JPH03113628A - Input/output control system for terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve versatility by loading attribute information stored in an auxiliary storage means on a control information storage means and controlling the format control of a terminal device on a host computer. CONSTITUTION:A format control screen memory 150 stores data corresponding to the display screen of a terminal 100 and a user program 140 writes the data. A terminal control information memory 160 stores attribute information corresponding to the type of the terminal. The attribute information is stored in the auxiliary storage 130, and it is loaded in the terminal control information memory 160 at the time of initialization. A terminal control information file corresponding to the type of the terminal is generated and said control information is loaded on the main storage at the time of initialization in accordance with a control terminal. The memories 150 corresponding to the screen of the terminal are prepared for the number of all columns and the content of the screen memory is displayed by shifting the cursor to a position corresponding to the terminal. Thus, the enlargement of the type of format control is facilitated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a screen input/output format control method for a terminal device in a system using a super mini computer.

(Prior Art) In a distributed control system in process automation, a host computer and multiple terminal devices (hereinafter referred to as "terminals") are connected through a standard interface such as RS-232C. Performs input/output of various data between the terminal and host.

Regarding the input/output of such terminal devices, the operability of man-machines can be improved by controlling (hereinafter referred to as format control) several columns of areas (hereinafter referred to as fields) dedicated to human input and output. There is a terminal.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of fields a to 1 are provided in the terminal screen 260, and input and output of the pig is performed within these fields, and other areas are unfields that are protected from input and output. Let it be Y. When the input key of the terminal is operated, the cursor 250 is automatically moved sequentially between fields, and by utilizing this tab function when manually inputting data, it is possible to make the manual operation more efficient. In this way, the use of fields can improve the operability of the man-machine.

Traditionally, such terminal format control information (
Attribute information) were all held by the terminal, and format control was managed by the terminal.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Conventional terminal input/output control methods relied on the device-side interface because format control was performed on the terminal side. For this reason, this control method must be visible for each terminal device, making it difficult to create a general-purpose application. Furthermore, it is impossible to implement this function for terminals that do not have a format control function, and there is a problem in that the system lacks flexibility in expansion.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above, and its purpose is to provide a general-purpose device that can perform format control on any terminal regardless of the difference in terminal control type and whether or not the terminal has a formatting function. The objective is to provide a highly flexible terminal Okawa power control system.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In the terminal input/output control method of the present invention, a plurality of terminal devices are connected to a host computer via an interface such as R8-232C, and a part of the screen of the terminal device is A computer system that can have a field that is an area of several columns dedicated to human input or output, and in a method for controlling the input/output format of the terminal device, data corresponding to the display screen of the terminal device is stored on the host computer. A screen data storage means for storing stored screen data, an auxiliary storage means for storing attribute information necessary for format control of the terminal device, and a control information storage means for storing attribute information necessary for format control. When a terminal device is used, the attribute information stored in the auxiliary storage means is loaded into the control information storage means, and the format control of the terminal device is managed on the host computer.

(Function) The input/output format control of the terminal is separated from the terminal and managed only by the memory on the host computer's main memory, improving versatility.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Main part configuration and features As shown in Fig. 1, the interface library 120
is located in the host computer's main memory (reference number 220 in FIG. 2), and this library 120 is provided with a format control screen memory 50 and a terminal control information memory 160. Format control screen memory 150 stores data corresponding to the display screen of terminal 100, and this data is written by user program 140. Terminal control information memory 16
0 is a memory for storing terminal control information (attribute information) corresponding to the terminal type. Terminal control information (attribute information) is stored in auxiliary storage 130 and loaded into terminal control information memory 160 during initialization. The terminal 100 performs human output of data with the interface library 120 or the user program 140 via the terminal driver 110.

The features of this embodiment are as follows.

A terminal control information file corresponding to the terminal type is created, and the above control information is loaded into the main memory at the time of initialization depending on the control terminal (route ■).

Prepare memory 1-50 corresponding to the terminal screen for all columns.

