JPH07281861A - Multiwindow computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the information input operability of a computer system which has a multiwindow system and a multidevice input system. CONSTITUTION:This system has a display device 10 and a computer which displays windows 12, 13, and 14 on its display screen 10a and performs different processes in the respective windows, and is equipped with a coordinate detection device 17 which detects and outputs pieces of coordinate information indicated by plural position indicators to the computer at the same time, at least one private position indicator 18, a position indicator discriminating means which discriminates the kinds of the position indicators, and a switching means which inputs coordinate information to the process corresponding to a current active window irrespective of the indicated position when the position indicator discriminating means decides that the operated position indicator is a private position indicator, or switches the current process to the process corresponding to the window including the indicated position and inputs the coordinate information to the process when another position indicator is discriminated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer system having a multi-device input system capable of simultaneously inputting position information using a plurality of position pointing devices and a multi-window system for displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art CAD (Computer Aided) is an apparatus for designing electric circuits and machines using a computer.
Design) system is known. In the CAD system, a drawing area is set on the display screen of the display device, and an electric circuit or the like to be designed is drawn in this drawing area. The drafter selects a symbol that represents a component such as an electric circuit, inputs the selected symbol into a computer and displays it at a required position on the display screen, and considers the structure of the electric circuit to be designed, A large number of symbols will be connected on the display screen to design an electric circuit.

On the other hand, recently, basic software (OS) having a multi-window function capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen and operating different application programs in each window has become mainstream.

[0004]

The commercial software of the CAD system described above is also required to operate in multiple windows, and a CAD system satisfying this requirement has been proposed. In the environment of the multi-window system, the pointing device such as an electronic pen and the input means of the mouse are under the control of the basic software. Then, generally, the coordinate information generated by the operation of the position indicator is configured to be sent to the application software corresponding to the window displayed at the position corresponding to the designated position.

For this reason, in the case of operating the application program of the CAD system by utilizing one of the windows in the multi-window system,
When selecting and inputting the necessary symbols from the menu sheet placed on the coordinate detection device, when trying to specify a symbol that exists in a range that does not correspond to your window, the coordinate information is There is a problem of being passed to another application program running in another window corresponding to.

As a conventional method for solving the above problem, there is a coordinate input control method proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-58053. This method is a very special method and has a drawback that the operation is difficult to understand.

An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-window system and a multi-device input system, and an application that operates in an active window even if an input operation is performed in an area outside the area corresponding to the active window in the input operation area. It is intended to provide coordinate information to a program and provide a multi-window computer system with improved operability.

[0008]

A computer system according to the present invention is a system having a display device and a computer for displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen of the display device and operating a separate process in each window.
A coordinate detecting device that simultaneously detects coordinate information indicated by each of a plurality of position indicators operated on the coordinate detectable area and outputs the coordinate information to a computer, and at least one private position indicator included in the plurality of position indicators. And a position indicator identifying means for identifying the type of the position indicator, and the position indicator identifying means, when the operated position indicator identifies as a private position indicator, is output from the coordinate detecting device. The coordinate information output from the coordinate detection device is input to the process corresponding to the current active window regardless of the position indicated by the position indicator, and when it is identified as a position indicator other than that. , A switching means for switching and inputting to a process corresponding to the window including the designated position.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in a computer system having a coordinate input system having a multi-device function and a multi-window display and processing system, at least one of the plurality of position indicators has a region other than the active window. Even if an input is made at the indicated position included in, the input information is passed to the process of the active window that is currently being executed without switching the active window. And the operability of the multi-device input system can be improved.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a computer system having a multi-window system and a coordinate input system having a multi-device function. Display screen 10a of display device 10
For example, three windows 12, 13, and 14 are displayed. An arbitrary application program different from each other is executed in each window, and the CAD system is realized by using one of the windows. For convenience of illustration, the display in each window is omitted. Reference numeral 11 denotes a computer, which has a memory for storing an application program for the CAD system and a program for implementing other processes, and a CPU for executing these programs. Reference numeral 16 denotes a plurality of symbols 1 which are necessary constituent elements for creating a figure in the drawing area.
The menu sheet 5 is drawn. The menu sheet 16 is placed in the coordinate detectable area of a coordinate detecting device (generally called a digitizer or tablet) 17 having a coordinate detectable area (sensor table) and functioning as position information input means. The coordinate detection device according to this embodiment has a multi-device function.

