JPH0540587A - Menu picture preparation tool - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate menu picture generation by decomposing an equipment displayed at a menu picture into plural elements, selecting a feature for each element, assembling the equipment according to the selected elements and arranging the equipment. CONSTITUTION:For a menu picture 4, a title 11 is written in a display frame 10, for example, a window 5 is displayed in the frame and further, plural icons 6 are displayed. Next, when the picture is displayed, the prescribed selection is executed. The select signal is outputted from an element selecting means 20 to a parts generating means 21. According to the selection of the element selecting means 20, the parts generating means 21 selects and generates the parts such as the shape of the icon 6 or a character to be displayed at the menu picture 4. The parts generated like this is arranged and displayed at the prescribed position of the menu picture 4 by a picture generation part 22.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a menu screen creation tool for easily creating a menu screen displayed on the display of a personal computer or a workstation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a personal computer, a workstation or the like, a menu screen is displayed on its display in order to execute various information processing. The operator proceeds with the work by selecting a certain process while looking at the menu screen.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a general personal computer menu screen. Illustrated personal computer 1
Is provided with a keyboard 2 and a display 3. A menu screen 4 is displayed on the display 3. The menu screen 4 is, for example, a screen for operating the window system, and a plurality of windows 5 are displayed in an overlapping manner. Further, on the right side thereof, an icon 6 for displaying control of each window is displayed. Then, the operator operates the mouse 7 when switching the display contents of the window 5 or switching the vertical relationship of the plurality of windows. It should be noted that such processed data is stored in the magnetic disk device 8. When developing a program for the above processing, the work of creating the menu screen 4 is indispensable.
In order to easily create this menu screen 4, a menu screen creating tool has been conventionally provided.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a conventional menu screen creation tool. As shown in the figure, this tool displays a title input screen 12-1, an icon selection screen 12-2, a display frame designation screen 12-3 and a display field designation screen 12-4, and the menu screen 4 is displayed according to the guidance of these screens. It is configured to create. This tool is provided with a screen generation unit 12 that controls the screen displayed to the operator and controls the display of the menu screen created according to the operator's designation. Further, a program conversion unit 13 for converting the menu screen generated by the screen generation unit 12 into a program for use is provided.

The menu screen 4 shown in the figure has, for example, a title 11 written in a display frame 10 of a predetermined design, and a field for displaying a window 5 and a field for displaying an icon 6 are provided. This icon 6
For example, an instruction for switching the window 5 and an instruction for switching the page of the text or drawing displayed in the window 5 are included. The title input screen 12-1 is a screen that prompts the operator to input a title to be written in the title 11 of the display frame 10. Also, the icon selection screen 12
Reference numeral -2 is a screen for selecting an icon to be displayed in the display field of the icon 6 from those prepared in advance. The display frame designation screen 12-3 is a screen for selecting and nominating several types of display frames prepared in advance.
The display frame is not shown here. The display field designation screen 12-4 is window 5
It is a screen for designating the range of the field for displaying and the field for displaying the icon 6. Each screen 1 as above
When 2-1 to 12-4 are displayed, the operator makes necessary selections. The screen generation unit 12 generates the menu screen 4 according to the selection and displays it on the display 3. When the displayed menu screen is the one desired by the operator, the screen generation work is terminated, and then the program conversion unit 13 causes the program conversion unit 13 to use a predetermined programming language such as C.
Convert to language. A target application can be created by adding a program related to the functional part of the application program to the program thus obtained.

[0006]

The conventional menu screen creation tool as described above can select an icon or display frame to be displayed, but the shape of each icon or display frame is predetermined. Was there. Therefore, for example, even if the operator desires to give variations in the shape of the icon, the content of the characters written in the icon, and the like, it cannot be realized as it is. On the other hand, in the menu screens of various application programs, not only the positions of the icons and the display frames are fixed, but also the shapes and the contents of characters are different.
Therefore, a certain menu screen creation tool can support only a specific application program, and even if the user desires to use the menu screen creation tool for creating menu screens of various application programs, Its application was very difficult. The present invention has been made paying attention to the above points, and more freely selects the configuration of the components displayed in the menu screen, and easily executes the generation of the menu screen for various application programs. The purpose is to provide a menu screen creation tool that can

[0007]

The menu screen creation tool of the present invention is for creating a menu screen, selecting parts displayed in the menu screen, and creating an arbitrary menu screen. Then, the parts are disassembled into a plurality of elements, element selection means for selecting the characteristics of each element, part generation means for assembling the parts according to the selected elements, and the selected plurality of parts are arranged. It is characterized by comprising a screen generation unit for generating a menu screen.

[0008]

[Function] This menu screen creation tool selects and arranges the components finally displayed in the menu screen. However, it is possible to disassemble this part into a plurality of elements in advance by the element selecting means and select the feature for each element. For example,
Features such as the type of icon frame, the size of characters in the frame, and the shape of the frame can be arbitrarily selected. As a result, the operator can freely select and configure the configuration of the component itself, so that it is possible to create a menu screen applicable to various application programs.

[0009]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a menu screen creation tool of the present invention. In the figure, the menu screen 4 to be finally generated has, for example, a title 11 written in a display frame 10, a window 5 displayed therein, and a plurality of icons 6 displayed therein. It should be a composition. This structure itself is no different from the conventional structure described in FIG. here,
The menu screen creating tool of the present invention includes an element selecting unit 20, a component creating unit 21, a screen creating unit 22, and a program converting unit 2 for creating such a menu screen 4.
3 is provided.

