JP3492014B2 - Data input / output method and computer device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer display device for displaying a display screen for inputting data from the user to the application program or outputting data from the application program when the application program is executed in an electronic computer. And a data input / output method for inputting / outputting data between an application program and a user through this display screen, and a computer for carrying out such a data input / output method should be provided in advance. Regarding data input / output devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When developing a program for inputting / outputting with a user through a screen of a terminal device such as a bit map display, a character display, or a graphic display, conventionally, a terminal device (a computer equipped with a display device) first used by a programmer is conventionally used. ) Was designed with the size of the screen and the restrictions on the characters and figures that can be displayed (hereinafter referred to as “specifications”) in mind. Combine the control code and command of the terminal device to be used next or the window system running on that terminal device,
I had to write a program to display that screen. The creation of such a program was fine and complicated considering the arrangement of characters and figures on the screen.

Further, the screen display program created in this way depends on the model (specification) of a specific terminal device, and when a new terminal device is used, a new program must be created. There wasn't.

This means that it is necessary to create a program for displaying a screen that differs by the number of terminal device models for one type of application program. Therefore, assuming that the number of application programs is n and the number of terminal device models is m, the programmer has to create as many programs for screen display as n × m.

Software called a form generator or GUI builder is sometimes used as a method for facilitating the creation of a program for inputting and outputting using such a screen. These software, when the programmer defines the layout on the screen to be used for input and output,
The program for displaying the screen is automatically generated. Using such software makes it easier to design the layout of the screen, but because the design of the screen and the design of the application program itself are separated, it was necessary to change the other to match it. . The program created in this way also depends on the model of the specific terminal device. Therefore, the problem that it is necessary to create a program for screen display by the number of n × m has not been solved.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a detailed screen design for each application in the development of an application program for inputting / outputting data through the screen to display the screen. The purpose of the present invention is to facilitate the creation of programs by eliminating the work of creating programs, and to create application programs that perform input / output via the screen in a form that does not depend on the model of the terminal device. And

[0007]

The present invention (Claim 1) includes:
The screen of the application program that controls the data input from the user to the application program or the output of the data from the application program appears on the display device of the computer, and data is input and output between the application program and the user via this screen. In the data input / output method, the application
The program is a data that does not depend on the display function of a specific computer.
Type of input and / or output
The computer includes a description of the data type, and each part of the screen to be displayed depends on the type of each data and the display function of the computer.
Min configuration and the selection regulations having a plurality of pairs associating each
Rules and the entire screen depending on the display function of the computer
Includes a storage unit for previously memorize the arrangement rule for determining the configuration, the computer, the any defined type of data to be at least one of the input and output extracted from the application program, are those extracted based on the respective type of definition of data, the selection is stored in the storage unit
By referring to the selection rules , the partial configurations on the screen corresponding to each data type are determined, and the image of each determined partial configuration is displayed.
The overall arrangement on the surface is stored in the storage unit.
Determined with reference to the arrangement rule, applique by the computer
During the execution of Activation program, picture of the screen in accordance with the placement that is the determined allowed to appear on the display device, was the appearance is
Data is input and output between the application program and the user via the surface .

The present invention (Claim 2) relates to a specific computer.
A type of data that does not depend on the display function,
The type of data that does at least one of the
To application programs, the input or computing device including a display unit screen is capable of displaying the charge of output of data from the application program data from the user, depending on the type and the display means of each data <br / > Correspond with each part of the screen to be displayed
Selection rules with multiple sets and dependent on the display means
Was a pre-serial <br/>憶storage device for arrangement rule for determining the overall screen structure, an extraction means for extracting all the defined type of data to be at least one of input and output from the application program, Selection for referring to the selection rule stored in the storage means based on each definition of the type of each data extracted by the extraction means and selecting a partial configuration on the screen corresponding to each data type and means, the overall arrangement of the selected respective portions constituted by the selection unit, and the screen layout determination means for determining by referring to the arrangement rule stored in the storage means, the application
When the down program execution, and a display control means for displaying a screen based on the overall arrangement determined by the screen layout determination unit on the display unit, the data input through the display unit to the application program Send ,
Alternatively, input / output control means for performing at least one of presentation of data output from the application program via the screen of the display means, and execution and execution of the application program using the data transmitted by the input / output control means. And an execution unit that outputs at least one of execution results of the application program to the input / output control unit.

[0009]

[0010]

According to the present invention, the application program for inputting / outputting data informs the data input / output device of the type of data to be input / output. The data input / output device synthesizes a screen required for inputting / outputting the received data of the data type, and uses the screen to input / output data between the application program and the user.

