JP3442083B2 - Job control system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a job control system used for an operating system having a multitasking function. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the advancement of hardware and the increasing demands on users' computers, operating systems that support them have advanced. At present, any operating system has a plurality of jobs simultaneously. And the number of jobs is theoretically unlimited. In general, in an operating system having a multitasking function, a started job is temporarily suspended (hereinafter referred to as “suspend”), the suspended job is executed in the background, and a user issues a command processor (usage). The following processing can be performed while interacting with an interface between a user input command and the operating system. In addition, the suspended job can be executed again in the foreground after some processing, or the suspended job can be forcibly terminated if the suspended job is not required. For example, edit a program with a text editor, write it to a file, suspend the editing job, compile the file, and if there is an error, resume the suspended editing job in the foreground. And run
It is frequently done to continue editing work. Here, "executing a job in the background" means executing the job in parallel with the command processor on the back side, and "executing the job in the foreground" means that the job is executed in the command processor. The process is to proceed while interacting with. [0005] When a job executed in the background is terminated, the operating system has a function of notifying the termination. In addition, the job executed in the background is appropriately scheduled by the operating system, and the user does not need to be aware of the execution. Hereinafter, a conventional job control method will be described. FIG. 11 is a display screen diagram showing a conventional job control method. In FIG. 11, command 1 is input by the user to confirm the current job status.
“%” Indicates a command processor prompt. Also, a job identifier, a message and a job name 2
Indicates a state displayed by the operating system in response to the input command 1, for example,
“(1)” indicates a job identifier, “stopped” indicates a suspended message, and “edit prog1” indicates the name of the suspended job.
Further, the command 3 is input for controlling the displayed job. Here, assuming that the names of the programs to be edited are prog1, prog2 and prog3, the editing operation is suspended while the program prog1 is being edited, and the program prog2 is edited. Further, the editing operation is suspended while the program prog2 is being edited, the program prog3 is edited, and the program pro3 is suspended again. At this time, the suspended jobs are “edit prog1” and “prog1”.
g2 "and" edit prog3 ". Next, a case will be described in which the operation to be performed from now on is "resume editing of prog1 in the foreground and restart the editing work". First, from the state in which the command processor is running (the state in which the command processor is prompting for input), when the command 1 for checking the status of the current job is input, the operating system is now suspended. The display shows what the job is. This display state is the job identifier, message, and job name 2. At this time, each of the suspended jobs displayed on the display device has a job identifier that is an integer of 1 or more, and a job called “edit prog1” is executed in order to resume editing of prog1 in the foreground. Command 3 must be entered with a job identifier corresponding to This restarts the editing of prog1 and the operation is completed. [0009] In the above conventional configuration,
When controlling a target job, first, a command 1 for checking the status of the current job is input from the keyboard, the job identifier corresponding to the job is visually confirmed, and the job identifier is referred to. Command 3 must be entered from the keyboard as a number. In such an operation, there may be a case where a mistake is made by visually confirming a job identifier to control another job, for example, when a forced termination is performed for a job, Especially dangerous. Further, there is a problem that job control by repeating the input of commands 1 and 3 from the keyboard causes a reduction in work efficiency. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a job control system capable of preventing mistakes due to selection of a job identifier and improving work efficiency of job control. . [0011] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a job control system according to the present invention has a function of temporarily stopping execution.
Displays a list of the names of jobs that have been
Automatically display in columns and have at least two buttons
Execution of the job in the foreground is associated with one of them
Vignetting, the POI <br/> down computing devices that job forced termination is associated with the other having a control means for controlling the job selected-instruction of the items of the menu, the control means When you select a job,
The button associated with execution in the foreground is operated.
