JPH022595A - Cursor control system for display terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the processing time for cursor control and to improve the response and operation convenience of the equipment by providing a cursor position dependency information table wherein attribute values indicating whether cursor control processing is required or not are made correspond to respective cursor movable positions. CONSTITUTION:The cursor position dependency information table 16 holds the attribute values indicating whether or not the cursor control processing is required corresponding to respective coordinate positions on a cursor movable display screen. When the cursor position is updated through an input means 12, a decision means 15 decides whether or not the cursor control processing is required from the attribute value in the cursor position dependency information table 16 corresponding to the new cursor position. Consequently, when the cursor moves to a position where the processing is required, a CPU recognizes that and starts the cursor control processing to shorten the time up to the start of the cursor processing control, thereby improving the operation convenience.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a display terminal device, and in particular to a cursor control system for a display terminal device that uses cursor movement keys, point-in-ink devices, etc. as eight inputs.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a cursor has been commonly used in display terminal devices. A cursor is generally a figure displayed on a display screen to indicate to an operator a position where a single character, command, or the like can currently be input. The operator can normally move this cursor to a desired position on the display screen using input means. However, conversely, there are cases where you do not want the cursor to be displayed in a specific area of the display screen to prevent display information from being deleted due to an erroneous operation, and in such cases,
There is also a technique in which a cursor display prohibited area is set in advance using a table, and this table is referred to when the cursor is moved, so that the cursor cannot be moved to the display prohibited area. This process can be performed without the intervention of the CPU that controls the display terminal device. Such a cursor control device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 162289/1989.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, the purpose of the cursor is not only to simply indicate the input position of information as described above, but also to move the cursor to a specific position within a movable area according to instructions from the operator. For example, there is a so-called cursor control process that activates a predetermined specific process such as switching the display screen. Conventionally, this cursor control processing has been carried out by periodically reading the cursor position from the CPU and determining whether the cursor is at a particular position. However, in the conventional method of control for starting this cursor control process (referred to as cursor control in this specification), in order to improve the responsiveness of cursor control, the frequency of periodic monitoring of the cursor position by the CPU has to be increased. There was a problem that increasing the frequency would increase the load on the CPU. An object of the present invention is to improve the processing speed of the CPU for processes other than cursor control by eliminating the periodic cursor position monitoring process by the CP LJ, and to
The objective is to improve the responsiveness of cursor control. A cursor control method for a display terminal device according to the present invention is a display terminal device that displays a cursor on a display screen, the movement of which can be instructed by input means. , refer to a cursor position dependent information table that associates attribute values indicating whether a predetermined cursor control process is necessary, and the attribute values of the cursor position dependent information table for the cursor position specified by the input means. and determining means for determining whether or not the cursor control processing is necessary, and performing the cursor control processing in accordance with the output of the determining means. The cursor control process may be performed using, for example, a computer that executes the process.
This can be done by issuing an interrupt to the PU using the output signal of the determining means and processing the interrupt. The attribute value may indicate not only whether or not the cursor control process is necessary, but also the type of the cursor control process if necessary. The cursor position dependent information table may associate one attribute value with each of a plurality of cursor positions on the display screen. It is preferable that when the contents of the screen memory storing the display contents of the display screen are rewritten, the contents of the cursor position dependent information table are rewritten in response to the rewriting. 1 Effect 1 The cursor position dependent information table has an attribute value corresponding to each coordinate position on the display screen where the cursor can be moved, indicating whether or not cursor control processing is required for that coordinate position. This table can be constructed from a digital memory such as a RAM, and the attribute values are stored in advance at addresses corresponding to each coordinate position of the cursor.When the attribute value only indicates whether cursor control processing is necessary or unnecessary. 1 bit data is sufficient for . Furthermore, if it is desired to specify the type of processing, multi-bit data can also be used. When the cursor position is updated by the input means, the attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table corresponding to the new cursor position is obtained. The determining means determines whether cursor control processing is necessary (or its type) based on this attribute value. Depending on the result of this determination, cursor control processing is performed. When the CPU performs cursor control processing, the CPU can be interrupted by the output of the determining means, and the desired cursor control processing can be performed in this processing. Thereby, the CPU can recognize when the cursor moves to a position that requires processing by the CPU and start cursor control processing without periodically monitoring the cursor position. In the conventional method of periodically monitoring the cursor position, recognition of cursor movement that occurs immediately after the end of periodic monitoring has to wait until the next monitoring starts. According to the method of the present invention, after the cursor moves to a position where cursor control processing is required, a processing start command is immediately sent to the CPU.
