JPH0916368A - Object editing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve operability by canceling the trouble of operation considering order property and reducing erroneous operations or the number of times of operations when applying an editing function having the order property for plural objects. CONSTITUTION: Concerning a system with which editing is performed to the plural objects prepared by an object-orientated programming and displayed on a display 2 based on an instruction from an operator, this system is provided with a selection order recognizing part 4 for registering the order of selection instructed by the operator corresponding to the respective objects of selecting objects, selection order managing table 5, selecting function recognizing part 7 for relating a function to be applied to each object instructed by the operator to each object in the registered order of selection, and function driver 8 and based on the order definition due to the operator, object editing is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an object editing technique in object-oriented programming, and more particularly to an object editing system suitable for efficiently performing regular editing on a plurality of objects.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of Graphical User Interface (GUI),
It has become increasingly common to perform advanced object editing using a wide variety of functions for a wide variety of objects such as layout editors, draw tools, GUI construction tools, and the like. Regarding the method of applying the function to a plurality of objects and the operability thereof, functions such as grouping and multiple selection have been put into practical use and facilitated.
However, the operability is not sufficient as shown below.

That is, conventionally, when a function is applied to an object, it is clarified by selecting a target object to which the function is applied, and a function to be applied next is selected to associate the object with the function. Was realized. In this case, when trying to apply the same function to many objects, it is necessary to sequentially select the target object and the function to be applied to each object. However, if the same result is desired to be obtained for all the target objects, it is possible to easily obtain the desired result by applying the function while a plurality of objects are selected at the same time.

On the other hand, when making a change with a certain regularity for a plurality of objects, the object serving as the base point is selected, and the operation is repeated based on the change to the object serving as the base point, and the final operation is performed. To achieve the desired result. However, in this operation procedure, how to give an operation instruction is complicated and unclear in the process of obtaining a desired result, and there is a high possibility that an erroneous operation is induced. In addition, in the process of changing, the operation is often carried out without noticing an erroneous operation, and an unrecoverable result is often obtained. Furthermore, the number of operations required to obtain a desired result increases in proportion to the number of target objects, and it becomes difficult to issue operation instructions.

As described above, in the conventional technique, when making a change with a certain rule for a plurality of objects, no consideration is given to the relation between the object and the change rule. To get
It was necessary to accumulate changes for each object to be changed. Such an operation is different from the way of thinking when a human actually handles multiple objects. As a result, the operator's consciousness is biased toward the individual objects to be operated during the change operation, and it becomes difficult to derive the procedure for obtaining the desired result, which leads to an erroneous operation and an accompanying increase in the number of operations. .

[0006]

The problem to be solved by the prior art is that in the prior art, a human actually performs an operation when making a change with a certain rule for a plurality of objects. It is a point that cannot approach the form of thinking when dealing with. An object of the present invention is to solve these problems of the conventional technology, reduce the number of erroneous operations and the number of operations when changing a plurality of objects with a certain rule, and enable efficient editing of objects. The object is to provide an object editing system.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the object editing system of the present invention comprises (1) an operator's instruction with a pointing device 1 such as a mouse corresponding to each object to be edited. The selection order recognition unit 4 and the selection order management table 5 that register the selected selection order, and the selection function recognition that associates the function applied to each object designated by the operator with each object in the selection order registered in the selection order management table 5 It is characterized in that the section 7 and the function driver 8 are provided and the object is edited based on the order definition by the operator. Also,
(2) In the object editing system described in (1) above, a selection order information display control unit 6 is provided for editing the selection order of each of a plurality of objects registered in the selection order management table 5, and editing is performed. It is characterized by visually notifying the operator of the selection order of each target object.

[0008]

In the present invention, when an attribute such as an attribute is added or changed to a plurality of objects for editing, the selection order of the objects to be edited selected by the operator is registered. At the same time, the relationship between the registered selection order and the objects is displayed on the display in an easily understandable format. When the operator selects a function to be applied to this selected object following the selection process of this object, the system executes the selected function based on the registered selection order and obtains a corresponding result. .

As described above, by setting the editing order for the objects to be edited and advancing the editing process based on the set order, the sense of purpose that humans have when performing work,
You can take operations according to the order. For example, when making a change with a certain rule for multiple objects, by associating the object with the change rule, the difference between the thinking form when a human actually handles multiple objects, It is possible to reduce erroneous operations and the number of operations. In particular, the operator sets the order corresponding to the edited result in the object to be edited, and the system executes the editing function based on the set order, whereby the desired result can be designated in advance. The operator can reduce the frequency of erroneous operations and the number of operations when editing a plurality of objects, and can improve the operability in applying a function to a plurality of objects.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the configuration of the object editing system of the present invention according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a pointing device such as a mouse, 2 is a display such as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), and 3 is an information processing apparatus that includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and performs various processes by a storage program method.