The first aspect of the present invention relates to an operation procedure performed when an application program is executed.
The second invention relates to means that the system side of the computer must have in order to perform such an operation. The data input / output device referred to here means that when software is installed in the computer system and a function corresponding to a device virtually including the above-mentioned means is formed inside the computer, that function is formed. It refers to the part to be realized .

As described above, since the screen is automatically created from the data type to be input / output when the application program is executed, the programmer of the application program designates the detailed arrangement on the screen to display the program for the screen display. Need not be created in advance.

Since the correspondence between the data type stored for automatically creating a screen and the configuration of the screen to be displayed is suitable for the model of the terminal device, the same application is used. The program can be used in a plurality of different terminal devices, and the application program can be made independent of the model of the terminal device.

Further, the data input / output device need not be different for each application program.
Assuming that the number of application programs is n and the number of terminal device models is m, as long as there are m data input devices, no matter which application program is executed on which terminal device, data that is displayed via the screen is displayed. Input and output can be realized automatically.

[0015]

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described.

The application program passes the definition of the data type of the data to be input / output to the data input / output device of this embodiment. As the data type used at this time, the data type of the programming language that describes the application program can be used.
e Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Sp
It is also possible to use a data type that does not depend on a specific programming language, such as CORBA / IDL disclosed in "ecification" (published by Object Management Group).

Although an example of using CORBA / IDL is shown here, the case of using other data types can be handled in the same manner as this example.

In order to give the definition of the data type to the input / output column selection unit 2 (described later) of the data input / output device, it is necessary to express the data type as data that can be interpreted by the input / output column selection unit 2. This is a CORBA / IDL structure, for example, as shown in Figures 2 and 3 (continuation of Figure 2).
It can be realized by a data type expressing the data type of. The structure having the name typecode in FIGS. 2 and 3 is a data type expressing the data type. Whether the kind field in the typecode structure is an int
It represents the type of type such as char or structure, and in the case of a complex type such as an array, the structure has information necessary for defining each type in a field called t_struct for a structure, for example.

In CORBA / IDL, a type called TypeCode is defined as a meta data type expressing a data type. The typecode type structure in Figures 2 and 3 is CO
It is a conversion of the TypeCode in the RBA / IDL data type to the C language data type.

In the following description of the present embodiment, the type definition of the data passed from the application program to the input / output column selecting unit 2 is passed as CORBA / IDL TypeCode type data.

4 and 5 (continuation of FIG. 4) show examples of application programs using the data input / output device of this embodiment. The application program in this example is
It is written in an object-oriented language with CORBA / IDL data types and a C language grammar.

In the illustrated program, uim is an object corresponding to the data input / output device of the present invention. uim.in
The put command instructs the uim object to create an input field of the data type passed in the third argument. As a result, the data type definition of the data to be input is passed to the input / output column selection unit 2 of this embodiment realized by the uim object. Similarly, the uim.output instruction instructs the uim object to create an output field of the data type passed in the third argument. The uim.event command is a command for instructing to generate a field for activating an action associated with the field, such as a button. The action to be started is given as the pointer to the function in the third argument.

Uim.dialog is a uim.input command or uim.outp
It is used to define a hierarchical relationship between the input / output fields created by the ut command, uim.event command, and recursively uim.dialog command. In other words, as the second argument of input, output, event, and dialog commands, the parent dialog in the hierarchy can be specified, and the hierarchy structure can be defined by this. dialog is inpu
It shows a meaningful grouping on the screen including t, output, event, and dialog. From the input field created by uim.input, the value can be input by the get command which is an input command. Values can be output to the output field created by uim.output with the put command, which is an output command.

Further, in this embodiment, the X window system developed by MIT and OSF (Open Software Founda) which is a standard toolkit for displaying the input / output column on the screen are displayed.
However, the same method can be applied to the case where Microsoft's Windows is used.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view for explaining the constitution of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is an application program storage unit, 6 is an application program execution unit, 2 is one or more definitions of data types to be input / output from the application program (1), and corresponding to the received data types. An availability column selection unit for selecting the type of input / output column on the display screen required for the input / output, 3 is a screen layout determination unit for determining the layout of the plurality of input / output columns selected in 2 on the screen, 4 Displays the input / output column selected in 2 on the screen according to the arrangement determined in 3, displays the output data passed from the application program (6) in the corresponding output column, and requests it from the application program (6). A dialogue control unit 5 for executing the input of the data through the corresponding input field is a display device on which a screen including an input / output field is displayed.

