JPH0773144A - Display communication relay method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To add the functions of writing and pointing without changing an application program by generating and outputting a display request transmitted to a display control means based on input events except for the prescribed kinds of the input events. CONSTITUTION:An input event request means 32 requests the input events except for the prescribed input events to an input event transmission program 22. The input event transmission program 22 transmits the events to an input event processing means 33, and the input event processing means 33 directly generates a display output request and transmits it to a display output request processing means 34. The display output request means 34 executes mediation for an output request processing program. Thus, the function for executing overwrite on a screen can be added without a process for changing the application program 24, and a cooperative work support environment can be realized by viewing the same screen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention relates to a workstation,
The present invention relates to a display communication relay method for displaying a screen on a display of a personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a window system in which an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse and a window server program for controlling an output device such as a bitmap display and an application program communicate with each other, an X window system ( The Open Windows system (trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc. in the United States) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) are well known. These window server programs include an input event transmission program that processes input from an input device as an event and an output request processing program that controls an output device based on a display output request from an application program. . (For example, O. Jones: Introduction to the X Window System, Pr
entice-Hall (1989) (Nishimura (translated): X Window Handbook, see ASCII Publishing (1990)).

[0003]

In a window system such as the X window system, in order to reduce the amount of communication between the window server program and the application program, an input event required by the application program is pre-selected as a window. Requests to the server program, and the window server program's input event sending program sends only the input events required by the application program.

Therefore, for example, when the application program does not request the window server program for an input event regarding the movement of the mouse, writing or a pointer is displayed on the display window of the application program based on the movement event of the mouse. I couldn't write overwriting.

By changing the application program,
It is possible to request the window server program to send an input event that was not originally requested, but it is necessary to change the execution procedure of the program to add the processing related to the input event. Many steps are required to change the. In addition, it is virtually impossible to add functions to all the abundant application programs.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional system as described above. While utilizing abundant conventional assets without changing the application program,
An object of the present invention is to provide a display communication relay method that enables addition of functions such as writing and pointing by an input event not requested by an application program.

[0007]

A display communication relay method according to the present invention transmits an input event input from an input means to an application program processing means, and the application program processing means selects a predetermined one of the input events. A display communication relay method for receiving a display request to be generated and output based on a type of input event and transmitting the display request to a display control means, wherein the input event from the input means is other than the predetermined type. A display request to be transmitted to the display control means is generated and output based on an input event.

[0008]

According to the present invention, it is possible to add functions such as writing and pointing based on an input event which is not requested by the application program processing means (application program).
It can be done without changing the application program.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a system configuration for applying an embodiment of the present invention. This system is a terminal device typified by a personal computer or a workstation, such as an input device 1 such as a keyboard or a mouse that receives an input from a user, a processing device 2 that processes an input, and a display that displays a processing result. It is configured by the output device 3.

Next, a conventional control method for displaying a window in the system having the above configuration will be described. In order to display a plurality of windows on the output device 3, in the window system such as the X window system, the window server program 21 is operated in the processing device 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the window server program 21 is composed of an input event transmission program 22 that processes an input from the input device 1 as an event and an output request processing program 23 that outputs the output request to the output device 3. The window server program 21 transmits the input event from the input event transmission program 22 to the application program 24, receives a display output request from the application program 24 as a processing result, and the output request processing program 23 sends the output request processing program 23 to the output device 3. Output the window display.

In the X window system, the input event transmission program 22 and the output request processing program 23 are integrated into one window server program 21.
However, they may be realized as separate programs. In the following description, the window server program 21 is the input transmission program 22.
And an output request processing program 23.

In order to reduce the amount of communication between the window server program 21 and the application program 24, the application program 24 defines the type of input event to be processed by the application program 24 and sends the input event to the window server program 21. To request.
The window server program 21 sends only input events of the type requested by the application program 24 to the application program 24.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration to which a communication relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. The communication relay program 31 is
Communication of an input event from the input event transmission program 22 to the application program 24 and communication of a display output request from the application program 24 to the output request processing program 23 are mediated. In this embodiment, the window server program 21 is an input event transmission program 22 and an output request processing program 2.
It can be said that the communication relay program 31 mediates the communication between the window server program 21 and the application program 24.