Here, the coordinate detecting device 17 having a multi-device function means that the sensor unit of the coordinate detecting device operates, for example, two pen-type position indicators on the sensor table, and each position information (coordinate data). ), It has a hardware configuration and a data structure capable of simultaneously detecting and outputting the position information indicated by the two position indicators. Therefore, the operator can carry out the input operation of the position information by holding at least two position indicators 18 and 19 on both hands on the sensor table of the coordinate detecting device 17. The coordinate data input by pointing with the two position pointing devices 18, 19 is sent from the coordinate detecting device 17 to the computer 11. As a coordinate detecting device having a multi-device function, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-1 proposed by the present applicant.
47012, Japanese Patent Application No. 63-106033, Japanese Patent Application No. 6
There is a device disclosed in 3-108424 or the like.

The CAD system is, for example, a system for designing an electric circuit.
The menu sheet 16 placed on the top has various symbols 1 showing electric circuit elements necessary for drawing an electric circuit.
5 is drawn on each of a number of grid-shaped sections. Each of these symbols becomes the menu content to be selected based on a predetermined position indicator described later. The menu sheet 16 is made of paper, for example. On the other hand, the drawing area is set in, for example, the window 13 among the three windows opened on the display screen 10a of the display device 10 such as a CRT.

In the CAD system executed in the window 13, any one of the menu items (symbols) of the menu sheet 16 placed on the coordinate detecting device 17 is selected and input to the computer 11 and displayed on the display screen. A process for displaying (menu selection process) and various processes generally required for creating an electric circuit or the like displayed in the drawing area are performed.

Next, in the coordinate detector 17 having the multi-device function and the two position indicators 18 and 19 used on the input operation table thereof, the two position indicators 1
Of the eight and nineteen, the position pointing device 18 is set to be a dedicated position pointing device involved only in the above-mentioned menu selection processing. Further, the position indicator 19 is set so as to be a position indicator that is involved only in normal processing. Here, the position indicator 18 will be referred to as a "private position indicator" and the position indicator 19 will be referred to as a "normal position indicator". The respective functions of the private position indicator 18 and the normal position indicator 19 will be described in detail in the description of the internal configuration of the computer and the data processing. Generally speaking, the information on the position pointed by the private position pointer 18 does not switch the input process and does not switch to the active window even if the pointed position exists in the area outside the active window at that time. It is characterized in that it is passed to the corresponding process. The normal position indicator 19 does not have such a feature, and has a function of switching the input process and passing the input information to the window corresponding to the specified position when it is outside the area of the active window. is doing.

The coordinate detecting device 17 having the multi-device function can output coordinate information (including the identifying data in the coordinate data) for identifying the two position indicators 18, 19. for that reason,
On the computer 11 side, the private position indicator 18
Is the coordinate data input corresponding to the instruction operation of
It is possible to determine whether the coordinate data is input in response to the pointing operation of the normal position indicator 19. Then, necessary processing is performed according to each coordinate data. This configuration will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

Regarding the system configuration shown in FIG. 1, the functional means provided in the computer 11 will be clarified as shown in FIG. 17a is a coordinate detection device 17
Shows an effective area (coordinates detectable area) of which a menu sheet is arranged. Reference numerals 18 and 19 denote two position indicators that are simultaneously operated on the effective area 17a. As described above, 18 is a private position indicator and 19 is a normal position indicator. Further, 10a shows a display screen of the display device 10. In FIG. 2, the configuration shown above the dashed-dotted line 21 shows the configuration related to various functions implemented by the program inside the computer 11.