The information stored in the selection rule storage unit 7 is referred to in the processing of the input / output column selection unit 2, and the information stored in the arrangement rule storage unit 8 is processed in the processing of the screen layout determination unit 3. Refer to. The storage units 7 and 8 as a whole store, for a plurality of data types, information on the correspondence relationship between the data types and the configuration of the screen to be displayed that conforms to the specifications of this computer. Further, the front stage of the input / output column selection unit 2 includes means for extracting the definition of the data type of the data which the application program performs at least one of input and output, and the rear stage of the input / output column selection unit 2 and the screen layout determination. On the basis of the extraction result, the unit 3 as a whole refers to the stored information on the correspondence relationship to determine the configuration of the screen corresponding to the application program stored in the storage unit 1 and being executed by the execution unit 6. It includes the means to seek.

When the application program inputs and outputs only one data, the screen layout determining unit 3
It is possible to obtain the configuration of the screen to be displayed even without. The dialogue control unit 4 causes the display screen to appear in accordance with the obtained configuration, transmits data input through the display screen to the application program, and outputs data output from the application program through the display screen. And means for presenting.

The above-mentioned items 2 to 4 and 7 and 8 constitute a data input / output device, and 1, 5 and 6 are added to the data input / output device to constitute a computer device.

First, in the application program, the type definitions of the data to be input / output are expressed and described by TypeCode. Then, the input / output column selection unit 2
The value of this TypeCode is detected from the application program stored in the storage unit 1.

The input / output column selector 2 detects the detected TypeCode.
The information of the input / output column corresponding to each data type is determined according to the selection rule stored in the predetermined selection rule storage unit 7 and passed to the screen layout determination unit 3. The input / output column information determined by the input / output column selecting unit 2 includes the following elements.

(1) Configuration of displayed input / output column.

When the present invention is carried out using the X window system, in order to actually perform input / output corresponding to the data type designated by the application program, a component forming an input / output column called a widget is displayed on the screen. indicate. Toggl to display a toggle button in the widget
There are eButton widgets, Text widgets that display strings, and RowColumn widgets that display multiple widgets in a specified arrangement. Specifically, FIG.
The structure of the input / output column displayed by the hierarchical structure of the widget as shown in FIG. For example, the hierarchical structure of the widget created in response to the input command of the "hamburger type" data type in the programs shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is as shown in FIG.

(2) A procedure required by the generated input / output column at the time of execution.

For example, when the input / output column uses the Scrollbar widget, it is necessary to register in the Scrollbar a procedure for performing a scroll operation when the Scrollbar is operated. Therefore, "registering a procedure that performs scroll operation in the Scrollbar widget" is one of the procedures that should be executed after the input / output field is created. In the following description, such a procedure to be executed after the input / output column is generated will be referred to as a “post-processing procedure”.

(3) For an input / output column created by an input command from the application program, a procedure necessary for reading the input data from the user for the column and passing it to the application program.

(4) A procedure for displaying the data received from the application program on the screen for the input / output column created for the output instruction from the application program.

The configuration of the input / output column, the post-processing procedure, and the procedure selection rule for the input / output instruction, which are determined by the input / output column selector 2 in correspondence with the main data types of CORBA / IDL, will be described below. Similar rules can be applied to CORBA / IDL data types not shown here. 1) When the data is boolean type ToggleButton widget is used as the input / output field of this type, and the truth values True and False are expressed by turning ON / OFF the ToggleButton. Therefore, the configuration of the input / output column is one ToggleButton widget as shown in FIG. There is no post-processing procedure. Further, since the output of data is to set the state of ToggleButton appropriately, the data output procedure is as shown in FIG. Similarly, Togg for data entry
Since it is necessary to check the state of leButton, the data input procedure is as shown in FIG. 2) When the data is of short, long, hyper, float, double type Use Text widget as the input / output field for these numeric types. Therefore, the input / output column structure is Text as shown in Fig. 8.
It becomes one widget. The post-processing procedure for numeric type input / output fields is as follows. -Set the maximum number of characters that can be input and the number of display digits to the number of characters necessary and sufficient to represent all the values that can be handled by the type. For example, the range that the short type can handle is -32768 to 32767, so the number of characters required and sufficient to represent all values of the short type is 6. Therefore, in the short type I / O field, set the maximum number of characters that can be input and the number of display digits to 6. -Only accept characters that are necessary and sufficient to represent the type as correct input. For example, in case of short type, only 11 characters of 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,-will be accepted as input.

