JPH07175626A - Window display controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a method for iconizing a window with the satisfactory utilizing efficiency of a space on a screen. CONSTITUTION:When a user instructs the iconizing of plural windows and the number of individual icons becomes four, a window manager displays one top icon (shared icon) 41 on a screen 40 of a display device. When it is desired to display the iconized window again later, the user moves the mouse cursor onto the top icon 41 and clicks it. While receiving this operation, the window manager arranges and displays slave icons 42-1, 42-2, 42-3 and 42-4 belonging to the top icon 41 into one longitudinal line on the right side of the top icon 41. When the user double clicks one of the displayed slave icons, the window manager restores and displays the window corresponding to that slave icon on the screen 40.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a window display control device for displaying a plurality of windows on a screen of a display unit of an information processing device, and more particularly to a window display control device for controlling window iconization and icon windowing. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, window systems have been adopted in information processing apparatuses such as workstations and personal computers in order to provide a user with an excellent operating environment. In this window system, it is possible to simultaneously display a plurality of windows on the screen of a display device, which is a bitmap display, and to perform separate work in each window.

[0003] Today's window system also provides a function of iconizing a window in order to efficiently use the screen of the display. The iconification of the window is a function of switching the window displayed on the screen to the icon display. That is, for example, when many windows are displayed on the screen, the screen becomes difficult to see, so windows that are not used for the time being are organized as icons,
This function is used when displaying only the required windows on the screen.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an iconizing process of a window which is generally performed conventionally. Figure 11
As shown in (a) of FIG.
It is assumed that six windows D, E, and F are simultaneously displayed. These windows have different display positions and sizes, and are partially hidden by other windows except windows A and D.

When the user wants to display only the window B in such a state, the other five windows A, C, D, E and F are iconized by using an input device such as a mouse. That is, the windows A, C, D,
Perform operations such as double-clicking the iconification buttons at the predetermined positions of E and F with the mouse to hide them, and instead display five icons corresponding to those windows at the bottom of the screen. . As a result, the window B becomes fully visible, and the user can selectively obtain the information displayed in the window B, and can perform work such as document creation and spreadsheet in a highly visible environment. become.

On the other hand, when the user wants to restore the iconified window on the screen, the user puts the mouse cursor on the icon of the window to be displayed and double-clicks the mouse button. The window system stores information on windows that have been iconified, and when a double-click operation is detected, the double-clicked icon is restored and displayed in the original window.

As described above, the iconification of the window is 1
This is useful when you want to temporarily suspend work on a window that is currently displayed and start processing again in a window system that can open many windows on one screen. It is an important function to improve.

[0008]

However, the conventional window iconizing method as described above has the following problems.

That is, since the icons obtained by iconizing are individually displayed on the screen,
As the number of windows to be iconified increases, the number of icons also increases, and accordingly, the area occupied by those icons on the screen also increases, and space efficiency gradually deteriorates.

Further, as the number of icons increases, it takes more time to find a target icon corresponding to the window to be restored, which deteriorates operability. It is an object of the present invention to improve the space efficiency of a display screen when a window is made into an icon and to speed up the icon operation when restoring the window.

[0011]

The present invention is predicated on a window display control device for displaying a window on the screen of a display unit of an information processing device, and has the following first, second and third control means.

The first control means displays the shared icon corresponding to the plurality of windows iconified by the user's instruction. The second control unit causes the plurality of subordinate icons integrated with the shared icon to be regularly arranged and displayed together with the title of the corresponding window according to a user's instruction for the shared icon.

The third control means, when one of the plurality of subordinate icons is instructed to be windowed by the user, causes the window corresponding to the instructed subordinate icon to be generated and displayed.

The plurality of subordinate icons are subordinate to the sharing icon, for example, and form a hierarchical structure together with the sharing icon.

[0015]

When the user gives an instruction to iconify the window, the first control means does not display all the individual icons corresponding to the iconified individual windows on the display screen, but displays them by replacing them with the shared icon. To do. This is done, for example, when the number of icons displayed on the screen exceeds a predetermined number.

This prevents the space efficiency of the screen from deteriorating as the number of icons increases. When the user performs a predetermined instruction operation on the shared icon in order to restore the iconified window on the screen, the second control unit causes all the shared icons to be integrated. The subordinate icon is displayed with, for example, the title of the window.

At this time, the subordinate icons are regularly arranged and displayed in accordance with, for example, the alphabetical order of window titles. This allows the user to easily and quickly select the subordinate icon of the window to be restored.

