JPH0417540B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a terminal system in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a communication line, and particularly to a terminal device such as a workstation that does not have a multi-window function. The present invention relates to an intelligent terminal system suitable for allocating a plurality of images to each terminal device or operating a plurality of program systems in a linked manner.

[Conventional technology]

For example, as seen in "Chapter 13 Data Communication System Design 13.3.3 [2] Business Distribution System [3] Functional Distribution System [4] Load Distribution System" in "Data Communication Band Book",
A method has been proposed that combines multiple computers to increase the computing power and data processing power of the system.

In this type of system, data exchange between computers was mainly done by passing files.

The reason why data is exchanged is via file.
The following reasons may be considered.

(1) In many cases, the prerequisite for linking two programs is that the structure of the other program is well understood, and at least the definition of the input/output file interface is clear. This is because when building a distributed system, functions are usually intentionally divided and the interface is clear.

(2) By passing files, high-speed transfer functions such as DMA controllers can be used, improving processing performance.

(3) Low-cost processing devices such as microcomputers and personal computers were not widely used.

(4) Rather than emphasizing dialogue methods and allowing human intervention,
It was necessary to make maximum use of expensive computers.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, if a file transfer method is adopted for exchanging data between computers as in the conventional example described above, the amount of data to be transferred increases, making it difficult to operate the terminal device efficiently.

Furthermore, since each terminal device is currently operated independently as a so-called stand-alone device, the manner in which the terminal device can be used is limited.

Furthermore, regarding the display capability, when displaying a plurality of images is required, each terminal device must be provided with this kind of display function, which inevitably increases costs.

An object of the present invention is to transfer commands between terminal devices so that the commands of one's own terminal device can be executed by the other terminal device, and to use the other terminal device as an auxiliary terminal, thereby increasing the computing power of the terminal device. The objective is to provide a terminal system with improved processing capacity.

[Means to solve the problem]

With the spread of personal computers and the like in recent years, a large number of highly functional programs have come to be provided even if the file structure is unknown.

This type of program has an operating manual, etc., and inputting data via a keyboard or interface is effective for utilizing advanced functions. In other words, if the output of one intelligent terminal device is recognized and imported as a keyboard input signal, that is, a command string or data, of the other intelligent terminal device, files can be used effectively and the input effort can be greatly reduced. can be reduced to

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a terminal system consisting of a plurality of terminal devices interconnected via communication lines, in which each terminal device receives input from the input device of its own terminal device. A control means for determining whether data is addressed to one's own terminal device or another terminal device; a reception control means for determining and processing whether received data is a command from another terminal device or normal data; The present invention proposes a terminal system including pseudo input control means that processes received data as data input from an input device of its own terminal device when the received data is a command from a terminal device.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, each terminal device processes input data to determine whether it is addressed to its own terminal device or another terminal device, and when the input data is sent to another terminal device,
The terminal device that receives the received data processes the received data to determine whether it is a command or normal data, and if it is a command, the terminal device receives the received data from another terminal device. It is pseudo-processed as if it were input from the input device. Therefore, a series of programs can be used in parallel on multiple terminal devices at the same time, increasing computing power and processing power, and improving efficiency.

〔Example〕

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of a terminal system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, each terminal device includes an input device 1 such as a keyboard, and an input control device 1 that instructs to change a control flag for determining whether input data is addressed to the own terminal device or another terminal device. Flag change instruction device 2
, a display device 3 , a processing device 4 , and a communication connection device 5 , which are interconnected by a communication cable 6 .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the processing device 4 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 41 is a control flag change interrupt processing program that performs a process of changing a control flag that controls whether input data is addressed to the own terminal device or another terminal device, and 42 is a transmission processing program that transmits data to another terminal device. , 43
4 is an input device interrupt processing program that accepts input data from the keyboard 1; 44 is a reception interrupt processing program that accepts data received from a communication port; 45 is a terminal device control for controlling whether input data is addressed to the own terminal device; flag,
46 is another terminal device control flag that controls whether input data is sent to another terminal device; 47 is a flag that determines whether the received data is a command from another terminal device to its own terminal device or normal data. A reception control flag is controlled, 48 is an input buffer for storing data input from an input device, and 49 is a reception buffer for storing data received from a communication port.

Control flag change interrupt processing program 4
1. The input device interrupt processing program 43 and the reception interrupt processing program 44 are respectively interrupt processing programs, and the control flag change interrupt processing program 41 is activated by the input device interrupt processing program 4 in response to an interrupt signal from the input device 2.
3 is started by an interrupt signal from the keyboard 1, and a reception interrupt processing program 44 is started by an interrupt signal from the communication connection device 5.

The input device 2 may be a switching device that can input two types of signals, or a specific key on the keyboard 1 is assigned exclusively, and when the input device interrupt processing program 43 receives the specific key,
This may be realized by calling the control flag change interrupt processing program 41.

Next, the operation of the terminal system configured as described above will be explained.