Therefore, there are two post-processing procedures. One is to properly set the width of Text, as shown in FIG. As the method of “determining the number of characters n necessary and sufficient for the expression of the type” in FIG. 11, for example, a method of creating a table of types and the number of characters n in advance and subtracting it can be used. The other is to accept only valid characters as input, and for that purpose, when there is an input from the user, a procedure for checking the validity of the input as shown in FIG. 12 is executed. There is a need. The Text widget can be configured to execute a specific procedure when the user inputs it. Therefore, the second post-processing procedure is as shown in FIG.

Finally, as a procedure for the input / output command, the character string input in Text is read for the input command, converted into a numerical value, and then passed to the application program. For the output command, the received data is converted into a character string and the character string is displayed on Text. Therefore, the data input procedure is as shown in FIG. 14, and the data output procedure is as shown in FIG. 3) When the data is enum type As an input / output field of this type, a Radio consisting of multiple ToggleButton widgets and RowColumn widgets
Use Box. In RadioBox, only one of multiple ToggleButtons can be pressed. To in the pressed state
ggleButton represents the value of data. Therefore, as the configuration of the input / output column, as shown in Fig. 16, Togg is equal to the number of RowColumn widgets and enumerators that make them parent widgets.
It has a configuration called leButton widget.

Next, the post-processing procedure is set so that the generated ToggleButton operates as a RadioBox as described above in order to use it as an enum type input / output field. However
Among the resources (parameters that change the operation method) of the RowColumn widget, there is a resource that determines whether the settings required to operate the ToggleButton created as a child widget as a RadioBox are automatically performed. And with this resource set in Motif, Ro
There is a procedure that creates a wColumn. So RowC
If you use this generation procedure to generate the olumn, the post-processing procedure will be eliminated.

Finally, regarding the procedure for the input / output command, the state of each ToggleButton (whether or not it is pressed) is checked for the input command, and the ToggleButt in the pressed state is checked.
Pass the value corresponding to on to the application program.
Therefore, the procedure is as shown in FIG. On the other hand, for output commands, ToggleButton corresponding to the value of the received data
You can set it so that is pressed. Therefore, the procedure is shown in Figure 1.
It becomes like 9. 4) If the data is a string type, the string type input and output fields are
Use ScrolledText consisting of Text widget. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 17, the structure is ScrolledWindow and its child Te.
It will be called xt. The screen with such a configuration is Scrolled
In order to operate as Text, it is necessary to set the display contents of the Text widget to scroll when the Scrollbar in the ScrolledWindow widget is operated. However, Motif provides a procedure that automatically creates the settings required to operate as ScrolledText after creating a ScrolledWindow widget and a Text widget. Therefore, if such a procedure is used to generate the screen, there is no post-processing procedure. For the input command, the procedure to read the input to the Text widget from the user is executed, and the value is passed to the application program. For the output command, execute the procedure to display the value of the received data on the Text widget.
Therefore, the procedure for the input command is as shown in FIG. 20, and the procedure for the output command is as shown in FIG. 5) When the data is a struct type As the struct type input / output column, use the one that puts the input / output columns corresponding to each member of the struct in the RowColumn widget and put them together. Therefore, the structure is such that the widget hierarchy corresponding to each member is connected under the RowColumn as shown in FIG. In FIG. 22, the area surrounded by the dashed line is the widget hierarchy of the input / output column corresponding to the type of each member. This configuration is determined by the procedure shown in FIG. That is, 1 in the Type Code
Examine the information about the type of the first member, determine the configuration of the I / O field for that type, and use the determined configuration as the I / O field for the first member. This is repeated for each member of sturct, and the widget tree of each member obtained is
The widget tree as shown in FIG. 22 obtained by connecting under the RowColumn is the input / output column structure of the entire struct type.

Next, the post-processing procedure is the same as the procedure for determining the configuration of the input / output column. That is, for one member, the post-processing procedure when the input / output field of the member type is generated is determined, and this is repeated for each member of the sturct type. The entire procedure listed as a result of this st
It is a ruct type post-processing procedure. The above flowchart is shown in FIG.