Next, when the user gives an instruction to any one of the displayed subordinate icons, the third icon is displayed.
Control means restores / displays the window corresponding to the designated subordinate icon on the screen.

With this, the user can easily and quickly restore the desired window from the icon.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus including a window system according to an embodiment.

The mouse 31 and the keyboard 33 are input devices of the window system, and the user operates the window system by using them to give instructions such as iconizing and restoring the window. Mouse 31, keyboard 33
The input from is transmitted to the central processing unit (CPU) 23 via the mouse controller 30 and the keyboard controller 32, respectively.

The CPU 23 writes the data for each dot in the window memory 34 in accordance with the input of the data relating to the screen display from the mouse controller 30 and the keyboard controller 32. Further, the CPU 23 stores the information of the iconified windows in the icon hierarchy table 22, and the resource file 21 stores the information for icon control.

In accordance with an instruction from the CPU 23, the icon control device 24 writes information about a window to be displayed on the screen in the display control memory 25 based on icon management data, which will be described later, stored in the icon hierarchy table 22.

The bit mover 26 is a window memory 34.
The bitmap image of each window stored in the display control memory 25 is transferred to the display memory 27 which is a frame memory of the bitmap format based on the window information stored in the display control memory 25, and the display memory 27 stores one frame of the multi-frame. Write the image of the window screen. At the time of this transfer, the transfer data and the contents in the display memory 27 are AND, OR, EOR (Excl.
Performs logical operations such as usive OR), so-called raster operations.

The display controller 28 displays the display screen stored in the display memory 27 on the screen of a CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube) 29. The user uses the mouse 31 and the keyboard 33 in the window displayed on the screen to perform various operations such as document creation and spreadsheet calculation.

In the window system of this embodiment, a window management program for carrying out processing such as moving, enlarging, reducing, iconizing, and restoring windows is stored in a main storage device (not shown), and the CPU 23 stores this window management program. Execute to perform window processing. This window management program is generally called a window manager.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6, a method of controlling the screen display when an operation of iconizing windows and iconizing windows (restoring iconified windows) is performed in this embodiment will be described. To do.

The user determines the maximum number of icons (hereinafter, referred to as individual icons) that can be displayed on the screen at a time in consideration of the screen size, the size of the window, etc. Write to the resource file 21. The window manager reads the maximum number of individual icons from the resource file 21 and manages the maximum number of individual icons in the main memory by a variable TOP_ICON_MIN.
When the value of OP_ICON_MIN is exceeded, those icons are converted into one icon, that is, a top icon (shared icon) and displayed.

2-6, TOP_ICON_
It is assumed that MIN is set to 3. Figure 2 shows CR
₆ of windows W _{1 to} W ₆ on the screen 40 of T29
Shows the state where two windows are displayed.

In the display state of FIG. 2, when the user performs an operation to iconify the windows W _{1 to} W ₃ using the mouse 1 or the like, the display on the screen 40 changes to the state shown in FIG. That is, the windows W _{1 to} W ₃ are in a non-display state, and each of these windows has an individual icon
_It is converted into _{1 to} ICON ₃ and displayed on the lower left of the screen 40. At this time, the window manager displays window management information such as display positions and sizes of the iconified windows W ₁ , W ₂ and W _{3 in} the icon hierarchy table 2.
Store in 2.

Next, in the display state of FIG. 3, the user
Further window W_FiveTo make the icon an icon
And the number of windows to be iconified is preset
Since the upper limit of 3 is exceeded, a window manager
Is the window W as shown in FIG.₁, W₂, W₃, W
_Five4 individual icons ICON corresponding to₁, ICON
₂, ICON₃, ICON_FiveA top icon 4
Replace it with 1 and display it in the lower left corner of the screen. This
, The window manager is icon hierarchy table 2
2 more window W_FiveStores window management information for
To do. In this way, the number of individual icons to be iconified is
If the number exceeds three, the multiple individual
The icon will be displayed integrated with the top icon 41.
Growls

In this state, even if the windows W ₄ and W ₆ are subsequently made into icons, only the top icons 41 are displayed and the number thereof does not increase. However, icon management data for windows W ₄ and W ₆ is newly stored in the icon hierarchy table 22.

