JPH0327916B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a display control device for moving a cursor to a specific information field displayed on the screen of a display device.

[Summary of the Disclosure] A display control device includes a key input means having a special control key, and in response to pressing the control key, a selectable input signal in a code storage means is activated.
An operation is performed to find the identification code indicating the field and move the cursor to the display position on the display screen corresponding to the storage position of the identification code.

[Prior Art] Among a plurality of information fields displayed on a display screen, a field containing information that can be selected by an operator is called a selectable field, and a display device equipped with a light pen is called a selectable field. , information can be selected by positioning the light pen in the selectable field. On the other hand, on display devices that are not equipped with a light pen, you must first operate the cursor movement keys to move the cursor to the desired selectable field, and then press the cursor select keys to select information. It's summery.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] As mentioned above, the light pen (selector pen)
The operation of moving the cursor to the selectable field using the cursor movement keys on a display device that is not equipped with a cursor movement key may not be repeated because the movement speed is limited by the speed of the machine, and if the cursor fails to move to the target position correctly. There are problems in that it is indispensable, time consuming, and troublesome.

[Means for Solving the Problems] According to the invention, a control key called selectable field tab key is provided on the key input means to enable quick movement of the cursor to the selectable field. . Further, in response to the operation of the control key, a selectable field identification code within the code storage means is detected;
keystroke detection means cooperating to change the cursor address according to the storage location of the code;
Access means, identification code detection means and cursor address modification means are provided.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of a display control device of the present invention. The video control means 2 has a function of displaying a cursor on the screen of the CRT display section 1 according to the cursor address stored in the cursor address storage means 3. That is, the cursor is displayed at the display position specified by the cursor address. The video control means 2 also has a function of displaying characters specified by various character codes stored in the code storage means 4 on the screen.

The code storage means 4 has a plurality of storage positions corresponding to a plurality of display positions on the screen, and stores not only character codes but also various control codes such as attributes. Further, a selectable field identification code (SF identification code) is stored in the first storage position of the selectable field.

The key input means 9 comprises a special control key 10 for immediately moving the cursor to the beginning of the selectable field displayed on the screen. When the key operation detection means 8 connected to the key input means 9 detects that the control key 10 has been pressed, it sends an output signal indicating this to the access means 5.
give to In response to this, the access means 5 reads out and identifies codes located in consecutive storage positions in a predetermined direction with the storage position in the code storage means 4 corresponding to the display position where the cursor is currently displayed as a reference point. The code is given to the code detection means 6. When the identification code detection means 6 detects the SF identification code, it provides an output signal indicating this to the access means 5 and the cursor address change means 7. In response, the access means 5 stops reading the code. On the other hand, the cursor address changing means 7 corresponds to a storage location in the code storage device 4 storing the detected SF identification code.
The cursor address in the cursor address storage means 3 is changed so that the cursor is displayed at the display position on the screen of the CRT 1.

Refer now to FIG. This is a microprocessor (MPU) that performs the functions of access means 5, identification code detection means 6, cursor/address change means 7, and key operation means 8 in the basic configuration shown in FIG.
20 and shows a more specific embodiment of the present invention realized by a microprogram.

The MPU 20 has a configuration including various circuits including an address register (AR) 21 and a register group 22 shown in the figure. Since such a configuration is generally well known, detailed explanation will be omitted. A control storage device 23, a refresh buffer 24, a video control circuit 25, and a keyboard interface circuit 29 are connected to a bus 34 extending from the MPU 20. In addition,
Bus lines 34 include data buses, address buses, and control lines.

The control storage device 23 stores microprograms for controlling various operations of the MPU 20. The refresh buffer 24 corresponds to the code storage means 4 in FIG.
It stores not only the identification code but also various codes for display. The video control circuit 25 has a function of extracting character dot pattern data from the character generator 27 in accordance with the character code extracted from the refresh buffer 24 and displaying it on the CRT screen 28. Furthermore, the video control circuit 25
It has a cursor address register (CAR) 26, and also has the function of displaying a cursor C at a display position according to its contents.

A keyboard 31 is connected to the keyboard interface circuit 29. keyboard 31
has various keys. When any key is operated, the keyboard interface circuit 29
is the scan code representing the key.
An interrupt request signal is set in the register 30 and sent to the MPU 20 via line 35, requesting that the scan code be read. By setting an appropriate address in AR 21, MPU 20 can selectively designate not only control storage 23 and refresh buffer 24 but also CAR 26 and scan code register 30 to perform read or write operations. Can be done.

Among the keys of keyboard 31 are a cursor select key 32 and a selectable field tab (SFT) key 33 provided in accordance with the present invention. That is, the SFT key 33 corresponds to the control key 10 in FIG.
This is used to move the cursor to a selectable field. Operator presses SFT key 3
The operation sequence of the MPU 20 when 3 is pressed is shown in FIG. 3, so the cursor movement control operation will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG.