In the terminal device A, when the input device 2 is operated, the control flag interrupt processing program 41 is activated, and other terminal device control flags are turned ON.
Next, the transmission processing program 42 transmits a flag change instruction command to the terminal device B, and causes the reception control flag 47 of the terminal device B to be turned ON.

In terminal device B, reception interrupt processing program 4
4, it is determined whether the received data is a flag change instruction command, and the flag 47 is turned ON.

As a result of these operations, the code string subsequently input from the keyboard 1 of the terminal device A is sent from the input device interrupt processing program 43 of the terminal device A to the transmission processing program 42, and is sent to the communication connection device 5 and the communication cable 6. The data is transferred to the terminal device B via the terminal device B.

Since the reception control flag 47 of the terminal device B is ON, the data received by the communication connection device 5 of the terminal device B is transferred to the input buffer 48 by the reception interrupt processing program 44. Storing data in the input buffer 48 is performed by the terminal device B.
This is the same state as when inputting from keyboard 1. According to this processing procedure, a command is transferred from terminal device A to terminal device B. Terminal device B executes the transferred command.

The processing flow of each program will be explained.
3 shows the processing procedure of the input device interrupt processing program 43, FIG. 4 shows the processing procedure of the reception interrupt processing program 44, and FIG. 5 shows the processing procedure of the control flag change interrupt processing program 41. .

When a key on the keyboard 1 is pressed, an input device interrupt occurs, and the input device interrupt processing program 43 shown in FIG. 3 is activated.

Step 100: Input device interrupt processing program 4
Step 3 is to reset the error detection flag.

Step 101: Own terminal device control flag 45
Read and determine the flag.

Step 102: If the flag is ON, the code of the pressed key is stored in the input buffer 48.
That is, it is processed in the same way as a conventional key-in operation.

Step 103: If the flag is OFF, set an error detection flag. That is, the key-in operation becomes invalid for the own terminal device.

Step 104: Read out other terminal device control flags 47 and determine the flags.

Step 105: If the flag is ON, call the transmission process 42 and transmit the code string.

Step 106: If the flag is OFF, it is determined whether the error detection flag is set.

Step 107: If the error detection flag is set, it is regarded as an error and a warning sound is output. This is because it is not an input to either the own terminal device or another terminal device.

The routine shown in FIG. 3 is activated and processed each time a key character is pressed. Depending on the state of the own terminal device control flag 45 and the other terminal device control flag 46, the input code string can be used as a code string addressed to the own terminal device, another terminal device, or both terminal devices. It is processed.

Next, the reception interrupt processing program 44 in FIG.
The processing procedure will be explained. When data enters the communication port, a reception interrupt occurs and the reception interrupt processing program 44 is activated.

Step 200: First, it is determined whether the received data is a request for changing the reception control flag 47. Specifically, a specific code for instructing to change the reception control flag 47 is assigned in advance, and the determination is made based on whether or not this code is used.

Step 201: If it is a flag change instruction, read the flag and make a determination.

Step 202: If the reception control flag 47 is ON, turn it OFF.

Step 203: Release the input device interrupt disabled state.

Step 204: If the reception control flag 47 is OFF, turn it ON.

Step 205: Disable interrupts from input devices.
That is, in steps 202 to 205, if the reception control flag 47 is ON, the terminal device is in a state of waiting for a command transfer from another terminal device,
Input from the input device of the own terminal device is prohibited. Reception control flag 4 due to flag change instruction
When 7 is turned OFF, the terminal enters a normal state and input from the input device of its own terminal device becomes possible.

Step 206: On the other hand, in step 200, if the received data is not a flag change instruction, it is determined whether the reception control flag 47 is ON.

Step 207: If the flag is ON, the received data is a command from another terminal device to the own terminal device, so it is stored in the input buffer 48. That is, through this process, the received data is treated as if it were input from the input device of its own terminal device.

Step 208: If the flag is OFF in step 206, the received data is regarded as normal data rather than a command from another terminal device, and is stored in the reception buffer 49. In this case, processing is performed in the same manner as conventional reception interrupt processing.

The routine shown in FIG. 4 is activated and processed every time one character of data is received.

Next, the operation of the control flag change interrupt processing program 41 shown in FIG. 5 will be explained. When the switch of the input device 2 is pressed, an interrupt occurs and the control flag change interrupt processing program 41 is activated.

Step 300: Determine whether the switch signal is a request to change the own terminal device control flag 45.

Step 301: If own terminal device control flag 4
5, the flag 45 is read and it is determined whether the flag is ON.

Step 302: If own terminal device control flag 4
If flag 5 is ON, this flag 45 is changed to OFF.

Step 303: If own terminal device control flag 4
If 5 is OFF, change the flag to ON.

Step 304: On the other hand, in step 300, if it is not a request to change the terminal device control flag 45 of one's own, it is determined whether it is a request to change the control flag 46 of another terminal device.

Step 305: If the request is not a request to change either flag 45 or 46, it is regarded as an error and a warning sound is output.

Step 306: If the request is to change another terminal device control flag 46, the other terminal device control flag 46 is read and it is determined whether this flag 46 is ON.

Step 307: If other terminal device control flag 46 is
If it is ON, this flag 46 is turned OFF.