In the display state of FIG. 4, when the user restores the iconified window on the screen 40, the mouse cursor (not shown) is overlaid on the top icon 41 and then the mouse button of the mouse 31 is pressed. click. By this click operation, as shown in FIG. 5, the icons corresponding to the windows W ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ , and W ₅ are displayed in columns on the right side of the top icon 41 as subordinate icons of the top icon 41. still,
The subordinate icons 42-1, 42-2, 42 shown in FIG.
-3 and 42-4 are individual icons ICON ₁ shown in FIG.
Although different from ICON ₂ and ICON ₃ , these individual icons may be used as the subordinate icons. The user has these displayed subordinate icons 42-1 and 42-
Subordinate icons 42-i (i = 1, 2, 3,
5) is designated by the mouse cursor (the mouse cursor is overlaid), and the mouse button of the mouse 31 is double-clicked.

FIG. 6 shows the display state of the screen 40 after the user double-clicks on the icon 42-1 of the window W ₁ in the display state of FIG. That is, the double-click operation restores the window W ₁ from the non-display state to the display state again. Along with this, the number of iconified windows decreases from 4 to 3, so the window manager closes the top icon 41 as shown in FIG.
₂ , W ₃ , W ₅ individual icons ICON ₂ , ICO
N ₃ and ICON ₅ are displayed on the lower left of the screen 40.

In this embodiment, the window manager manages, in addition to the individual icons, a subordinate icon, which is a different form of the top icon and the individual icons subordinate to the top icon, in a hierarchical structure in the icon hierarchy table 22.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the icon hierarchy table 22, and the state shown in FIG. 7 corresponds to the screen of FIG. “Window ID” is an iconified window identifier, and in FIG.
“2” and “3” represent the window W ₁ , window W ₂ , and window W ₃ , respectively.

The "window title" is the name of the application software activated in the window and is sorted in alphabetical order when written in the icon hierarchy table 22. It should be noted that this sorting is performed in units of icon management data described later.

The "window coordinate" is a dot coordinate value indicating the display position of the upper left corner of the window on the screen 40, and the "window size" represents the size of the rectangular area of the window.

The "pointer to the bitmap data of the window" is a pointer value indicating the storage position in the window memory 34 of the bitmap data of the window displayed on the screen 40, and "the pointer to the bitmap data of the icon". The "pointer" is a pointer value indicating the storage position in the window memory 34 of the bitmap data of the icon corresponding to the window.

The "pointer to icon bitmap data" includes pointer values "a ₀ a ₀ a ₀ " and "b ₀ b" for each of the windows W ₁ , W ₂ and W _3.
“ ₀ b ₀ ” and “c ₀ c ₀ c ₀ ” are stored. These pointer values are the individual icons ICON ₁ and IC of FIG.
It indicates the storage position in the window memory 34 of the bit map data of ON ₂ and ICON ₃ .

From each of the fields of "window ID", "window title", "window coordinate", "window size", "pointer to window bitmap data", and "pointer to icon bitmap data" The management data (hereinafter, referred to as icon management data) is created for each iconified window.

FIG. 8 is an icon corresponding to the display state of FIG.
The hierarchy table 22 is shown. In FIG.
Window W whose window ID is 5_FiveIcon management
The data has been added, and the icon bitmap
Window for "pointer to data"₁, W₂, W₃,
W_FiveFor each of the₁a
₁a ₁, "B₁b₁b₁, "C₁c₁c₁, "D
₁d₁d₁Is stored. These pointer values
Is the window W in FIG.₁, Window W₂, Wind
W₃, Window W_FiveBitmap of subordinate icons
Point to the storage position of the data in the window memory 34
There is.

As described above, the number of icon management data stored in the icon hierarchy table 22 is TOP_ICO.
When the set value of N_MIN is exceeded, the "pointer to bitmap data of icon" of the icon management data is changed to the pointer value from the individual icon to the bitmap data of the subordinate icon.

In the above example, TOP_ICON_M
The value of IN is set to 3, but this value can be set freely by the user. For example, if TOP_ICON_MIN is set to 5, it is possible to display the top icon when 6 windows are iconized. is there.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10, the iconizing process and the restoring process of the window performed under the control of the window manager will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the iconizing process.

When the user uses the mouse 31 or the like to instruct the iconification of an arbitrary window displayed on the screen 40, the window manager first displays the iconified icon stored at an arbitrary address in the main memory, for example. The number of windows (hereinafter referred to as “the number of iconized windows”) is incremented by 1 (S
1). As a result, when the window W ₅ is instructed to be iconized on the screen shown in FIG. 3, the “number of iconized windows” is stored as 4.

Next, the incremented "number of iconified windows" is compared with the value of TOP_ICON_MIN to determine whether it is larger than the value of TOP_ICON_MIN (S2). When the "number of iconified windows" exceeds the value of TOP_ICON_MIN (S2, YES), the process of icon hierarchy table creation I is performed (S3), and TOP_ICON_M is set.
When the value does not exceed the value of IN (S2, NO), the process of icon hierarchy table creation II is performed (S5).