Finally, the procedure is executed in response to the input / output instruction from the application program. For the input instruction, the input procedure corresponding to the type of the first member is first executed and the member is executed. Get the value of. This is repeated for each member to obtain the value of each member. When the values of all members are obtained, the value of the original data is determined, so that value is passed to the application program. For output instructions, it examines the value received and gets the value of the first member. Next, execute the output procedure according to the type of the member and display the value of the first member on the screen. By repeating this for all members, the entire original struct type data is displayed on the screen.
Therefore, the procedure for the input command is as shown in FIG. 25, and the procedure for the output command is as shown in FIG. 6) When the data is of the union type The union type can store various types of data in one storage area at different times. Candidate data types that can be stored in the storage area are called members of the union type. CO
In the RBA / IDL union type, the value of the current data and the identifier of the member corresponding to the currently stored data, that is, the information for identifying the type of the currently stored data is stored in the storage area. Therefore, the union type input / output column requires a column for the member identifier and a column for the value.
As shown in FIG. 7, a radio box 10 for identifying members and an area 11 for displaying a value column is used. Ra for the latter
Input / output fields corresponding to the type of the member specified by dioBox are displayed. That is, in this area 11, the input / output fields corresponding to the types of the respective members are generated in a hidden state, and the ToggleButton in the pressed state in the RadioBox is generated.
Only the member input / output column corresponding to is displayed and displayed in the area 11. The widget hierarchy of such a struct type input / output column is as shown in FIG. In this figure, 12 is the RowColumn widget and its child To
RadioBox consisting of ggleButton widget, 13
Is a widget tree of input / output fields according to the type of each member of union. The widget tree of each member input / output column uses the Form widget as a parent widget, and this Form widget corresponds to the area 11 in FIG. As for the input / output columns for each member in the widget tree of FIG. 28, as in the case of the struct type, Type
It can be obtained by repeating the procedure for each member to check the information about the type of the member of Code and determine the input / output column for that type. Therefore, the procedure for determining the entire widget tree shown in FIG. 28 is as shown in FIG.

Next, there are the following two union type post-processing procedures. -For each member of the union, a procedure that executes a post-processing procedure according to the member type. -When the ToggleButton in the RatioBox is pressed, that Toggle
Procedure to set the input / output column of the member corresponding to Button to be displayed in the input / output column display area.

Regarding the former, as in the case of the struct type,
For one member, determine the post-processing procedure when the input / output field of the member type is generated, and repeat this for each member of the union type. The entire procedure listed as a result becomes this first post-processing procedure. For the latter,
Since it is necessary to set for each ToggleButton in the RadioBox to execute the procedure shown in FIG. 30 when the ToggleButton is pressed, the procedure to be executed is shown in FIG.
become that way.

Finally, as a procedure for responding to an input / output command from the application program, for the input command, first, by checking the state of the ToggleButton in the RadioBox, the data input in the current column corresponds to which member. To know Next, the input procedure corresponding to the type of the corresponding member is executed to read the value input in the input / output column for that member in the display state. With the above, the member identifier and the data value are obtained, so the value of the original union type data is determined. Therefore, the value is passed to the application program. On the other hand, for an output command, first check the member identifier in the received data, and set the ToggleButton corresponding to that member to the state where the radio is pressed.
Set oBox. Then, since the input / output column corresponding to the member is displayed, the output procedure corresponding to the type of the member is executed to display the value in the input / output column in the display state. From the above, the procedure for the input instruction is as shown in FIG. 32, and the procedure for the output instruction is as shown in FIG. 7) When the data is of array type As the array type input / output field, use a series of multiple input / output fields corresponding to the type of the element. In this case, if the number of elements is arranged, inconvenience occurs such that when the number of elements is large, the columns cannot fit on the screen. Therefore, an upper limit is placed on the number of input / output columns of elements, and the range of displayed elements can be changed by using the ScrollBar. Therefore, the configuration of the input / output column is as shown in FIG.

By the way, when such an input / output column is used, when the number of elements of array exceeds the above-mentioned upper limit, the number of elements and the number of columns for displaying the elements do not match. Therefore arra
The y type requires a storage area to store the data passed by the input command from the application program and the input to the screen from the user. Also, when the ScrollBar is operated, it is necessary to write the input from the user to the storage area and then set the display of the input / output column for each element to be rewritten to match the change of the display range. . Therefore, there are the following three union type post-processing procedures. -A procedure that executes post-processing procedures corresponding to the element types of array for all input / output fields for elements. A procedure for dynamically allocating the storage area used by the generated input / output column. A procedure for setting the procedure shown in FIG. 35 to be executed when the ScrollBar is operated in order to support scrolling by operating the ScrollBar.