The communication relay program 31 includes an input event requesting means 32, an input event processing means 33, and a display output request processing means 34. Input event processing program 22 (window server program 21)
Is configured to send only the type of input event requested by the application program 24 in advance, so the communication relay program 31 normally mediates the communication.
Also, only input events of the type requested by the application program 24 are sent. Therefore, the input event request means 32 requests the input event transmission program 22 for an input event other than the input event originally requested by the application program 24. The input event transmission program 22 transmits the requested input event to the input event processing means 33. The input event processing means 33 normally sends the input event as it is to the application program 24, but for the input event sent by the request of the input event request means 32, a direct display output request is generated and the display output request processing is performed. To the means 34. The display output request processing means 34 mediates the display output request transmitted from the application program 24 or the input event processing means 33 to the output request processing program 23. When the input event transmission program 22 is configured to transmit not only the requested input event but also other input events to the input event processing means 33, the input event requesting means 32
It does not have to be.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. Without changing the application program 24 such as a text editor for editing a document, drawing with a mouse or a pen and character input from a keyboard can be overwritten on the window screen. This is a processing result by the communication relay program 31.

That is, originally, the application program 24 such as a text editor inputs an input event such as mouse movement into the input event transmission program 2
In the past, it was not possible to overwrite the drawing with the mouse on the screen because it is not required. However, in this embodiment, the input event request means 32 of the communication relay program 31 requests the input event transmission program 22 for an input event of mouse movement. As a result, when the user moves the mouse, the input event of the mouse movement is received by the communication relay program 31. Then, the input event processing means 33 therein draws on the screen on which the application program 24 is activated via the display output request means 34 based on the mouse movement event, thereby realizing overwriting. it can.

In addition to this, it is also possible to overwrite the character input from the keyboard on the screen on which the application program 24 that does not require keyboard input is activated.

Next, the data structure in this embodiment will be described. The communication relay program 31 shown in FIG.
The data expression managed within defines the type of input event that is requested to be transmitted to the input event transmission program 22 of the window server program 21.

This is a vector expression (bit vector) consisting of bit strings, and each bit corresponds to one type of input event. When this bit is 1, it means that the input event transmission program 22 is requested to transmit the input event represented by the bit. If it is 0, the input event transmission program 22 is not requested to transmit the input event. The total number of bits of this bit vector is the number of types of all input events transmitted by the input event transmission program 22.

In the example of FIG. 5, the type of input event requested by the application program 24 is defined by FIG. Here, the input event transmission program 22 is requested to transmit the event that the keyboard is pressed and the display content of the window is changed.

On the other hand, in FIG. 5B, the communication relay program 3
1 itself defines the type of input event required to add the function. In this example, the fact that the mouse has moved and the display content of the window has been changed is requested to be sent as an event.

The input event request means 32 of the communication relay program 31 uses the bit vector of FIG. 5C obtained by ORing the bit vectors of FIGS. 5A and 5B as an actual input event transmission program. 22 to request transmission of an input event not requested by the application program 24.

The input event transmission program 22 is shown in FIG.
The fact that the transmission of the event represented by the bit vector of (c) is requested is stored, and when the input from the input device 1 is processed as the event, the requested type of event is transmitted to the communication relay program 31. .

As a result, the movement of the mouse is also transmitted as an input event to the communication relay program 31, so that the communication relay program 31 can perform processing based on this input event. That is, the input event processing means 33 of the communication relay program 31 can add functions such as overwriting a drawing by moving the mouse on the window screen of the application program 24.

Next, the internal operation of each program will be described. FIG. 6 shows a schematic flow of the control operation of each program in this embodiment. In the figure, thin arrows show the flow of program control, and thick arrows show the flow of communication data between programs.

First, the application program 24
Initialization processing including connection with the communication relay program 31 (6
After 00), the type of input event to be processed is defined and a transmission request is made (601). After this, a state of waiting for communication from the central relay program 31 is entered (602). Sent is the requested input event or reply data to the display output request. Then, processing is performed based on the input event and reply data sent (603), a display output request is sent to the communication relay program 31 when necessary (604), and a communication waiting state from the communication relay program 31 Enter (602).
In this way, waiting for communication from the communication relay program 31,
This is an event-driven loop program that performs necessary processing based on it.