The selected job is executed in the foreground
The button associated with the forced termination of the job is
In this case, the selected job is forcibly terminated . With the above arrangement, the control of a job, which was conventionally controllable only from a keyboard, is performed while associating the control with the menu item of the job automatically displayed using a pointing device. As a result, it is possible to prevent a mistake in confirming the job identifier by eyes,
The work of inputting a series of commands using the keyboard from suspending the job to controlling the job can be reduced, and the work efficiency of job control can be improved. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a job control system according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, when an alarm occurs, a job suspended by a keyboard device 11 as an input means for inputting a character, a numerical value, and a command has its data 12
It is stored in the heap area on the main memory 12 as a, and is automatically displayed on the display device 13. When controlling a job displayed on the display device, various job controls are performed by buttons provided on the pointing device 14 in correspondence with the job display menu items, that is, execution in the foreground , execution in the background , Execute, forcibly terminate, etc. The central processing unit 15 as a control unit controls the above-described job menu display function and various job control functions using the pointing device 14. FIG. 2 is a partial external view showing the configuration of a job control system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows a state in which editing of progs 1 to 3 is suspended. In FIG. 2, the job control menu 16 has a configuration in which a list of suspended job names is displayed in a menu format in the upper right part of the work area 17 of the display device 13. The job control menu 16 is large enough to accommodate the necessary minimum number of menu items 16a, and there is no need to increase the space of the work area 17. Also, the work area 17 of the display device 13
A work window 18 is displayed on the left side in the center. Since the job control system performs job control using a pointing device 14 such as a mouse, it is necessary to associate functions with the pointing device 14. If the pointing device 14 is a mouse having three buttons, the mouse button 14a may be "execute job in foreground "
14b is associated with "job forced termination" and the mouse button 14c is associated with "job execution in background ". That is, by clicking the mouse button 14a, "execution of the job in the foreground " is selected, by clicking the mouse button 14b, "job termination" is selected, and further, by clicking the mouse button 14c. "Running Jobs in the Background "
Is selected. The operation of the above configuration will be described below. First, it is assumed that prog 1 is being edited in the work window 18 as shown in FIG. Then, this p
If you suspend after writing rog1 to disk,
A "job suspended" signal is sent to the job control system, which receives the signal and creates a job control menu 16. At this stage, the job control menu 16 has not been displayed on the display device 13 yet. Then, the job control system internally executes the jobs command, and acquires the name of the job from the result. Further, the job control system passes the obtained job name to the job control menu 16 to
As shown in FIG. 4, a menu item 16a is displayed in the area of the job control menu 16 at the upper right corner of the work area 17. At this time, since the prompt 19 of the command processor is output to the work window 18, it is possible to input a command while talking with the command processor. Here, conventionally, a command is input to compile prog1, but compile takes a long time, so compile is executed in the background , and during that time, another program is to be edited. First, when the job "compile prog1" is suspended, the job control system receives a signal indicating that the job has been suspended. As shown in FIG. 5, one menu item 16b of the job is added to the job control system. The name of the suspended job "compile prog1" is displayed. Further, in the work window 18, since the command processor outputs the prompt 19, the editing of another program prog2 is started. At this time, the mouse cursor is moved to the menu item 16b of the job control menu 16.
If you click with the mouse button 14c corresponding to
The job "Compile rog1" is in the background
It is executed in the de. Since the job of “compiling prog1” is executed by the scheduling mechanism of the operating system, there is no need for the user to be aware of the execution, and the user does
Can concentrate on editing work. At this time, the job control system knows that the job “compile prog1” has been started again, and as shown in FIG.
The menu item 16b "Compile prog1" is deleted from the job control menu 16, and only the menu item 16a "Edit prog1" remains. If an error occurs in compiling prog1, the editing of prog2 is suspended. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, the name of the job "edit prog2" is added as a menu item 16c of the job control menu 16, and here, the menu item 16a "edit prog1" is associated with the mouse cursor. And click with mouse button 14a, prog1
Editing work resumes in work window 18, pro
The editing work of g1 can be performed. At this time, the menu item 16a "edit prog1" is displayed in FIG.
Since it is released from the suspended state as shown in
The menu item 16c of "edit prog2" is deleted from the screen and remains. Further, when all operations are to be terminated, if there is a job that is suspended,
Conventionally, since the operating system issues a message such as "Some jobs remain suspended", it is necessary to confirm what kind of job the suspended job is before ending.
However, even in such a case, if the job control system of the present invention is used, even if there is a suspended job, it is always displayed on the display device 13 and can be referred to. As a result of the reference, when the operation is completed, if the job can be forcibly terminated, the job is forcibly terminated only by clicking the mouse button 14b.