Keyboard interface circuit 29 is SFT
When a key 33 operation is detected, it sets the corresponding scan code register 30 and issues an interrupt request signal on line 35, as described above. MPU
20 retrieves successive instructions of the keyboard interrupt microprogram from the control storage 23 in response to the interrupt request signal, and accordingly reads the scan code in the scan code register 30 (step 40 in FIG. 3); It is determined whether or not it is the scanning code of the SFT key 33 (step 41). If it is not the scanning code of the SFT key 33, a corresponding microprogram is extracted and an appropriate operation is performed, but the scanning code of the SFT key 33 is When detecting, the microprogram related to the SFT key 33 is taken out and the following operation is performed.

First, the cursor address in the CAR 26 of the video control circuit 25 is read into the register 22a of the register group 22 in the MPU 20 (step 42). In this embodiment, the address itself indicating the storage location in the refresh buffer 24 is
It is used as a cursor address indicating the display position on the screen 28. Therefore, the cursor address read into register 22a also indicates the storage location corresponding to the current cursor display position. Also, in this embodiment, SFT key 3
3 is defined as a command to move the cursor to a selectable field after the current cursor display position, that is, in a direction where the address gradually increases. Add 1 to the cursor address and set it to AR21 (step 4).
3) Using this, refresh buffer 2
4 is read and stored in register 22b of register group 22 (step 44).

Next, it is determined whether the code in the register 22b is an SF identification code (step 45). This judgment operation is performed in advance by registering another register 22c.
This is done by storing the SF identification code and comparing it with the code in register 22b. If the SF identification code is not detected, the address in AR 21 is incremented (step 46) and reading of the code from refresh buffer 24 is repeated until it is detected.

When an SF identification code is detected, the address in AR21 is used as a new cursor address in CAR2.
6 (step 47). Video control circuit 2
5 displays the cursor C at the display position specified by the contents of the CAR 26, that is, at the top display position of the selectable field. Figure 2 shows
A simple example is shown in which three selectable fields 36, 37, and 38 are displayed on the CRT screen 28. When the SFT key 33 is pressed with the cursor C initially at the position shown in the figure,
The cursor C immediately moves to the first display position P of the field 36, and if you press the SFT key 33 again,
Cursor C is at display position Q at the beginning of field 37
Move to. If you press SFT key 33 again,
The display moves to the top display position R of the top field 38. In this case, when reading the code from the refresh buffer 24 to search for the SF identification code, the memory location corresponding to the display position in the lower right corner of the CRT screen 28 is followed by the display position in the upper left corner. Address rotation is performed to specify the storage location to be stored.

Cursor C on desired selectable field
After locating , the operator can select information in the selectable field by pressing cursor select key 32 .

The embodiment described above has only one SFT key 33 for moving the cursor C in only one direction, but two SFT keys are provided, one for forward movement as described above, and the other for forward movement as described above. It is also possible to use it for movement in the opposite direction. In that case, forward
It determines whether SFT or reverse SFT is pressed, and depending on the control result, determines the address to be set in AR21 and determines whether to perform subsequent address update by increment or decrement. Step 4 in Figure 3
It is necessary to change 1, 43, and 46.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the cursor can be moved to a selectable field much more quickly and accurately than in the prior art using cursor movement keys.

When we actually conducted an experiment to move the cursor to a desired selectable field, it took an average of 1 minute and 44 seconds to move the cursor to a desired selectable field, whereas it took an average of 1 minute and 44 seconds to move the cursor to a desired selectable field. Data shows that it only takes an average of 48 seconds to do so. This average cursor movement operation time of 48 seconds is close to the time taken when using a light pen. That is, according to the present invention, work efficiency comparable to that of a light pen, which requires an expensive mechanism, can be achieved at a low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 shows a basic embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 shows an embodiment using a microprocessor, and Fig. 3 shows the operation sequence of the microprocessor related to the operation of the SFT keys. This is a flowchart. 1...CRT display unit, 2...video control means,
3... Cursor address storage means, 4... Code storage means, 5... Access means, 6... Identification code detection means, 7... Cursor address changing means, 8... Key operation detection means, 9... Key input means, 10... control keys.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A display control device having a first storage means for storing a cursor address and having a function of displaying a cursor at a display position on a display screen specified by the cursor address. At the same time, character codes and control codes representing information to be displayed are stored in storage locations corresponding to display positions on the display screen, and information is stored in each selectable field containing information selectable by the operator. second storage means for storing an identification code; key input means having a control key operable for commanding that a cursor be displayed on said selectable field displayed on said display screen; key operation detection means that generates an output signal indicative of the operation of the control key; and a cursor that is stored at the time in the first storage means in response to the output signal from the key operation detection means.・Sequentially reading out codes in successive memory locations that are continuous in a predetermined direction starting from a memory location in the second memory means that corresponds to the register means that receives the address and the cursor display device at that time; means for sequentially changing the cursor address taken into the register means and accessing the second storage means based on the changed cursor address; and a code read by the access means. an identification code detection means for checking whether or not is the above identification code, and generating a detection output signal indicating this when the identification code is the above identification code; Transferring the current cursor address in the register means to the first storage means, and changing the cursor address of the first storage means so that the cursor is displayed at a display position corresponding to the storage position of the identification code. A display control device comprising: means for changing.