On the other hand, the communication relay program 31 performs the initialization processing (610) including the connection with the window server program 21 (the input event transmission program 22 and the output request processing program 23), and then the window server program 21 and the application program. The communication waiting state from 24 is entered (611). If there is communication from the application program 24 (612), the data is transmitted to the window server program 21 (613), and the communication waiting state is returned again (612). If there is communication from the window server program 21 (614), the data (input event, reply data) is processed (615), and the communication waiting state is returned again (612).

The window server program 21 is
After the initialization process (620), a state of waiting for input from the input device 1 and communication from the communication relay program 31 is entered (621). If there is an input from the input device 1 such as a keyboard or a mouse (622), it is processed as an input event, only the requested transfer is transferred to the communication relay program 31 (623), and the waiting state is resumed. Return (6
21). On the other hand, if there is communication from the communication relay program 31 (624), the processing (display output request processing, input event request processing, etc.) is performed (625), and the process returns to the waiting state (621).

Hereinafter, an input event request (FIG. 7), an input event process (FIG. 8), and a display output request process (FIG. 9)
The operation of each program will be described in detail. FIG. 7 is a control flow of an operation for defining the type of input event to be transmitted to the window server program 21.

As described with reference to FIG. 6, after the initialization processing (700), the application program 24 defines the type of input event to be processed and makes a transmission request (701). After that, a waiting state for input events and reply data is entered (702).

The type of input event requested by the application program 24 is represented by a bit vector as shown in FIG. Communication relay program 31
Receives an input event request from the application program 24 from the communication waiting state (710) (71
1). The communication relay program 31 defines a type of input event requested by itself (see FIG. 5B).
And the bit vector requested by the application program 24 (see FIG. 5).
(See (c)), and the input event requesting means 32 transmits the result to the window server program 21 (712). As a result, the type of the input event requested by both the application program 24 and the communication relay program 31 is defined and transmitted to the window server program 21. The communication relay program 31 stores both the input event bit vector requested by itself and the input event bit vector requested by the application program 24, respectively, for subsequent processing (713).

On the other hand, the window server program 21
Is waiting for input from the input device 1 and communication from the communication relay program 31 (720), but receives and stores a bit vector defining the type of input event transmitted from the communication relay program 31 (( 721). Based on this, when transmitting the input event, it is determined whether or not to transmit.

FIG. 8 is a control flow of the event processing operation when the window server program 21 receives an input from the input device 1. When there is an input from the input device 1 (820, 821), the window server program 21 processes it as an input event (822). A bit vector that defines the type of the request input event sent from the communication relay program 31 (the bit vector stored in step 721 in FIG. 7).
(823, 824), and only the requested event is transmitted to the communication relay program 31 (825). Then, it returns to the waiting state again (820).

On the other hand, when the input event is transmitted from the window server program 21 (810, 811), the communication relay program 31 receives it (81).
2). In this embodiment, as a function added by the relay program 31, it is considered that the drawing by the mouse movement is overwritten on the window screen of the application program 24.

The communication relay program 31 has two modes. One is a mode in which the input event is transferred to the application program 24 as it is, and it is checked whether the event is a request from the application program 24 (814, check with the bit vector stored in step 713). Is transferred to the application program 24 (815). The other mode is a mode in which the communication relay program 31 itself processes the input event. It is checked whether the event itself is the requested event (816, the bit vector stored in step 713 is checked), and if there is a match, the input event processing means 33 performs processing based on the input event (817). In this embodiment, the communication relay program 31 stores the window identifier previously created by the application program 24 (to be described later, step 91 in FIG. 9).
6) Then, the input event processing unit 33 draws on the window based on the mouse movement event via the display output requesting unit 34, so that the window is overwritten on the window screen of the application program 24. When the processing of the input event is completed, the communication waiting state is returned again (810).

When the application program 24 receives an input event (800, 801), it performs processing based on it (802). A display output request is transmitted if necessary (803). For the processing of display output request,
This will be described with reference to FIG. After that, it returns to the communication waiting state again (8
00).

FIG. 9 shows the application program 24.
3 is a control flow of a processing operation of a display output request from FIG. The display output request includes not only simple drawing but also window creation, inquiry of the current mouse position, and the like. One-way communication may be made from the application program 24 to the window server program 21, and two-way communication may be made in which reply data from the window server program 21 is received.