Reference numeral 22 denotes an input control processing means, which takes in coordinate data output from the coordinate detecting device 17 as described later and controls the input coordinate data corresponding to the data structure of the coordinate data. Reference numeral 23 is a pointer display processing means, which takes in coordinate values included in the coordinate data of each position indicator obtained by the input control processing means 22 and displays the display screen 10.
At a, pointers 18A and 19A are displayed at the pointing positions of the respective pointing devices corresponding to the coordinate values. Further, the coordinate data input and stored in the input control processing means 22 is sent to any one of the processes A, B and C via the changeover switch 24. Here, the three processes have three windows 12, 13, and 14 opened in the display screen 10a in the present embodiment, and the process A is executed in the window 12 and the process B is executed in the window 13. Then, the process C is executed in the window 14. A different process is executed in each window, and the process B is based on the CAD application program described above. The coordinate data output from the input control processing means 22 is the process A, B, C.
Which process among them is passed is determined by the switching operation of the changeover switch 24. The changeover operation of the changeover switch 24 is controlled by the input process changeover processing means 25. Further, the input process switching processing means 25 performs the operation for the above control based on the information generated by the position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26, the window area determination means 27, and the window management information 28.

The position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26 is a characteristic constituent part of the present invention. Based on the coordinate data read from the input control processing means 22, the position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26 determines that the coordinate data is 2
It has a function (position indicator identifying means) for identifying which of the two position indicators 18, 19 is the coordinate data instructed by the position indicator. Then, the coordinate data is converted into the normal position indicator 1 by the position indicator identifying means.
When it is determined that the coordinate data is input by 9, the window management information 28 is referred to for the window area that includes the current pointed position of the normal position indicator 19 based on the coordinate value included in the coordinate data. Is selected by the window area determination means 27, and the changeover switch 24 is set so that the coordinate data is passed to the process B corresponding to the determined window (window 13 in this embodiment).
Change the connection status of. In the illustrated example, the window 13 is in the active window state and switching is not performed. However, when the position indicated by the normal position indicator 19 exists in the area of a window other than the active window, the window becomes the active window. The input process is switched to and the coordinate data is passed to the corresponding process.

When the position indicator identifying means determines that the coordinate data is the coordinate data input by the private position indicator 18, the window area containing the current position of the private position indicator 19 is defined. Regardless of this, the window area determination means 27 determines the current active window, and the coordinate data is passed to the process B corresponding to the determined window (window 13 in this embodiment). Therefore, with respect to the private position indicator 18, even if the designated position exists in an area other than the active window, the switch to the window corresponding to the area is not performed, and the switching switch 24
In, the input process switching operation is not performed. As described above, as seen from the process side, the input operation of the position indicator 18 is always input to the active window at that time regardless of the area where the input position of the input coordinate data exists. Therefore, it is different from a general normal position indicator, and is called a private position indicator in the sense that it performs a private operation.

In the process B for realizing CAD, generally, the normal process for the graphic displayed in the drawing area of the window 13 and the menu selecting process for putting the selected symbol into the drawing area are executed. It More specifically, the normal process is a process for executing a general operation for a drawing process in the CAD system and a screen menu process using the screen menu area, and the menu selection process is a process for the menu sheet 16. When the menu contents are selected by the position indicator, it is a process for reading the data relating to the symbol corresponding to the position (coordinate data) specified by the position indicator and displaying it in the drawing area.

The data output from each of the processes A, B and C is displayed on the display screen 10a via the display control processing means 29.
Is displayed in.

The structure of the coordinate data sent from the input control processing means 22, the position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26, and the coordinate detection device 17 to the computer 11 and the data structure inside the computer 11 will be described.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the data format of the coordinate data sent from the coordinate detecting device 17 to the computer 11. The data format of FIG. 3 is RS232C.
This is a data format when it is set on the interface and in the multi-mode corresponding to the above-mentioned multi-device function. 1 byte is 7 for coordinate data
Each bit has 14 bytes and is transferred from the coordinate detection device 17 to the computer 11 as 1-byte serial data. In the data structure shown in FIG.
7 bytes indicates the data regarding the position indicator 18, 8 to 14 bytes indicates the data regarding the position indicator 19, and the next bit of RDY is 1 or 0. It is the coordinate data regarding which position indicator (18 or 19). Computer 1
It can be determined on the 1st side. In FIG. 3, RDY indicates 1 when the position indicator points within the effective reading range, RES is a reserve bit, E is a switch common flag (1 when any switch is pressed), F0
To F4 are binary number data indicating the pressed switch number, Xs and Ys are coordinate value sign bits, X0 to Y15 are X coordinate binary number data, Y0 to Y15 are Y coordinate binary number data, and As is a writing pressure. Information sign bits A0 to A5 are binary data of writing pressure information.

