JPH06149510A - Device and method for displaying and changing attribute on screen - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a method, system and program for providing the display processing of improved attributes related with any specified area on a display in order to support the dynamic mapping of display attributes into the area on the display. CONSTITUTION: A process in the memory of a processor and a display are included. A user selects any specified area on the display. Next, the processor decides which attribute type is related with a text in the selected area. The proper attribute type is highlighted on the display, and the current attribute related with that area on the display is clearly reported to the user. Afterwards, the user changes the attribute of that area and can immediately look at the result in order to decide whether or not any additional change is to be required.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to improvements in color display technology, and more particularly to providing an interactive device and method for selecting control attributes for a user display.

[0002]

Color displays usually include a default selection of colors displayed by a computer system when the system is initialized. However, users often want to adjust these colors to suit their particular requirements.

A related conventional approach for mapping attributes to emulate a particular host terminal is disclosed in US Pat. No. 4,837,710. This patent discusses a host computer that stores data and attribute bytes for a display on a terminal or personal computer with an attached display. These attributes include low intensity, underline, inversion, blink (blink) and hide (hidden). These attributes are predefined in the host processor to drive the connected personal computer according to user preferences. No function is provided for interactively modifying attribute information from a personal computer.

An early attempt to solve this problem was I
BM Technical Disclosure Bulleti
n, TDB), Vol. 30, No. 8, page 30-2 (1
(January 988 issue). This TDB
Discloses a field and color status menu driver that allows a color selection program for the IBM PC3270 emulation program to display color specifications for 3274 field types and their current color specifications. Here again, the user can change the color designation for any 3274 field,
Also disclosed is a method that allows defining active function keys. This method cycles through the available color palettes available for display until the user identifies the desired section. There is no description of how to map the user's selections to the actual areas on the display.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to identify the attributes associated with a particular area on a display to aid in the dynamic remapping of display control attributes to areas on the display. It is to provide a system and method for displaying.

[0006]

These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by the operation of processes and displays in the memory of the processor. The user selects a particular area on the display. The processor then determines which attribute type is associated with the text in the selected area. The correct attribute type is highlighted on the display to clearly inform the user of the current attributes associated with the area on that display. The user can then change the attributes of the area and immediately see the results to determine if additional changes are needed.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows a typical hardware configuration of a workstation having a central processing unit 10, such as a conventional microprocessor, and a plurality of other units interconnected via a system bus 12. . Figure 1
The workstations shown in are random access memory (RAM) 14 and read only memory (ROM) 1
6. I / O adapter 18 for connecting peripheral devices such as disk unit 20 to the bus, keyboard 2
4, mouse 26, loudspeaker 28, microphone 3
2 and / or a user interface adapter 2 for connecting other user interface devices to the bus
2. Includes a communication adapter 34 for connecting the workstation to a data processing network or other communication device and a display adapter 36 for connecting the bus to a display device 38.

Display device 38 has attributes associated with each pixel on the display. These attributes unambiguously determine the color of a pixel regardless of whether the pixel is in a protected field, is blinking, has underlines, or has other characteristics. Contains information. These attributes are stored in the data structure associated with each pixel on the display. The operating system, ie OS / 2 in this case, has a utility that allows the user to specify the attributes of an area on the display. However, without the present invention, this designation is a success / failure (trial and error) procedure, which is annoying to the user and not productive.

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for indicating to a user which attribute is being used to display text under the cursor. This technique improves dialogue,
Helps the user to remap attributes on the display. Attributes are properties of one or more pixels on the display screen. Using the present invention, the user no longer needs to know what type of attribute he is manipulating. All that is needed is to specify the area on the display that you want to remap. Then, the attribute information associated with the designated area is displayed in text and graphics.

In conventional systems, the user has no way of knowing which field or extended attribute corresponds to any given area on the display. For example, if a field on the user's display is blue and the user wants to remap this field to a different color, whether the field is normal or unprotected, It was ambiguous as to whether it was protected or had some other hidden attribute associated with the field.

The present invention is designed to be cursor driven. Therefore, when the utility is invoked, the attribute information associated with the area under the cursor is displayed. The process gets the attribute information associated with this area from the display memory. A table search is then performed to determine the type of attribute. The correct attribute type is presented to the user using a character and graphic display format. Thus, the user can point to any area on the display, easily identify the current attribute information, and select new attribute information via a dialog box or other display.
This extension allows the user to unambiguously determine the appropriate attributes and properly display the given character on the display. Display Color Table In the present invention, the attribute is foreground / background (foreground / backg).
round) Communicated as a combination of colors. The list given below is the attributes that can be changed by the user via the present invention. Default values are also shown here. The attribute mapping shown above clearly shows that ambiguity results when color is used as the sole criterion to distinguish the attribute type of a particular area on the display. For example, on the display, the standard
Unprotected fields appear to have the same attributes as green fields on the display. The present invention removes this ambiguity and sends the attribute information unambiguously to the user in a way that is easily distinguishable.

