JP3323591B2 - Display device and method thereof - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly to a display device and a method for displaying a multi-window on a screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In personal computers and the like,
A multi-window display function capable of displaying a plurality of windows on one screen is known. With these features,
A multi-window display is performed by interpreting a window generation / deletion command, a display position, a command for changing the display order of the windows back and forth (hereinafter, a window management command), and controlling the overlapping of windows. In such a function, the window management command is interpreted to determine or update information (hereinafter, window management information) such as the display position and size of the window and the order of the windows. A display command has been issued.

[0003]

When a plurality of windows are displayed on one screen as described above, for example, when a large window is displayed in front of a small window, the small window behind is completely hidden and completely displayed. Will not be. With the conventional multi-window display function, it is not possible to notify the operator that another window is hidden behind a certain window. Could do. Further, the operator has to close all the windows displayed on the screen or move the positions of the windows in order to check whether or not there are hidden windows.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and has as its object to provide a display device and a method thereof that can easily confirm the presence of a window hidden by a displayed window.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a display device of the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, a display device capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, a storage unit for storing at least information on a display position, a size, and a display order of each of the plurality of windows, and the information stored in the storage unit A determination unit configured to determine a degree of overlap of the plurality of windows on the screen based on the plurality of windows; and a window that is determined to overlap and have a window behind by the determination unit. I'll show you
Display Change the frame display of the sea urchin window, characterized in that it comprises a control means for displaying without changing the frame display of the determined window and does not have a window behind by the discriminating means .

In order to achieve the above object, a display method according to the present invention is a display method for displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, and stores at least information on a display position, a size, and a display order of each of the plurality of windows in a memory. And determines the degree of overlap of the plurality of windows on the display screen based on the information stored in the memory. Change the window frame display to indicate that it has a window ,
It is characterized by displaying without changing the frame display of a window that has been determined not to overlap and have no window behind it.

[0007]

In the above arrangement, information on at least the display position, size and display order of each of the plurality of windows is stored, and the degree of overlap of the plurality of windows on the display screen is determined based on the stored information. In the window determined to overlap and have a window behind, the window frame display is changed and displayed so as to indicate that the window has a window behind,
An operation is performed so as to display without changing the frame display of a window that has been determined to overlap and have no window behind it.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, an example of a data processing apparatus capable of displaying a multi-window and capable of displaying the degree of overlap of windows by the position and size of the shadow of the window will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a data processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of the data processing device.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a window management information determination unit. When an operator gives an instruction using a pointing device such as a mouse or inputs a window management command generated by another program, the command is interpreted. Determine new window management information. A window management information storage unit 12 stores the window management information determined by the window management information determination unit 11. Reference numeral 13 denotes a window overlap determination unit that determines window overlap based on the contents of the window management information storage unit 12. 14
Denotes a window overlap display unit, which performs multi-window display based on the degree of overlap determined by the window overlap determination unit 13 and the window management information 11 determined by the window management information determination unit 11.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the data processing device of the present embodiment.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU for controlling the entire apparatus, for example, a microcomputer or the like, which executes various controls in accordance with a control program (shown in a flowchart of FIG. 3) stored in a program memory 204. Reference numeral 202 denotes a keyboard which is operated by an operator to input document data, various commands related to window display, and various instruction commands. 203
Is a pointing device connected via the keyboard 202. Using the keyboard 202 and the pointing device 203, an instruction can be given to open (display) or close (delete) a window, change the display order of windows, and the like. A video memory 205 stores image data to be displayed on the display unit 207. 206 is, for example, a CRTC (CRT Contr
and a display control unit 207 such as a liquid crystal display or a CRT, which can display a multi-window.

Reference numeral 208 denotes a RAM which is used as a work area of the CPU 201 and temporarily stores various data. Areas 221 and 222 store management information (position, size (size), display order (order in front and rear)) of each window displayed on the display unit 207, and are stored in the window management information storage unit 12 in FIG. Is equivalent. 209, a hard disk controller; 210, a hard disk as an external storage device. Although not shown in FIG. 2, a printer, a floppy disk or the like may be connected in addition to this. A system bus 211 connects the above-described units.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
A window display process in the data processing device according to the present embodiment will be described. Note that a control program for executing this processing is stored in the program memory 204.