When the coordinate data is sent to the computer 11 byte by byte in the data format shown in FIG. 3, the input control processing means 22 keeps the received data as it is until one set of data of 14 bytes is prepared. Save in the format. When one set of data is prepared, the data is converted into the format shown in FIG. 4 and stored in the memory.

Now, two position indicators 18, 19 are used on the menu sheet 16, for example, which is placed in the effective area of the coordinate detecting device 17, and in the operation such as menu selection by these position indicators. When the switch of each position indicator is pressed, the selection content is identified based on the coordinate data corresponding to the pressed position. For example, in the normal position indicator 19, when the position indicator moves without the switch being pressed, only the processing of moving the pointer 19A in the display screen corresponding to the position is performed. The display processing of the pointer, that is, the display processing by the pointer display processing means 23 is realized as a part of the function of the driver or the OS in recent systems such as multi-window. On the other hand, application programs generally wait for input while the switch is not pressed,
No operation is performed unless the processing by the instruction before that is continued.

The position indicator identifying means provided in the position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26 described above is the position indicator (18 which is the position indicator whose switch is pressed in the data shown in FIG. 4). 19)) is determined.
When it is determined that the position indicator whose switch has been pressed is the normal position indicator 19, the position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26 determines the coordinate information of the position indicator in the area where the indicated position exists. The information for inputting to the process corresponding to the window is output, and the connection state of the changeover switch 24 is controlled via the input process changeover processing means 25. This changes the active window on the display screen, and the coordinate information is passed to the process corresponding to the changed active window. In the case of the private position indicator 18, information for inputting the coordinate information to the process B corresponding to the active window 13 is output, and the connection state of the changeover switch 24 is changed via the input process changeover processing means 25. Control. Actually, the information is passed to the process B without performing the switching operation in the switching switch 24.

As described above, in the position indicator determination / information selection processing means 26, the position information regarding each of the two position indicators 18 and 19 is input in one form,
After that, it has a configuration in which it is separated into respective position information and then separated and sent to each process. However, the actual processing is performed on the assumption that the switch of the position pointing device is pressed as described above.

If the above-mentioned operation based on the configuration shown in FIG. 2 is shown as a series of flows, it becomes like a flow chart shown in FIG. In this flowchart, the input control processing means 22 receives the coordinate data (information from the position indicator) sent from the coordinate detecting device 17 (step S).
11), it is determined in the determination step S12 whether or not it is the private position indicator 18. In determination step S12
If YES, the information is passed to the process B corresponding to the current active window 13 without switching the changeover switch 24 (step S13). If NO in the determination step S12, it is determined that the information is from the normal position indicator 19, and in the next determination step S14, it is determined whether or not the designated position is within the active window. If YES in determination step S14,
Information is passed to the process B corresponding to the current active window without switching the changeover switch 24 (step S15). If NO, it is further determined in the next determination step S16 whether or not it is within the area of the inactive window. If NO, the first step S
If it is YES, it is determined in a determination step S17 whether or not a selection operation such as an operation switch (or a keyboard (not shown)) of the normal position indicator 19 is operated. If NO in this determination step S17, the process proceeds to step S11, and if YES, the changeover switch 2
A process of switching the connection state of No. 4 and changing the active window is performed (step S18).

The private position indicator 18 of the above embodiment
Was used for the menu selection processing on the menu sheet 16, but an example of another usage of the private position indicator 18 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6A shows two windows 31 and 32 displayed on the display screen 10a. The window 31 is an active window, a CAD program is executed, and a window 32 is a word processor program. There is. In such a case, when drawing a circle 33 having a large diameter in the CAD window 31, a region outside the CAD window 31 (for example, the word processor window 32
It is necessary to specify the center point 34 for drawing the circle 33 in (in the area of), but if the center point 34 can be specified by the private position indicator 18, without changing the active window, The center point of the circle 33 can be designated.