Finally, regarding the procedure for responding to the input / output command from the application program, for the input command, first, the input procedure corresponding to the type of the element is executed and input to the element input / output column. Value is read and the value is written in the location of the corresponding element in the storage area. After repeating this for all the input / output fields for elements, the values stored in the storage area are passed to the application program. On the other hand, for an output command, the received value is first written in the storage area. After that, the output procedure corresponding to the type of the element is executed, and the value of the element corresponding to the input / output column for each element is displayed. From the above, the procedure for the input command is as shown in FIG. 36, and the procedure for the output command is as shown in FIG.

The input / output column selection unit 2 follows the selection rules (stored in the selection rule storage unit 7) as described above.
From the detected TypeCode, the configuration of the input / output column, the post-processing procedure, and the procedure for the input / output instruction are determined for each data to be input / output of the application program. That is, based on which of the above 1) to 7) the detected data type corresponds to, refer to the selection rule corresponding to the data type,
The information in the input / output column described above is obtained for each data. Then, the determined configuration of the input / output column, the post-processing procedure, and the procedure for the input / output instruction are passed to the screen layout determining unit 3.

The selection rule here is the partial structure of the screen to be displayed that conforms to the data type and the specifications of this computer (further, the post-processing procedure and the procedure for input / output instructions).
The correspondence relationship with is shown for each data type. In this example, an example of the selection rule when the specification of the computer is the X window system is shown, but for a computer having another specification, the rule for each of the above data types is different. If the data type for which the selection rule is set is common for each computer of each specification, and the selection rule body stores the one that conforms to the specification of that computer, the application program will meet the specifications of the specific computer. It can be executed as it is on any computer equipped with this data input / output device without depending on it.

The screen layout determining unit 3 receives the configuration of each input / output column received from the input / output column selecting unit 2 (partial configuration of the screen).
Based on the above, the overall configuration and arrangement of input / output fields on the screen are determined. The screen layout determination unit 3 first determines how to layout a plurality of input / output columns on the screen when there are a plurality of input / output target data. In this example, as a simple screen arranging method, an arranging method of arranging a plurality of input / output columns in a line vertically (or horizontally) is used. This is the individual input / output column Ro
This can be done by putting it in the wColumn widget. In this case, the overall screen configuration is such that widget trees of individual input / output fields as shown in FIG. 38 are connected under the RowColumn.

The screen layout determining unit 3 further determines the size of the entire input / output column when a plurality of input / output columns are arranged in a line as described above, and the size of the entire input / output column is determined by the display device 5.
If it exceeds the screen size of, decide to use a means that allows access to the entire I / O. Specifically, put the whole in a ScrolledWindow so that it fits within the screen. For example, when there are too many input / output fields in the screen configuration as shown in FIG. 38 and a scrolled window is used, the screen configuration will be as shown in FIG.

Such an arrangement method is realized by referring to the arrangement rules stored in the arrangement rule storage unit 8. The above selection rules indicate the partial configuration of the screen that should be displayed according to the specifications of the computer corresponding to each data type, and the partial configuration of the screen for each of the multiple data included in the actual application program. In contrast to the above, the arrangement rule is for obtaining the configuration of the entire screen based on the partial configuration of the plurality of screens obtained for each of these data.

The layout rule illustrated here is an example in the case where the specification of the computer is the X window system, but a computer having another specification stores another layout rule. For example, in the case of a computer that does not have a screen scrolling function, if multiple input / output fields are arranged in a row and the total size of the input / output fields when they are arranged exceeds the screen size, multiple , And the entire input / output column is shown to the user by the page switching function.

The screen layout determining unit 3 determines the overall screen configuration of the input / output column determined in this manner, and the post-processing procedure determined by the input / output column selecting unit 2 and the procedure for the input / output command, as the dialogue control unit 4. Pass to.

FIG. 40 shows the hierarchical structure of the widgets of the screen configuration created by the screen layout determining unit 3 for the application programs of FIGS. 4 and 5. Further, FIG. 41 shows an example of a screen displayed correspondingly.

The dialogue control unit 4 draws by using various procedures of the X window system based on the screen configuration of the entire input / output column received from the screen layout determining unit 3, and then the input / output column selecting unit 2 determines. By executing the post-processing procedure, the input / output column is displayed on the screen.

The dialogue control unit 4 also processes input / output instructions from an application program. That is, for the input command, the procedure for the input command determined by the input / output column selection unit 2 is executed, and the input from the user is read and passed to the application program. For the output command, the data received by executing the procedure for the output command similarly determined by the input / output column selection unit 2 is displayed on the screen.