Since the cursor control process can be instructed to, the time required for actually starting the cursor control process is shortened, and usability is improved. Further, as described above, by setting the attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table to a plurality of bits, it becomes possible to selectively execute one or more types of cursor control processing. Furthermore, if the attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table corresponds to the display information of the screen memory, when the CPU rewrites the contents of the screen memory, it simultaneously rewrites the contents of the cursor position dependent information table. ,CPU
The burden of cursor control processing can be reduced, and the responsiveness of the display terminal device can be improved, making it easier to use. By associating one attribute value with each cursor position on the oiJ notation screen, the cursor position dependent information table can be made smaller and less expensive. [Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, FIG. 2 shows a configuration diagram of a display terminal device to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 25 is a CPU that performs control processing of the entire device, 26 is a main memory that stores control procedures of the CPU 25, etc.; 28 is 2 of a floppy disk, etc.
27 is an input/output device control means for controlling the input/output means 28; 24 is a display means such as a CRT display; 23 is a general term for a storage device or a printing device such as a printer; 22 is a display control means for controlling the operation of sequentially extracting data from the screen memory and displaying it on the display means 24; 1;
2 is an input means such as a keyboard and a mouse; 21 is an input control means for controlling the input means; 19 is a system bus comprising data and control information connecting the CPU 25, screen memory 23, etc. FIG. 3 shows a detailed diagram of the input control means 21. The information input from the input means 12 is "A". It consists of a character code indicating characters such as rBJ, rCJ, etc., and a cursor control code indicating the direction of movement of the cursor. The cursor is a figure on the screen of the display means 24 that indicates a position where input of a character code or the like is currently possible, and is displayed on the display means 24 superimposed on information such as characters and figures. This superposition control is performed by the display control means 22, and the character code input from the input means 12 to the input control means 21 is controlled by the character code control means 31. Further, the cursor control code is controlled by the cursor control means 11.The feature of the present invention lies in the configuration of the cursor control means 11. FIG. 1 shows a detailed block diagram of this cursor control means 11. As shown in the same figure, the cursor control means 11 is
Cursor position adjustment means 13, cursor position storage means 14
, a comparison means 15, and a cursor position dependent information table. In FIG. 1, the cursor control code output from the input means 12 is input to the cursor position a adjustment means 13. The cursor position adjustment means 13 reads the cursor position from the cursor position storage means 14 which holds the current cursor position, and adjusts the cursor position according to the cursor movement direction of the cursor control court. The adjusted cursor position is written into the cursor position storage means 14. The cursor position storage means 14 outputs the cursor position to the display control means 22 using the cursor position information signal line 17. The cursor position dependent information table 16 has "0" or "l" corresponding to each position of the cursor on the screen memory 23.
This is a table that stores information about . 15 determines the contents of the cursor position dependent information table 16 obtained corresponding to the cursor position of the cursor position storage means 14, and sends a signal to the system bus 19 via the signal line 18 when it is determined that cursor control processing is necessary. This is a determination means that outputs. FIG. 4 shows a detailed diagram of the cursor position dependence table 16. Cursor position (1, A), (2, A) on display means 24
, (3, A), . . . , an attribute 4ri41 consisting of “0” or “l” is stored. Here “l”
Consider this in response to cursor control processing or when necessary. The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. The cursor control code inputted from the input means 12 is adjusted by the cursor position adjustment means 13, and the cursor position in the cursor position storage means 14 is rewritten. When the cursor position of the cursor position storage means 14 is (1, A), the comparison means 15 uses the cursor position dependent information table 16
Obtain the attribute value "0" at (1, A). (As an example, consider the attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table 16 in FIG. 4.) At this time, the determining means 15 determines whether the attribute value is
Since it is O, it is determined that cursor control processing is not necessary, and the result is output as 0'' to the signal line 18. Here, if a cursor control code is input to the input means 12 to instruct the cursor to move to the right, the cursor position storage means The cursor position 14 is rewritten to (2, A) by the cursor position 2! Adjustment means 13. The 0 judgment means 15 obtains the attribute value "1" at (2, A) of the cursor position dependent information table 16, and changes the cursor position to (2, A). It is determined that control processing is necessary and outputs "BI" to the signal line 18. The signal line 18 is connected to an interrupt terminal of the CPU 25, and when "1" is output, a predetermined specific process is performed. FIG. 5 shows a configuration example where the cursor position dependent information table 16 has 3 bits of information for each cursor position. In FIG. 5, the attribute value on the cursor position dependent information table 16 corresponding to the cursor position can take on 23=8 different values. In the determination means 15, by providing a determination result signal line 18 corresponding to each of these eight attribute values,
It is now possible to perform standard cursor control. Next, according to FIG. 6, the cursor position dependent information table 16
We will explain how to rewrite . Here, when moving the menu display position of the 0 screen memory 23a to the screen memory 23b, which indicates a case where cursor control is required when the cursor position is within the area of the menu 60, the screen memory 23a is rewritten. When rewriting the required area,
At the same time, the corresponding area of the cursor position dependent information table 16a is mechanically rewritten. That is, the content of the cursor position dependent information table 16a is rewritten to "1" only for the position corresponding to the new menu area. As a result, when moving a menu in screen memory, the cursor control used in the menu must be updated at the same time in the display control, making it easier to control the cursor as the displayed menu moves, improving reliability and responsiveness. Improve your sexuality. FIG. 7 shows an example of a configuration in which the coordinate resolutions of the screen memory and the cursor position dependent information table are different. 1 of the screen memory 23 in the attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table 16.