In the process of creating the icon hierarchy table I, the icon management data of the newly iconized window is created and stored in the icon hierarchy table 22. At this time, "Number of iconized windows"
Is "4", that is, when TOP_ICON_MIN is exceeded for the first time, for all windows in which icon management data is stored in the icon hierarchy table 22, bitmap data of subordinate icons of those windows is generated, and those bitmaps are generated. A pointer value indicating the storage position of the data in the window memory 34 is set in the "pointer to icon bitmap data" field corresponding to each window. When the "number of iconified windows" is "5" or more, the above process is performed only on the icon management data of the newly iconized window.

Also in the process of the icon hierarchy table creation II, the icon management data of the newly iconized window is created and stored in the icon hierarchy table 22. At this time, the bitmap data of the subordinate icon is not generated, and the "pointer to the bitmap data of the icon" stores the pointer value indicating the storage position of the bitmap data of the individual icon in the window memory 34. In addition, the above two icon hierarchy table creation I,
"Window title" in any processing of II
Perform sort processing by.

When the window manager finishes the process (S3) of creating the icon hierarchy table I, it generates the top icon 41 and displays this top icon 41 instead of the individual icon displayed on the screen 40 until then. (S4).

Thus, for example, as shown in FIG.
Individual icons ICON ₁ , ICON ₂ , ICON ₃
When the window W ₅ is further instructed when is already displayed, the window W ₅ is displayed as shown in FIG.
A top icon 41 in which icons ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ , and W ₅ are integrated is displayed on the screen 40.

When the window manager completes the icon hierarchy table creation II process (S5), it creates a normal individual icon and displays it at a predetermined position on the screen 40 (S6).

FIG. 10 is a flow chart for explaining a process of restoring an icon in a window by the window manager. In this process, the window manager normally inputs from the keyboard 33 and various operations of the mouse 31 (move, click, double-click, etc.)
Is waiting for the occurrence of the event (S11).

When the event information is received by the occurrence of the various events, the event information is analyzed,
If the event is a click operation of the mouse 31, the click operation position is the top icon 4 on the screen 40.
Whether or not it is within the display area of No. 1 is determined by comparing with the display position information of the top icon 41 stored in the main memory in advance (S12). Then, if it is outside the display area of the top icon 41 (S12, NO), other corresponding processing is performed (S22).

On the other hand, the click operation position is on the screen 40.
If it is determined that the icon is in the display area of the top icon 41 above, after all the icons (subordinate icons) subordinate to the top icon 41 are displayed based on all the icon management data in the icon hierarchy table 22. (S13), the state of waiting for an event to occur again (S1
4).

Thus, for example, the screen shown in FIG.
Click the pop-up icon 41, as shown in Fig. 5.
To the right of this top icon 41 is a window W₁,
W₂, W ₃, And W_FiveSubordinate icons 42-1 and 42-
2, 42-3, 42-4 are displayed vertically in a row
To be done.

Further, in this case, since the subordinate icons are displayed in alphabetical order of the window titles, the user can quickly find the subordinate icon of the window to be restored.

When the event information is received again, the event information is analyzed and it is determined whether any of the subordinate icons is double-clicked (S15).
If the position of the mouse cursor when double-clicked is not within the display area of any of the subordinate icons and the event is another event such as the number of clicks is one (S15, NO), the corresponding other Perform processing (S2
3).

On the other hand, if it is determined that any of the subordinate icons is double-clicked (S15, YES), the icon management data in the icon hierarchy table 22 is searched and the icon management data of the subordinate icon double-clicked is read. A window corresponding to the double-clicked subordinate icon is restored and displayed on the screen 40 based on its contents (S16). Then, subsequently, the "number of iconified windows" is decremented by 1, and the icon management data corresponding to the restored window is deleted from the icon hierarchy table 22 (S1).
7).

Next, the "number of iconified windows" obtained by the above decrement is TOP_ICON_
The value is compared with the value of MIN (S18). Then, when it is determined that the “number of iconified windows” has become equal to or less than the value of TOP_ICON_MIN (S18, YES), the top icon 41 is closed, and the top icon 41 and all the icons displayed on the right side of the screen 40 are closed. The dependent icon is erased (S19). And screen 40
All the individual icons are displayed above (S20), and the process returns to step S11 and waits for an event to occur.