If the job should not be forcibly terminated, post-processing may be performed by clicking the mouse button 14a. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing performed by the job control system as described above. In FIG. 9, the job control system executes the jobs command in the background in step S1, creates a menu in step S2, creates a menu item in step S3, and creates a menu and a menu item in step S4. To display the name of the job in this item. In this way, the function of displaying the current job status on a part of the display device 13 is operated as a background job. In step S5, the user sets the mouse cursor to the menu item and sets the mouse button 14a,
By selecting 14b and 14c, it is possible to control the job registered in the items in the menu.
That is, step S6 by using the mouse button 14a follower
When run A ground, step S7 when run in the background by a mouse button 14c, step S8 shows the case where the forced termination by mouse button 14b. Further, the job control system sets an alarm in step S9 so that a signal is generated after a predetermined time. After the alarm is set, the apparatus sleeps until a signal is generated in step S10. By making the system sleep after the occurrence of the alarm, the load on the central processing unit 15 by the present system can be reduced. Then, when a signal is generated, the job control system is activated, and restarts from the execution of the jobs command in step S1, which is the first process. The above situation is further shown in the algorithm of the job control system in FIG. 10, and the job control system repeats this process indefinitely while the computer is running. Therefore, the suspended job item can always be automatically displayed, and the job control can be performed by using the pointing device 14 in association with the job item. Mistakes due to selection can be prevented, and work efficiency of job control can be improved. Furthermore, by describing the execution of the job control system developed in the present invention in the background in a setup file (a file that is automatically read when the user logs in to the computer), the user can determine the existence of this system. Can be used without any awareness. As described above, according to the present invention, what a suspended job is is automatically displayed on a display device, and the suspended job is indicated by a pointing device such as a mouse. Since control is possible, it is possible to reduce the conventional work of inputting a series of commands using a keyboard from suspending jobs to controlling them, thereby improving work efficiency. It is. In addition, since the job control is performed in association with the job item using the pointing device, it is possible to prevent mistakes caused by the visual confirmation of the job identifier and perform safe and accurate job control as in the related art. Is what you can do.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a job control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial external view showing a configuration of a job control system according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a state where editing of progs 1 to 3 is suspended. FIG. 3 is a partial external view showing a configuration of a job control system according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing an editing state of prog1. FIG. 4 shows a state where editing of prog1 in FIG. 3 is suspended. FIG. 5 shows a state where the compilation of prog1 is further suspended from the state of FIG. 4; 6 shows a state in which prog1 is further compiled in the background from the state of FIG. 7 shows a state in which editing of prog2 is further suspended from the state of FIG. 6; 8 shows a state in which editing of prog1 has been further executed from the state of FIG. 7; FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the job control system according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is an algorithm illustrating an operation of the job control system according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a display screen diagram showing a conventional job control method. [Description of Signs] 11 Keyboard device 12 Main memory 13 Display device 14 Pointing device 14a, 14b, 14c Mouse button 15 Central processing unit 16 Job control menu 16a, 16b, 16c Menu item

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-264660 (JP, A) Macintosh System Software User's Guide Macintosh System Software Guide (KanjiTalk Version 6.0.4), Apple Computer, Inc. , 1990, p. 234-235 Kazuhiro Yabe, Window Environment Began to Move In the case of OS / 2 Presentation Manager, ASCII, ASCII Corporation, February 1, 1990, Vol. 14, No. 2, p. 293-300 (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 9/46-9/54 G06F 1/00 370 G06F 3/00 G06F 3/14-3/153 G06F 9/06 G06F 15 / 00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] The name of the job whose execution has been suspended
The list is automatically displayed by the display means in the menu format.
Has at least two buttons, one of which
Execution in the foreground is associated with the other
Control means for controlling a job selected and instructed from the items of the menu by a pointing device associated with forced termination of the job, wherein the control means comprises:
Run a job in the foreground when selecting a job
Is selected when the button associated with is operated
Run the job in the foreground and kill the job
Is selected when the button associated with is operated
A job control system for forcibly terminating a job.