If pixel-by-pixel control precision is not required, it is possible to set the coordinates of the cursor position information table 16 coarser than the coordinates of the screen memory 23. In FIG. 7, 2t4 (2×2) cursor positions on the screen memory 23 correspond to one attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table 16. This makes it possible to reduce the memory capacity used by downsizing the cursor position dependent information table, thereby making it possible to lower the price. To specify the address of the table 16, the address of one screen memory, for example, with the lower several bits removed, may be used. According to this embodiment, there is no need to perform cursor control processing while periodically monitoring the cursor position, and the CPU 2
It becomes possible to shorten the processing time for cursor control in step 5. In addition, if the cursor enters a specified area of the cursor position dependent information table 16, the process being executed is temporarily interrupted by an interrupt, and the CPU process immediately shifts to cursor control, so the CPU 25 monitors the cursor position in response to input. It is faster and easier to use compared to . Furthermore, when rewriting the screen memory 23, by mechanically rewriting the corresponding area of the cursor position dependent information table 16, the specified area of the cursor position dependent information table 16 is changed in conjunction with the information displayed on the screen means 24. This makes it possible to avoid complicating the processing of the CPU 25, and improves reliability. [Effect of Episode III 1] According to the present invention, the cursor control process depending on the cursor position can be activated only when the cursor exists at a position where the cursor control process is required, without periodically monitoring the cursor position. Therefore, the processing time for cursor control is shortened, and the responsiveness and usability of the device are improved. Furthermore, the burden of cursor control processing on the CPU is reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a display terminal device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 3 is a detailed diagram of the input control means in FIG. 2, and FIG. Structure of an example of the cursor position dependent information table of the 1st IA, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of another example of the cursor position dependent information table, FIG. 7
The figure is an explanatory diagram when a plurality of cursor positions on the screen memory are made to correspond to one force-sor position on the cursor position dependent information table. 11... Cursor control means 12... Input means 13... Cursor position adjustment means 14... Cursor position storage means 15... Judgment means 16... Cursor position dependent information table FIG.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a display terminal device that displays a cursor on a display screen whose movement can be instructed by input means, whether predetermined cursor control processing is necessary for each movable position of the cursor. a cursor position dependent information table that associates attribute values indicating the cursor position with respect to the cursor position indicated by the input means;
and determining means for determining whether or not the cursor control processing is necessary by referring to the attribute value of the cursor position dependent information table, and performing the cursor control processing in accordance with the output of the determining means. A cursor control method for display terminals. 2. The cursor control process is executed by the CPU that executes the process.
2. The cursor control method for a display terminal device according to claim 1, wherein an interrupt is generated for the output signal of the determining means, and the cursor control method is performed by the interrupt processing. 3. The cursor control method for a display terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the attribute value also represents a type of cursor control processing. 4. The cursor control method for a display terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the cursor position dependent information table associates one attribute value with each of a plurality of cursor positions on the display screen. 5. The display terminal according to claim 1, wherein when the contents of the screen memory storing the display contents of the display screen are rewritten, the contents of the cursor position dependent information table are rewritten in response to the rewriting. Device cursor control method.