The application program 24 transmits a result of the input event processing (900) and a request for window operation and display to the window server program 21 (901). Then, it returns to the communication waiting state.
In the case of two-way communication with reply data, reply data is asynchronously received from this communication waiting state (902, 90).
3), and processing is performed based on it (904). Then, the communication waiting state is entered again.

The communication relay program 31 receives the display output request from the application program 24 from the communication waiting state (910) (911, 912), stores necessary information, and transfers it to the window server program 21 ( 913). Then, it returns to the communication waiting state. In the case of two-way communication with reply data, reply data is asynchronously received from this communication waiting state (914, 915) and necessary information (for example, window identifier created by the application program 24) is stored ( 916),
The reply data is transferred to the application program 24 (917). Then, the communication waiting state is entered again (91
0). The window identifier stored in step 916 is
It is used when the input event processing means 33 performs overwriting, etc. (FIGS. 8 and 817).

The window server program 21 is
From the communication waiting state (920), the display output request is received (921, 922), and in accordance therewith, processing such as window creation / operation / display / drawing is performed (923). In the case of bidirectional communication in which it is necessary to send reply data to the application program 24 (924), reply data is sent to the communication relay program 31 (925).

The embodiment in which the communication relay program 31 requests an input event not requested by the application program 24 has been described above. In the present embodiment, the communication relay program 31 does not transfer the input event not requested by the application program 24 to the application program 24 (FIG. 8, step 81).
4) is provided, this control means may be omitted. This is because the application program 24 does not particularly process the input event that is not originally requested.

In this embodiment, the window server program 21 is provided with an input event transmission program 22 for transmitting an input from the input device 1 as an event and an output request processing program 23 for processing a display request. Although an example of operating as a process has been shown, as shown in FIG. 10, there is a configuration in which the input event transmission program 21 and the output request processing program 23 operate as independent processes.

Further, in the above embodiment, the window server program 21 and the application program 2
4 and the communication relay program 31 between them operate as independent processes.
There is also a configuration in which the window server program 21 and the communication relay program 31 are integrated as shown in FIG. 8 and a configuration in which the application program 24 and the communication relay program 31 are integrated as shown in FIG.

FIG. 13 shows another embodiment of the present invention. This is to apply the present invention not only to a single terminal device but also to a plurality of terminal devices to support cooperative work among a plurality of users. By connecting the communication relay programs 31 operating on each terminal and distributing the input event and the display output request from each personal terminal, it becomes possible to perform the operation while sharing the same screen on each terminal. . In the present invention, since overwriting can be performed on the screen without changing the application program 24, it is possible to add functions such as remote writing and remote pointing by distributing the processing. . As a result, it becomes possible to smoothly carry out collaborative work by writing and pointing while sharing the same screen between terminals at remote locations.

In this embodiment, a specific data structure called a bit vector has been described, but another data structure having an equivalent function may be used from the viewpoint of execution speed and storage capacity. It can be replaced by an array or table.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to add functions such as writing and pointing by an input event not requested by the application program without changing the application program. Therefore, the function of overwriting on the screen of the application program can be added without the step of changing the application program.
Moreover, if it is shared between remote places via a network, it is possible to realize a collaborative work support environment in which the same screen is viewed while writing and pointing to each other.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for applying an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of a conventional window system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration to which a communication relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a data structure diagram for controlling an input event according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a schematic control operation of a program group in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the definition / request processing of an input event by a program group.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing of an input event by a program group.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing of a display output request by a program group.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to cooperative work.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input device 2 ... Processing device 3 ... Output device 21 ... Window server program 22 ... Input event transmission program 23 ... Output request processing program 24 ... Application program 31 ... Communication relay program 32 ... Input event request means 33 ... Input event processing Means 34 ... Display output request processing means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Mami Kodama, No. 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachi-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Stock Company Toshiba Research and Development Center

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input event input from an input means is transmitted to an application program processing means, and the application program processing means receives a display request generated and output based on a predetermined type of input event among the input events. A display communication relay method for transmitting the display request to the display control means, wherein a display request to be transmitted to the display control means based on an input event other than the predetermined type among the input events from the input means. A display communication relay method characterized by generating and outputting.