In the processing shown in FIG. 3, a window management command is input from the keyboard 202, and the window management information is determined by the window management information determination unit 11 (executed by the CPU 201 in this embodiment).
2 is executed in a state stored in the memory.

The window management information storage unit 12 (RAM 2
08), the first window (for example, window 1) is first focused on, and from the window management information 221, the display position and size of the window and the display order before and after (on the screen) To indicate which is displayed on the front). Next, the process proceeds to step S2, in which the display positions and sizes of all other windows to be compared and the display order before and after are extracted. In step S3, it is determined whether there is a window that overlaps and is behind the window of interest. If there is a window that overlaps and exists behind, the process proceeds to step S4, and the degree of overlap of the window is determined. Add 1 to. The number of overlapping windows is stored in the RAM 208 as a window overlapping degree.

In step S5, it is checked whether or not all windows have been compared. If not, the process returns to step S2 to repeat the above-described processing. When the comparison with all the windows is completed in step S5, the process proceeds to step S6, and it is checked whether the degree of overlap has been calculated for all the windows. In this way, the process proceeds to step S7, where the position of the shadow and the size of the window in which the window is hidden behind are determined in accordance with the degree of overlap, and the obtained shadow is displayed.

FIG. 4 shows a display example of the window 401 displayed with the shadow 402 as described above. As a result, when another window is hidden behind the window 401, a shadow 402 is added to the window 401 according to the number of hidden windows, and the window 401 appears to be more prominent. Is displayed. Thus, the operator can easily identify whether or not there is a window that is hidden by overlapping the window displayed on the front, and how many such overlapping windows are present. become.

Further, as a modification of the present embodiment, a three-dimensional display such as a stereoscopic display or a holographic display is used.
When the present invention is applied to a three-dimensional display, by displaying a window three-dimensionally in front according to the degree of overlap of the windows, it is possible to make it easier for the operator to understand.

In this embodiment, the windows are shaded to indicate that there are overlapping windows. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Various methods are conceivable, such as displaying the sheets as overlapping.

The present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices or to an apparatus constituted by a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program for implementing the present invention to a system or an apparatus.

According to the present embodiment as described above, there are the following advantages.

(1) The window management command is interpreted by the window management information determination unit to determine new window management information, and the window overlap determination unit determines the overlap of windows based on the contents of the window management information storage unit. A window overlap display can display it. This eliminates the risk of the operator overlooking the hidden window and performing an erroneous operation.

Further, when searching for a hidden window, it is sufficient to check only the window displayed as having one or more window overlaps, so that the hidden window can be searched with less operations. .

(2) The degree of window overlap is displayed by the position and size of the shade of the window. For example, when the degree of overlap is large, the window is displayed so as to be raised to the front. However, there is an effect that the degree of overlap of the windows can be distinguished.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily confirm that there is a window hidden in the displayed window without changing the display contents of the displayed window. This has the effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a specific configuration of a data processing device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating window display processing in the data processing device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example in which the degree of window overlap is displayed by the position and size of the shadow of the window in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201 CPU 202 Keyboard 203 Pointing Device 204 Program Memory 207 Display Unit 208 RAM 210 Hard Disk 221, 222 Window Management Information

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-4-18597 (JP, A) JP-A-4-106590 (JP, A) JP-A-62-99788 (JP, A) JP-A-3- 5816 (JP, A) JP-A-3-243991 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/14

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A display device capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, comprising: storage means for storing at least information on a display position, a size, and a display order of each of the plurality of windows; Determining means for determining the degree of overlap of the plurality of windows on the screen based on the information, and determining whether the window overlaps the window determined by the determining means and has a window behind. Change the window border to show that you have
Displaying Te, display device characterized by comprising a control means for displaying without having to go <br/> to change the frame display of the determined window and does not have a window behind by the discriminating means. 2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit displays the window as shaded information as information indicating that the window has a window behind it. . 3. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the control unit changes and displays the position or size of the shadow according to the degree of overlap determined by the determination unit. 4. A display method for displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, wherein at least information on a display position, a size, and a display order of each of the plurality of windows is stored in a memory, and the information stored in the memory is And determining the degree of overlap of the plurality of windows on the display screen based on the plurality of windows, and indicating that a window determined to overlap and have a window behind it has a window behind it.
Display method and displaying without display by changing the frame display window, changing the frame display of the determined window and does not have a window behind overlap as.