The operation when the above-mentioned procedure is applied to the following data types will be described. (1) is an example with three identifiers foo, bar, baz
The enum type _enum is defined, and (2) is short, stri.
example with three members of type ng and example_enum
It defines a struct type called _data_type. The case where input / output of this example_data_type type data is performed will be described below.

First, the application program is exampl
The e_data_type type definition is converted to TypeCode type data and passed to the input / output column selection unit 2. In the above embodiment, the operation of extracting the definition of the data type that the application program inputs and outputs from the application program is
Although the input / output column selection unit 2 has been described as referring to the application program storage unit 1, the application program execution unit 6 may perform the extraction operation and pass the extraction result to the input / output column selection unit 2. That is, the data type definition may be extracted from the application program on the data input / output device side, or the extraction result may be extracted on the data input / output device side by the application program execution unit. It does not depart from the scope of the present invention regardless of where in the computer device the extraction means is located. TypeCo received
The input / output column selection unit 2 determines the following items based on the de type data. -The hierarchical structure of widgets that make up the input / output fields. -Post-processing procedure that should be executed after widget creation. -A data input procedure to be executed to pass the data input on the screen to the application program in response to the input instruction from the application program. -A data output procedure to be executed in order to display the data passed from the application program on the screen in response to the output instruction from the application program.

First, the hierarchical structure of widgets is determined. Based on the received TypeCode, the input / output column selection unit 2 knows that the data to be input / output is a struct type. Therefore, the input / output column selection unit 2 first checks the type of each member and determines the input / output column for that member. The member named member1 is a short type, so we use the Text widget as its input / output field. Since member2 is a string type, ScrolledText consisting of ScrollWindow widget and Text widget is used as its input / output field. The member member3 is of the example_enum type, and this example_en
The um type is an enum type with three identifiers, so its input and output fields are a RowColumn widget and three ToggleBus.
Use RadioBox consisting of tton widget. Once the widget configuration of the input / output column for each member is decided,
What is stored in the RowColumn widget is the input / output column of the entire struct. Therefore, the hierarchical structure of the widgets constituting the input / output column is determined as shown in FIG.

Next, the input / output column determination unit 2 executes the post-processing procedure,
A data input procedure and a data output procedure are determined and passed to the screen layout determination unit 3 together with the hierarchical structure of the widget. The screen layout determination unit 3 determines the configuration of the entire screen based on the widget hierarchical structure therein. It is assumed that the screen currently used for display is small and the entire input / output field displayed based on the widget hierarchical structure does not fit within the screen. In this case, the screen layout determination unit 3 determines the use of ScrollWindow to enable access to the entire column. Therefore, the widget hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. 43 is determined as the configuration of the entire screen. Then, the post-processing procedure, data input procedure, and data output procedure passed from the widget hierarchical structure and input / output column determination unit 2 are passed to the dialogue control unit 4.

The dialogue control unit 4 creates a screen according to the widget hierarchical structure of FIG. 43 by calling various procedures of the X window system. After that, the post-processing procedure is executed, but in this case, there is no post-processing procedure to be executed. As a result, the screen as shown in FIG. 44 is displayed. Further, the dialogue control unit 4 executes the procedure for the input instruction in response to the input instruction from the application program, passes the obtained data, and executes the procedure for the output instruction in response to the output instruction to display the data.

[0064]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to facilitate the development of an application program for inputting / outputting data and eliminate the dependency of the application program for inputting / outputting data on a specific input / output device, a window system, or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a representation example of a data type definition.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a representation example of a data type definition.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an application program that inputs and outputs data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an application program that inputs and outputs data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example in which a configuration of displayed input / output fields is represented by a hierarchical structure of widgets.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when the data is a boolean type.

[Figure 8] Data is short, long, hyper, float, doubl
The figure which shows the structural example of the input-output column in case of e type.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an input instruction when data is a boolean type.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an output instruction when data is a boolean type.

[Figure 11] Data is short, long, hyper, float, dou
The figure which shows the example of the 1st post-processing procedure in case of a ble type.

[Figure 12] Data is short, long, hyper, float, dou
The figure which shows the example of the 2nd post-processing procedure in case of ble type.

[Figure 13] Data is short, long, hyper, float, dou
The figure which shows the example of the 2nd post-processing procedure in case of ble type.

[Figure 14] Data is short, long, hyper, float, dou
The figure which shows the example of a procedure with respect to the input command in the case of ble type.