The information processing apparatus 3 includes a selection order recognition unit 4, a selection order management table 5, a selection order information display control unit 6, a selection function recognition unit 7, a function driver 8, a window system interface 9, and the like. Object editing according to the present invention is performed. That is, the selection order recognition unit 4
Recognizes the selection order of the objects designated by the pointing device 1 on the display 2, registers the selection order in the selection order management table 5, and selects the selection order information display control unit 6
Develops the selection order recognized by the selection order recognition unit 4 on the display 2. Then, the selected function recognition unit 7 recognizes the function to which the selection order of the objects registered in the selection order management table 5, which is selected by the operator, is applied, and passes the recognition result information to the function driver 8. By referring to this recognition result information, the function driver 8
Performs execution control of processing corresponding to the selection order of objects.

The detailed operation will be described below. The operator sequentially selects the objects displayed on the display 2 by operating the pointing device 1.
The object described here refers to a group of parts existing in one window displayed via an arbitrary window system. In this way, the selection order recognition unit 4 determines the selection order of the objects selected by the pointing device 1 based on the processing shown in FIG.
At the same time as registering in the selection order management table 5, it is passed to the selection order information display control unit 6 together with the object identifier.

The selection order information display control unit 6 displays the selection order of the objects in a form that the operator can easily visually understand according to a certain display rule based on the information obtained from the selection order recognition unit 4. Display on 2. While referring to this display, the operator uses the pointing device 1 to select a function to which the selection order of the objects registered in the selection order management table 5 is applied. This function refers to various functions of the application program. The selection result by the operator is displayed as the selection function recognition unit 7
Is passed to the function driver 8. The function driver 8 controls the execution of the selection function processing routine based on the information of the objects registered in the selection order management table 5 and the selection order so that a result in accordance with the selection order can be obtained. In this way, the editing control of the plurality of objects is performed by the cooperation of the designated editing order and the designated editing function.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of the processing operation of the selection order recognition section in FIG. 1 according to the present invention. The selection order recognition processing according to the present invention by the selection order recognition unit 4 in FIG. 1 will be described below based on this flowchart. First, based on the identifier of the object selected by the pointing device 1 of FIG. 1, detailed information of the object is acquired, and by referring to the selectability information included in the acquired object information, it is determined whether the object is selectable or not. Is performed (step 201).

If the result of the determination is that the selection is not possible, the selection order management table 5 in FIG. 1 and the selection order counter provided in the selection order recognition section are initialized, and the selection order recognition routine is terminated (step 202). If the determination result is selectable, it is determined whether the object selection method means single selection or multiple selection (step 203). In the case of single selection, after initializing the selection order management table 5 and the selection order counter of FIG. 1 (step 204), and in the case of multiple selections, the selection order management table 5 and the selection order counter. The selection order counter is updated without initializing (step 205).

Then, the updated value of the selection order counter and the identification information of the selected object are shown in FIG.
It is set as shown in the selection order management table 5 (step 206). Next, the selection order information display control unit 6 of FIG. 1 is called, and the recognized order information is visually fed back to the display 2 of FIG. More than,
It is a flow of processing of the selection order recognition unit 4 in FIG. 1, and the selection order management table 5 of FIG. 1 related to the processing of the selection order recognition unit 4 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a structural example of the selection order management table in FIG. 1 according to the present invention. Figure 3
As shown in FIG.
a to object identifier 5b and object type 5c
Take a configuration that can lead to. When objects are continuously selected by the pointing device 1 of FIG. 1, necessary information is added to the selection order management table 5. Information addition to and deletion from this selection order management table 5
The selection order recognition unit 4 in FIG. 1 gives an instruction.

The selection order 5a is managed by an integer value. Also,
The object identifier 5b and the object type 5c are managed by using an application program that uses the present invention or a value defined by the window system that is a prerequisite for the application program. Selection order management table 5 having such a configuration
1, the function driver 8 in FIG. 1 controls the execution of the selection function processing routine so as to obtain a result in accordance with the selection order. Hereinafter, the execution control operation of the selection function processing routine by the function driver 8 of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the function driver in FIG. 1 according to the present invention. The function driver 8 includes a function execution condition management table 8a. In the function execution condition management table 8a, all the functions used in editing and the application conditions of the function are respectively provided with function IDs.
10 and the execution condition flag 11 are registered in the associated form in each item column. Then, the function driver 8 collates the information registered in the function execution condition management table 8a with the information registered in the selection order management table 5,
The collation result is reflected in the selection order management table 5, and after all collation is completed, the function execution controller 1
3, the function execution corresponding to the selection order is controlled for the objects registered in the selection order management table 5.

By the control operation of the function driver 8 as described above, when the operator wants to edit a plurality of objects on the basis of a certain regularized regularity, the operator performs ordering according to the desired result, and according to the order. It becomes possible to take an operation procedure adapted to the human purpose orientation of performing the desired processing. Therefore, the procedure that the operator thinks in his head and the actual operation procedure become similar, the editing instruction becomes easy, and the operation error can be reduced. Further, the operator does not have to repeat a series of operations of deciding an object to be edited and selecting an editing function, and therefore the number of operations is reduced. As a result, it is possible to efficiently perform editing processing on a plurality of objects under a certain order.