Step 308: If other terminal device control flag 46 is
If it is OFF, this flag 46 is turned ON.

Step 309: Send the reception control flag change instruction code allocated in advance to the other terminal device B.

Note that when the own terminal device control flag 45 is ON, the input data is valid for the own terminal device, and when it is OFF, it means invalid. When the other terminal device control flag 46 is ON, it means that the input data is valid for the other terminal device, that is, it is input data addressed to another terminal device, and when it is OFF, it means that it is invalid.

Further, when the reception control flag 47 is ON, it means that the received data is a command from another terminal device to the own terminal device, and when it is OFF, it means that it is normal data.

Flag 45 is set when the power is turned on or the terminal device is reset.
By setting the flag 46 to ON, the flag 46 to OFF, and the flag 47 to OFF, the terminal operation can be started in the same state as a conventional terminal device.

In this embodiment, the corresponding conventional programs are replaced with the input device interrupt processing program 43 in FIG.
, the reception interrupt processing program 44 in FIG. 4, and the control flag change interrupt processing program 41 in FIG.
Change it to .

Next, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to expand display capacity will be described. For example, when displaying a circuit diagram, a block diagram, etc., there is a demand to simultaneously display an overall diagram while displaying a partially enlarged diagram. In this case, according to the present invention, it is possible to display a partially enlarged view on the terminal device A and display an overall view on the terminal device B.

FIG. 6 is a time chart of the display operation of this embodiment. The same application program, that is, a circuit diagram or block diagram editing program and display data are prepared in advance in the terminal devices A and B.

Both terminal devices A and B are powered on and placed in a command waiting state.

The operator presses a predetermined key on the input device 2 of his own terminal device A to set the control flag of another terminal device B.
Turn it on. By pressing a predetermined key on the input device 2, the control flag change interrupt processing program 41 is activated, changes the other terminal device control flags 45 of the terminal device A, and sends a control flag change instruction command to the terminal device B. do.

In terminal device B, upon reception of data, the reception interrupt processing program 44 is activated and determines the received data. In this case, since it is a control flag change instruction command, the reception control flag is changed.

With the operations up to this point, the keyboard 1 of terminal device A
The code string input from is sent not only to terminal device A but also to terminal device B.

Next, a command to start the application program is input from the keyboard 1 of the terminal device A. The input code string of this command is stored in the input buffer 48 by the input device interrupt device program 43, and is also transmitted to the terminal device B since the other terminal device control flags are ON.

In terminal device B, reception control flag 47 is ON.
The received data is stored in the input buffer 48 by reception interrupt processing.

The OS reads the code string stored in the input buffer 48 and starts the application program.

With the operations up to this point, the application programs are activated on terminal devices A and B.

Next, from the keyboard 1 of the terminal device A, a display command for displaying the entire circuit diagram is input into the application program. This display command is also sent to terminal device B in the same way. The OS reads the commands stored in the input buffer 48, passes them to the applications, and causes each display device 3 to display the same overall circuit diagram.

Next, when a predetermined key on the input device 2 of the terminal device A is pressed, the other terminal device control flags 46 of the terminal device A are turned OFF, and the reception control flag 47 of the terminal device B is also turned OFF. After that, input from the keyboard 1 of terminal device A is not transferred to terminal device B and is valid only in terminal device A.

Here, when a command for partially enlarged display is inputted from the keyboard 1 of the terminal device A, the command is passed to the application program, and the terminal device A displays the partially enlarged view. At this time, the terminal device B remains on the screen displaying the overall diagram that was displayed earlier and is in a state of waiting for command input.

In this way, the display capacity can be expanded by using two terminal devices without changing the application program.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, in a plurality of mutually connected terminal devices, it is possible to transfer commands from one terminal device to another terminal device, and the command can be executed by the other terminal device, so that in-progress processing can be performed. The terminal device can be used in a wider variety of ways, and the display capacity can be expanded, thereby improving work efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of a terminal system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the processing device 4 in the embodiment of FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the processing procedure of the reception interrupt processing program 44. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the processing procedure of the control flag change interrupt processing program 41. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the processing procedure of the control flag change interrupt processing program 41. 2 is a time chart showing the operation of an embodiment in which the method is applied to expand display capacity. 1...Keyboard, 2...Input device, 3...Display device, 4...Processing device, 5...Communication connection device,
6... Communication cable, 41... Control flag change interrupt processing program, 42... Transmission processing program, 43... Input device interrupt processing program,
44... Reception interrupt processing program, 45... Own terminal device control flag, 46... Other terminal device control flag, 47... Reception control flag, 48...
Input buffer, 49...Receive buffer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a terminal system consisting of a plurality of terminal devices mutually connected via communication lines, each of the terminal devices transmits data input from the input device of its own terminal device to its own terminal device. control means for determining whether the received data is a command from another terminal device or normal data; and a reception control means for determining whether the received data is a command from another terminal device or normal data; What is claimed is: 1. A terminal system comprising pseudo input control means for processing the received data as data input from an input device of its own terminal device in certain cases.