The preferred implementation of the present invention is IBM OS / 2.
Presentation Manager
Is an emulator package that runs in the memory of a computer under control of. When the Color Remap utility is called as a subset of the emulator package, a dialog box appears at the top of the emulator window. Thus, the user can continue to use the emulator while the remapping process is being performed.

When a user calls the color remap utility from the emulator, the emulator determines which attribute should be used to display the character on which the cursor is currently located. The emulator passes the index corresponding to that attribute to the color remapping utility. The color remap utility then highlights the attributes on its dialog box as shown at 200 and 210 in FIG. A combination of colors is provided on the highlighted area and a textual description is also provided to the user at 220. Logic (Flowchart) FIGS. 3 and 4 are detailed flow diagrams illustrating the logic of the present invention. The process begins at function block 300 when the user invokes the color remap utility by pressing a key or mouse button. Next, as shown in function block 310, the emulator determines which attribute is being used to display the character under the cursor. The emulator then translates this attribute into an index that the color remap utility can understand, as shown in function block 320, and the emulator passes this index to the color remap utility, as shown in function block 330. The color remap utility then displays a dialog box that highlights the attribute corresponding to the index passed as the input parameter, as shown in function block 340. At this point, the attributes to be used to display the character under the cursor can be seen, as shown in function block 350, and the main loop can set other attributes as shown in function block 360. Enter the process to handle.

The main processing loop for the utility is shown in FIG. In function block 400, a wait state occurs for a user action. Decision block 410
If it is detected that the user has changed the color of the current attribute at, control passes to the function block 412 to update the emulator with the new attribute information, and the emulator as indicated in function block 414. This new color is stored and control is passed to function block 400 to await the next user action.

If at decision block 420 it is detected that the user selects a different attribute for remapping, then at function block 422 the color remapping utility causes the new attribute to reflect the user's selection. And then control is passed to function block 400 to wait for the user's next action.

When the user double clicks on a window with the mouse button, the first click designates that window as the current area and the second click causes the cursor to be bound as detected in decision block 430. . The emulator then moves its cursor to the character under the mouse pointer, as shown in function block 432, the attributes of the area under the cursor are determined in function block 434, and the emulator functions the color remap utility. Updating with the new attribute as shown in block 436, the color remap utility highlights this new attribute, as shown in function block 438, and then control the user's next action. Returned to function block 400 to wait.

When the user presses the exit key as detected in decision block 440, the dialog box closes and disappears from the display as shown in function block 450.

While many systems have color remapping capabilities, none of these systems explicitly indicate which attribute is used to display any character on the display. The color of a particular area can be easily identified. However, the underlying attributes associated with this area are provided unambiguously only by the present invention. This enhanced user interface removes guesswork from color remapping operations. Furthermore, if the user modifies certain attributes via the color remap utility, this modification is accomplished immediately,
This is communicated to the user.

[0019]

[Table 1]

[0020]

[Table 2]

[0021]

[Table 3]

[0022]

[Table 4]

[0023]

[Table 5]

[0024]

[Table 6]

[0025]

[Table 7]

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the user designates a specific area on the display with the cursor, the control attribute of what is displayed in this area is displayed on the display, and the interactive screen is displayed. It is possible to change and add the control attribute of the area via.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a personal computer system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a dialog box according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a detailed flow chart illustrating the logic of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a detailed flow chart illustrating the logic of the present invention.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Lou, Juan United States Texas, Austin, Pathfinder, Drive, 6305 (72) Inventor Charles, Robert, Ericsson United States Texas, Cedar, Park, Spider Lilly, View, 1509

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A device for displaying the attributes of a screen, the device comprising: (a) means for detecting the position of the cursor on the screen; (b) associated with the position of the cursor on the screen. An apparatus comprising means for determining the value of an attribute, and (c) means for simultaneously displaying all aspects of the attribute for a detected cursor position. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, including means for changing on-screen attributes. 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the attributes include color information. 4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the attributes include highlighting information. 5. The apparatus of claim 2 including means for generating a dialog box for changing the attribute information. 6. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the attribute information includes field information. 7. A method for displaying the attributes of a screen, the method comprising: (a) detecting the position of the cursor on the screen; (b) determining the position of the cursor on the screen. A method comprising: determining a value; and (c) simultaneously displaying all aspects of the attribute for the detected cursor position. 8. The method of claim 7 including the step of changing on-screen attributes. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the attributes include at least one of color information, highlighting information, and field information. 10. The method of claim 8 including the step of generating a dialog box for changing the attribute information.