[Figure 15] Data is short, long, hyper, float, dou
The figure which shows the example of a procedure with respect to the output instruction in the case of ble type.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when data is an enum type.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when data is a string type.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an input instruction when data is an enum type.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an output instruction when data is an enum type.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an input instruction when data is a string type.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an output instruction when data is a string type.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when data is a struct type.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example of a method of determining a configuration of an input / output column when data is a struct type.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing an example of a post-processing procedure when data is a struct type.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an input instruction when data is a struct type.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an output instruction when data is a struct type.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when data is a union type.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when data is a union type.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of a method of determining the configuration of the input / output column when the data is a union type.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing an example of a second post-processing procedure when data is a union type.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an example of a second post-processing procedure when data is of union type.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an input instruction when data is a union type.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an output instruction when data is a union type.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an input / output column when data is an array type.

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing an example of a third post-processing procedure when data is of array type.

FIG. 36 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an input instruction when data is of array type.

FIG. 37 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for an output instruction when data is of array type.

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing an example of an overall screen configuration determined by a screen layout determination unit.

FIG. 39 is a diagram showing an example of an overall screen configuration determined by a screen layout determination unit.

FIG. 40 is a diagram showing an example of an overall screen configuration determined by a screen layout determination unit.

FIG. 41 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed corresponding to FIG. 40.

FIG. 42 is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchical structure of widgets showing the configuration of input / output fields.

FIG. 43 is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchical structure of widgets showing the configuration of the entire screen.

FIG. 44 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed corresponding to FIG. 43.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Application program storage section 2 ... Input / output column selection section 3 ... Screen layout determination unit 4 ... Dialogue control unit 5 ... Display device 6 ... Application program execution unit 7 ... Selection rule storage unit 8 ... Arrangement rule storage unit

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-7-49774 (JP, A) Masuda and Kasahara, "GUI layout changing function during application execution", Transactions of Information Processing Society of Japan, Japan, Information Processing Society of Japan , September 15, 1994, Volume 35, No. 9, p. 1794-1806 Sato and 2 others, “User-level customizable GUI component replacement / addition function”, IPSJ research report, Nihon, IPSJ, March 3, 1995, Vol. 95, No. 21 (95-HI-59), p. 67-74 (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 9/44 G06F 3/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An application program that controls data input from a user to an application program or data output from an application program.
In a data input / output method of causing a computer screen to appear on a computer display device and inputting / outputting data between an application program and a user via this screen , the application program displays a specific computer display.
A type of data that does not depend on functions,
Contains the type description of the data for performing at least one, the computer, corresponding with each portion constituting the the screen to be displayed dependent <br/> the display function of the type and the computer for each data
Selection rule having a plurality of sets and a display of the computer
Arrangement rules for determining the composition of the entire screen, depending on the performance
Includes a pre-memorize storing unit, the computer, all extracts defined type of data to perform at least one of input and output from the application program, the respective types of the data these extraction definition Based on the selection rule stored in the storage unit, the partial configuration on the screen corresponding to each data type is determined, and the overall arrangement of the determined partial configuration on the screen is determined. Is determined by referring to the arrangement rule stored in the storage unit, and when the computer executes the application program.
To a screen in accordance with the placement that is the determined allowed to appear on the display device, input and output of data and performs input and output of data between the application program and the user through the occurrence is not the screen Method. 2. A data which does not depend on a display function of a specific computer.
Type of input and / or output
An application program containing a description of the type of the data
To, at the input or computing device including a display unit screen is capable of displaying the charge of output of data from the application <br/> Deployment program data from the user, depending on the type and the display means of each data Of the screen to be displayed
Selection with multiple sets that correspond to each partial configuration
Structure of entire screen depending on rules and the display means
Advance remembers storage device for arrangement rule for determining the, extraction means for all the defined type of data to be at least one of the input and output extracted from the application program, the respective data extracted by said extracting means The selection stored in the storage means based on each of the type definitions
Referring to rule selecting means for respectively selecting the partial configuration on the screen corresponding to the type of each data, the overall arrangement of the selected respective portions constituted by the selection unit, stored in said storage means Screen layout determining means for determining by referring to the layout rule , display control means for displaying a screen based on the overall layout determined by the screen layout determining means on the display means when the application program is executed , Transmission of data input via the display means to the application program , or display means of data output from the application program
Input / output control means for performing at least one of presentation via the screen, execution of the application program using the data transmitted by the input / output control means, and output of the execution result of the application program to the input / output control means. A computer device comprising: an execution unit that performs at least one of the operations.