FIG. 6B shows two windows 4 similarly.
1 and 42, a window 41 is a graphic window in which a program capable of drawing a graphic is executed, the window 42 is an active window, and a program capable of enlarging and displaying a part of the graphic displayed in the window 41 is executed. It is a window. in this case,
When a part of the figure to be enlarged is designated by the private position indicator 18 in the window 41 located outside the active window 42, the enlarged view of the portion can be displayed in the active window 41.

In FIG. 6C, an active window 51 and three inactive windows 52 to 54 are shown on the display screen. In this example, window 5
1 is kept active and another window 52-
The information displayed in the active window 51 (for example, the information of the graphic 55) can be sent by designating the window without switching 54 to the active state. That is, if the destination window is designated by the private position indicator, predetermined information can be sent from the current active window to the designated window without switching the destination window to the active window. When you want to continue an operation (arbitrary operation) in the same active window, and at the same time you want to perform a specific operation on another window that is not active (another application program is running), You can exchange smoothly and operate efficiently and quickly.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, in a computer system including a multi-window system and a multi-device input system,
It is possible to improve the operability of the information input operation using the plurality of position indicators.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external configuration diagram of a computer system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a computer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a data format of coordinate data output from a coordinate detection device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a storage format of coordinate data stored in a computer.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of a series of processes.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining another application example regarding usage.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Display Device 11 Computer 12, 13, 14 Window 15 Symbol 16 Menu Sheet 17 Coordinate Detection Device 18, 19 Position Indicator 22 Input Control Processing Means 23 Pointer Display Processing Means 24 Changeover Switch 25 Input Process Switching Means 26 Position Indicator Judgment / Information selection processing means 27 Window area determination means

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] June 5, 1995

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0006

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0006] There are coordinate input control method proposed in JP equitable 4-58053 as prior art method for solving the above problems. This method is a very special method and has a drawback that the operation is difficult to understand.

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] 0029

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

If the above-described operation based on the configuration shown in FIG. 2 is shown as a series of flows, it becomes as shown in the flowchart in FIG. In this flowchart, the input control processing means 22 receives the coordinate data (information from the position indicator) sent from the coordinate detecting device 17 (step S11), and it is judged in the judgment step S12 whether or not it is the private position indicator 18. Is determined. Judgment step S12
If YES is given, the information is passed to the process B corresponding to the current active window 13 without switching the changeover switch 24 (step S13). When in the determination step S 12 is NO, it is determined that the information from the normal position indicator 19, in the next decision step S14,
It is determined whether or not the designated position is within the active window. If YES in decision step S14, information is passed to the process B corresponding to the current active window without changing the changeover switch 24 (step S15). If NO, it is further determined in the next determination step S16 whether or not it is within the area of the inactive window. If NO, the process proceeds to the first step S11, and if YES, a determination step S17.
Then, it is determined whether or not a selection operation such as an operation of an operation switch (or a keyboard (not shown)) of the normal position indicator 19 is performed. If NO in this determination step S17, the process proceeds to step S11, and if YES in this determination process, the connection state of the changeover switch 24 is changed to change the active window (step S18).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window computer system having a display device and a computer for displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen of the display device and operating a separate process in each window, which is operated on a coordinate detectable area. A coordinate detection device that simultaneously detects coordinate information indicated by each of a plurality of position indicators and outputs the coordinate information to the computer; at least one private position indicator included in the plurality of position indicators; Position indicator identifying means for identifying the type of device, and when the position indicator identifying means identifies the operated position indicator as the private position indicator, coordinate information output from the coordinate detection device To the process corresponding to the current active window regardless of the position indicated by the position indicator. When it is identified as a position indicator other than the above, the multi-window is provided with switching means for switching and inputting coordinate information output from the coordinate detecting device to a process corresponding to a window including the designated position. Computer system.