The element selecting means 20 operates the frame selecting screen 20-1.
And character selection screen 20-2 and frame shape selection screen 20-
3 and the function selection screen 20-4 are displayed. The operator makes a predetermined selection when these screens are displayed. The selection signal is output from the element selection means 20 to the component generation means 21. The component generation unit 21 selects and generates a component to be displayed on the menu screen 4, for example, the shape or character of the icon 6 according to the selection of the element selection unit 20. As a result, the icon selection screen 1 described with reference to FIG.
The icon displayed in 2-2 will be newly generated. The parts generated in this way are displayed on the screen generation unit 22.
In, the menu screen 4 is arranged and displayed at a predetermined position. The screen generation unit 22 is a circuit for performing such display control, and the configuration of this portion is substantially the same as that of the conventional screen generation unit 12 shown in FIG. The configuration of the program conversion unit 23 is the same as that of the conventional program conversion unit 13 described in FIG. 3, and uses the data of the menu screen output from the screen generation unit 22 to generate a program in a predetermined programming language. Is.

The element selecting means 20 is constructed so as to sequentially display the frame selection screen 20-1 and the in-frame character selection screen 20-2 on the display to prompt the operator to make a selection. The hardware configuration of this device itself is
It may be similar to the personal computer shown in FIG. 2, and the selection screen as described above is displayed on the display while the menu screen is being created, and the menu screen is finally displayed on the display 3 when the generation of the menu screen is completed. Is becoming The element selecting unit 20, the component generating unit 21, the screen generating unit 22, and the program converting unit 23 are
Each of them is composed of a program having a predetermined function for operating the microprocessor of the personal computer. Therefore, the element selection means 20 here
Has a function as a characteristic description file having characteristics of individual parts.

FIG. 4 shows a tool operation flowchart of the present invention. A specific operation of the menu screen creation tool of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the drawings. First, in step S1 of FIG. 4, a component selection process is executed. This is for prompting the operator to select what kind of component is to be generated. For example, the operator makes a selection of generating the icon 6. This may be a screen in which part names are listed on the screen and is not exemplified in FIG. Next, in step S2, the element selecting means 20 is activated. As a result, the element selection screen is displayed in step S3. Here, for example, the frame selection screen 20 shown in FIG.
When -1 is displayed, the operator selects whether there is a frame of the icon 6, only a horizontal line instead of the frame, or whether the frame is not used. Next, in-frame character selection screen 2
0-2 is displayed, and the operator specifies the size of the character to be displayed in the frame, for example, whether the size of the character is 10 points or 12 points. In this case, the characters to be entered in the frame may be input subsequently to the in-frame character selection screen 20-2. Further, when the frame shape selection screen 20-3 is displayed, the operator selects the shape of the frame of the icon 6 this time. For example, when the shape of the frame is preferably oval, that shape is selected. Further, when the function selection screen 20-4 is displayed, the processing content to be processed is selected by designating the icon.
For example, if the icon is for switching windows, the function of switching windows is selected. Such functions are displayed, for example, in the form of process A, process B, ... And the function of the icon is designated by selecting them.

By the processing of the element selecting means 20 as described above, the icon desired by the operator is selected. Figure 4
In step S4, it is determined whether or not the selection of all the elements is completed. If the selection is not completed yet, the process returns to step S2, and when all the selections are completed, the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, it is determined whether or not the selection of all parts has been completed. That is, in the above description, the selection of the icon has been described, but there are various components to be displayed on the menu screen 4 in addition to the icon. Display frame 10
The title 11 is also one of the parts. It is determined in step S5 whether or not all of these selections have been completed. If all of the selections have been completed, the process moves to step S6 and parts are generated. That is, the component generation means 21 generates an image of each component based on the selected element.

The image of each component thus selected is
It is sent out to the screen generation unit 22. The screen generator 22
The component is used to generate a menu screen (step S7 in FIG. 4). This menu screen 4 is displayed on the display. If necessary, the operator further modifies the menu screen 4 and completes the menu screen. Thereafter, the image of the completed menu screen 4 is output from the screen generation unit 22 to the program conversion unit 23. The program conversion unit 23 converts this into an intermediate language (see FIG.
Step S8), and then further converted into source code for incorporation into the application program (FIG. 4).
Step S9).

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. In the above embodiment, the embodiment of the tool of the present invention has been described as a creation tool for creating a menu screen for controlling the window system, but the tool of the present invention is used for creating any menu screen in various information processing devices. Can be used.

[0016]

The menu screen creation tool of the present invention described above decomposes the parts displayed in the menu screen into a plurality of elements, selects the characteristics of each element, and selects the parts according to the selected elements. Since the components are assembled and the menu screen is generated by arranging the components obtained in this way, each component can be freely designed and various menu screen generation work can be facilitated.
As a result, an extremely versatile menu creation tool can be obtained, and the conventional tools required for each menu screen of various application programs are no longer required.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a menu screen creation tool of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a general personal computer menu screen.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional menu screen creation tool.

FIG. 4 is a tool operation flowchart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 menu screen 20 element selection means 21 parts generation means 22 screen generation section 23 program conversion section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A menu screen is configured to select a component displayed in the menu screen to create an arbitrary menu screen, wherein the component is decomposed into a plurality of elements, Each element is provided with an element selecting means for selecting its characteristic, a part generating means for assembling parts according to the selected element, and a screen generating section for arranging a plurality of selected parts to generate a menu screen. A menu screen creation tool featuring.