By the above operation, when the subordinate icon 42-1 of the window W ₁ is double-clicked on the screen shown in FIG. 5, for example, the screen of the screen 40 changes to the display state shown in FIG. That is, the top icon 41 and its subordinate icons 42-1, 42-2, 42-3, 42-4.
Disappears, the window W _2, W _3, W ₅ of the individual icon ICON _2, ICON _3, ICON ₅ is displayed instead.

On the other hand, in step S18, the "number of iconized windows" is still TOP_ICON_
When it exceeds the value of MIN (S18, NO), the subordinate icon of the restored window is closed or unmapped, and other subordinate icons are also unmapped (S2).
1). The unmapped subordinate icon can be redisplayed on the screen 40 by mapping. At this time, the top icon 41 is displayed as it is, and the step S
The process returns to 11 and waits for an event to occur.

In the above embodiment, the condition for replacing the individual icon with the top icon (shared icon) is that the "number of iconified windows" exceeds the predetermined maximum number of displayable individual icons. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the user can arbitrarily set this condition. For example, when the user specifies a specific window in the resource file 21 and makes the specified window an icon, the window manager may replace the individual icon with the top icon.

Further, although the individual icons of all iconified windows are replaced with the top icons, this may be limited to a part of the individual icons. For example, when the window W ₅ is iconized in the display state of FIG. 3, only the individual icons of the windows W ₁ , W ₂ and W ₃ are replaced with the top icon, and the window W ₅ for which the iconification instruction is finally given May be replaced with an individual icon and displayed next to the top icon.

Further, the icon management data is stored in the icon hierarchy table 22 in the alphabetical order of the window titles, but this is not the case when the window titles are described by another method. For example, they may be stored and displayed in the order of Japanese syllabary or in the order of numbers.

Furthermore, the hierarchical structure of the icons of the present invention is not limited to two layers, and subordinate icons may be managed in a larger number of layers as necessary. For example, when using icons of upper, middle, and lower layers, the upper layer is one top icon, and the lower layer is a subordinate icon corresponding to each window. In this case, the middle layer icon is a shared icon having one or more lower layer icons as subordinate icons, and also has the character of a subordinate icon subordinate to the upper layer top icon.

In the case of such a hierarchical structure, icons in the lower hierarchy are divided into groups according to the type of application activated in each window such as document creation, spreadsheet, graphic, database, etc., and document creation, By associating one middle-level icon for each group such as spreadsheet, it is possible to efficiently select the icon corresponding to the target window even when a large number of windows are iconified. In this case, when the user gives an instruction to restore the window on the top icon, a plurality of middle-level icons corresponding to the iconified application types are displayed. Then, when one of the icons in the middle layer corresponding to the desired application field is selected and a restore instruction is given, all icons in the target application field subordinate to the icon in the middle layer are displayed. . The user can quickly select the icon of the target application from these displayed lower hierarchy icons, restore it to the original window, and resume execution of the target application in the window.

The same use can be considered when a multi-layer structure having four or more layers is used.

[0069]

According to the present invention, since a large number of icons are represented by one shared icon,
This makes it possible to use the screen of the display in a space-efficient manner when iconifying many windows.

Further, since the subordinate icons corresponding to the individual windows are regularly arranged and displayed together with the titles of the corresponding windows, the desired icon can be easily and quickly found on the screen.

Furthermore, for example, by the user arbitrarily setting the conditions for replacing the iconified window with the shared icon, a window system can be realized according to the individual business form of the user.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a multi-window display screen.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of a display screen when a window is iconified on the screen shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of a top icon.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example when a top icon is clicked.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example when the number of icons is reduced to three due to windowing of icons.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the contents of an icon hierarchy table when there is no top icon.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the contents of an icon hierarchy table when there is a top icon.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a window iconizing process performed by a window manager.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by a window manager to restore an icon into a window.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a conventional window iconizing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 resource file 22 icon hierarchy table 23 central processing unit 24 icon display unit 25 display control memory 26 bit mover 27 display memory 28 display control unit 29 CRT 30 mouse control unit 31 mouse 32 keyboard control unit 33 keyboard 34 window memory 40 screen 41 top Icon (shared icon) 42-1, 42-2, 42-3, 42-4 Subordinate icon

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A window display control device for displaying a window on a screen of a display unit of an information processing device, comprising: first control means for displaying a shared icon corresponding to a plurality of iconified windows; and the sharing. Second control means for displaying a plurality of subordinate icons integrated into the shared icon by an instruction to the icon, and a windowing instruction to one of the plurality of subordinate icons, And a third control means for generating and displaying a window corresponding to the instructed subordinate icon, the window display control device.