessary, the common data 40 is updated in step 205 and then the process returns to step 201. If not necessary, the process immediately returns to step 201. More specifically, the case where the common data 40 needs to be updated is a case where the number of editing tasks changes when the document editing process starts and the region editing process starts and ends.

In step 203, various processes are performed for each task and for each instruction content, but the content of the editing process will not be particularly described.

Next, when the process proceeds to step 206, the common task 30 is activated in step 206, the content of the user instruction input in step 201 is notified, and the result notification from the common task 30 is awaited. When the processing result is notified from the common task 30, the result is received in step 207, the processing according to the received processing result is executed in step 208, and step 201
Return to

More specifically, the process performed in step 208 is an error process when the process is unsuccessful, and when the process is successful, nothing is performed.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the processing contents of the common task 30.

Similar to the editing task, the common task 30 is executed by the CPU 1. First, in step 301, the instruction content notified from the editing task is received, and in step 302, the instruction content is determined and the processing according to the instruction content is performed. I do. If the instruction is print processing, step 303, if it is registration processing, step 304, and if it is edit end instruction, step 3
Go to 05.

In step 303, the document being edited is printed by referring to the document being edited 401 in the common data 40. When the processing is completed, the process proceeds to step 306, and the editing task of the request source is notified of whether or not the print processing is successful.

In step 304, similarly, the editing document name 401 is also referred to, the editing document is registered in the secondary storage device, and the success or failure of the process is notified in step 306.

In step 305, the number of editing tasks in the common data 40 is 402.
And edit task number 403, edit task number 4
The editing end processing is performed by forcibly ending all the tasks indicated by 03. In this case, since the task of the processing request source does not already exist, the result is not notified.

Among the processing performed by the common task 30, the processing for the user instruction of printing, registration, and editing end is
This is the process performed by the layout editing task 21, and the increase in the program amount due to the provision of the common task 30 is only the data reception / notification process and the determination process in steps 301, 302, and 306. Similarly, the increased portion on the editing task side is only the data reception / notification processing and the determination processing of steps 202, 206, 207, and 208. Since this increase amount is 1/100 or less of the program amount of the entire common task, even if the program increase amounts of all editing tasks are combined, it is 1/10 or less of the program amount of the common task 30,
Compared to the case where a processing program equivalent to the common task 30 is added to all editing tasks, the function of the common task can be executed from each editing task with a much smaller increase in the program amount.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the operation of the entire document such as printing, registration, and editing end, which can be conventionally performed only in the state where the layout editing window is selected, can be performed with a slight increase in the program amount. It becomes possible to execute from the state that the window of is selected, and the usability for the user is improved.

In the present embodiment, one common task executes three types of processing, but it is clear that the same effect can be obtained even if the processing is executed by different tasks for each processing.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, operations for the entire document such as printing, registration, and editing completion, which could be executed only in the state where a specific type of window is selected due to hardware restrictions, do not require additional hardware. Since it can be executed from a state in which any window is selected, operability for the user is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention, FIG. 1B is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a task in a position embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing hardware constituting the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the structure of common data used in the above embodiment, FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the flow of editing tasks, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the flow of common tasks. 1 ... CPU, 2 ... Main memory 3 ... Hard disk, 4 ... Floppy disk 5 ... Keyboard, 6 ... Display 7 ... Printer 21 ... Layout editing task 22 ... Area editing task, 30 ... Common Task 40 ... Common data

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Keiichi Nakane 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi Microelectronics Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Koreeda Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 292 Hitachi Microelectronics Device Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Hideki Kuwamoto Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 292 Hitachi Microelectronics Device Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Masaki Fujiwara Ibaraki 1-1 1-1 Higashitaga-cho, Hitachi, Ltd. Inside the Taga factory of Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References JP 62-182979 (JP, A) JP 62-72040 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A multi-task processing device in a data processing device that displays a plurality of windows and operates different tasks for each window to perform processing. A plurality of individual task processing means for performing processing and displaying the processing result in a window corresponding to the task, and instruction contents input from the outside provided for each of the plurality of individual task processing means. Based on the instruction content notified by the determination means, which determines whether or not the instruction content is processed by the means, and if the instruction content is not processed by the individual task processing means, notifies the instruction content Individual task processing means corresponding to the determination means that executes the processing common to the plurality of tasks and notifies the processing result of the processing contents. Multitask processing apparatus comprising: a common task processing unit for notifying. 2. The individual task processing means and the common task processing means have a configuration in which a program stored in a storage device is loaded and the processing is executed by a central processing unit. The multitasking processing device described in 1.