The display on the terminal is performed by the user program at any time using the interface library 120.
Display the contents of the screen memory by moving the cursor to the corresponding position on the terminal (route ■).

All human data from the keyboard is written to the screen image memory or sent directly to the user (
Route ■).

The user can output any field data on the screen via the screen image memory (route ■).

By controlling as described above, columns on the screen are defined as fields, and format control is realized.

As shown in FIG. 2, a CPU 210, a main storage device 220, a ROM 23, and a
0, and the terminal 100 is connected to its system bus via an RS-232C interface 190. Additionally, a disk device 180 serves as an auxiliary storage device.
is adopted and connected to the system bus via the disk control circuit 220.

Software Configuration As shown in FIG. 3, the screen memory 150 is located in the main memory. Control attribute information 240 corresponding to the terminal
is loaded from the auxiliary memory 170 to the main memory. This separates the terminal control method from the program logic. The manual field d can be set on any line in the screen, from any position, and for any number of columns in the line, and controls input data. Force--Tsuru operates only on this input field. In addition,
The cursor moves only within the defined field. Output field e can be set on any line on the screen, from any position, and for any number of columns in the line.
Control output data. The attendance fields d and e can be set in any number as fields, and can be accessed by the user as field numbers.

The unfield f refers to the area of all columns on the screen except d and e, and only display can be executed from any position within this area.

The user program 140 is a user who controls the terminal, and is mainly created by a program.

Fields D, E and Anfield F of the terminal screen 260 correspond to the turnout field d of the screen memory 150.
, e and Anfield f.

Field usage example As shown in Figure 4 (A), move the cursor 250 within the field.
Data can be output manually by moving sequentially from left to right (input/output control using cursor shift within the field). At this time, as a general rule, the cursor does not go beyond the field. Crossing the field is only when requested by the user program, and moving (jumping) to any other input field can be done by making a special designation.

As shown in Figure 4 (a), it is also possible to shift data within the field (human output control using a data shift method).

As shown in FIG. 4, it is also possible to set input protection for a part of the field.

As shown in FIG. 4 (1), it is also possible to limit the data that can be entered manually in the field to only numbers, for example.

(Effect of the invention) According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Since the format control of the terminal is separated from the terminal device and managed only in the main memory, type extension of the format control is convenient.

(2) Since the terminal human output control information exists in the main entry tα space, the user program can perform input/output using the concept of a field without thinking of it as a terminal device, making it suitable for programming.

(3) When inputting screen display data, only the memory data in the main memory is directly read, so the processing is much faster than other methods (when controlling from a terminal,
transmission time from the terminal is added).

(4) Users can control terminals with different control methods using the same interface (
It is possible to develop versatile software programs).

(5) It is possible to implement this method even for terminals that do not support format control.

(6) Can be controlled without depending on O8 (operating system).

(7) With 5-screen control, it is possible to absorb differences in internal codes that depend on the system.

(8) It is expected that it will be widely used as a base library for package development in the future.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram for explaining the main part configuration and features of an embodiment of the terminal input/output control method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the embodiment, and Fig. 3 is an example of the embodiment. Figure 4 (a), (
A), (1), and (1) are diagrams each showing an example of how the fields are used, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the contents of the fields. 100... Terminal 110... Terminal driver 120... Interface library 130... Auxiliary memory 140... User program 150... Screen memory for format control 160...
・Terminal control information memory 170...Auxiliary memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plurality of terminal devices are connected to a host computer via an interface such as RS-232C, and a field, which is an area of several columns dedicated to input or output, is provided on a part of the screen of the terminal device. In the method of controlling the input/output format of the terminal device in a computer system that can be provided, the host computer includes a screen data storage means storing data corresponding to a display screen of the terminal device, and a display screen of the terminal device. Auxiliary storage means for storing attribute information necessary for format control and control information storage means for storing attribute information necessary for format control are provided, and when a terminal device is used, the control information storage means The terminal input/output format control method is characterized in that the attribute information stored in the auxiliary storage means is loaded and format control of the terminal device is managed on the host computer.