GU will be described below as a specific application example of the present invention.
A process of changing the overlapping order of a plurality of objects in the layout editor using I will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a concrete application example of the object editing system of the present invention according to the present invention. Figure 5
As shown in FIG. 2, the operation is performed on the display 2 for the purpose of changing the graphic object group 12 overlapping A, B, C, D from the front side in the order of C, B, A, D from the front side. And proceed. The graphic object group 12 is created and arranged using a layout editor capable of creating graphic objects.

First, the objects that are the keys of the editing process are ordered. The upper left corner and the upper right corner of the circumscribed rectangle of the graphic object group 12 on the screen are selected by the pointing device 1 in FIG. 1 to determine the object group to be ordered. Then, the desired overlapping order C, B, A, D
In this order, a graphic object is selected with the pointing device 1 in FIG. Object selection can be done, for example, by
This is done by pressing the mouse button while the mouse cursor is positioned on the object information.

In response to such an object selection operation, the selection order recognition unit 4 of FIG. 1 recognizes the selection order of the objects, and the selection order of the objects is shown in FIG. 3 together with the object identification information. It is registered in the selection order management table 5. In this way, the selection order of the objects designated by the operator is registered in the selection order management table 5 of FIGS. 1 and 3, and the selection order information display control unit 6 of FIG. The display window 13 is displayed together with the object identification information.

In the object selection order display window 13, the object names displayed in the first column (Name column in the figure) and the second column (Type column in the figure).
The object type displayed in is the object identification information, and the number displayed in the third column (Num column in the figure) is the object selection order. When determining the selection order of the objects, the selection order of the objects should be specified by selecting the third column of the object selection order display window 13 and rewriting the numbers indicating the object selection order by keyboard input. You can also

After determining the selection order of the objects in this way, the operator opens the arrangement menu in the pull-down menu 14 and selects a menu command to change the overlap "in order of selection". Upon the selection of the menu command of changing the overlap in the “selection order”, the selected function recognition unit 7 of FIG. 1 determines the selected function and activates the function driver 8 of FIG. Then, the function driver 8 of FIG. 1 collates the function execution condition management table 8a with the selection order management table 5 as shown in FIG.

In the case of the example shown in FIG. 5, the function executing condition management table 8a in FIG. 4 is searched for the function of changing the overlap in the order of selection as the function ID 10, and the function ID 10 is registered. If so, does the object information registered in the selection order management table 5 in FIG. 4 match the execution condition flag 11 registered in the function execution condition management table 8a in association with the function ID 10? Make a decision. If the result of this determination is that the object information does not match the execution condition flag, the object information is deleted from the selection order management table 5 in FIG. 4, and the selection order registered in this selection order management table 5 is deleted. Update.

After collating the function execution condition management table 8a of FIG. 4 with the selection order management table 5, the function execution controller 13 of FIG. 4 stores the function ID obtained from the function execution condition management table 8a and the selection order management table 5. Based on the selection order of the registered objects, the operator gives an execution instruction to the overlapping control function of the layout editor so that the overlapping order of the objects specified by the pointing device 1 of FIG. put out. Then, the overlap control function of the layout editor changes the overlap of the objects as instructed by the function execution controller 13 in FIG. In this way, the process of changing the target overlap is completed.

As described above, in the overlap changing process for a plurality of objects in the layout editor using the GUI, the order of the objects that define the change result and the object are related, and the result is fed back as visual information to the target object. By collectively applying the functions, it is possible to reduce erroneous operations and the number of operations. The application example shown in FIG. 5 can be expanded to other functions of the layout editor using the same GUI by modifying the function driver. For example, the present invention can be applied to a change in which the color of an object is given a hierarchy, a setting in which regularity is given to the size and position of an object, and the like.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5, in the object editing system of this embodiment, when an attribute having a certain order is added to or changed in a plurality of objects, the operator has to use the pointing device. By 1, the target object is sequentially selected. Then, based on this operation, the information processing device 9 causes the selection order recognition unit 4 to
In this way, the operator recognizes the object identifier of the object selected and the order of the objects, and the recognized result is registered in the selection order management table 5. At the same time,
The selection order information display control unit 6 displays the display 2 in a format in which the relationship between the recognized selection order and the object can be understood.
Display above. In this state, when the operator selects a function to apply to the selected object, the function driver 8
Thus, the selected function is executed based on the selection order registered in the selection order management table 5, and the result corresponding to the selection order of the selected object is obtained.

As described above, by setting the editing order for the objects to be edited and advancing the editing processing based on the set order, the operator can specify the desired result in advance, and the human being can perform the work. It is possible to perform operations according to the sense of purpose and the sense of order that one has when performing. As a result, it is possible to reduce the frequency of erroneous operations and the number of operations when editing multiple objects, and improve operability in applying functions to multiple objects.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5, but various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the function execution condition management table 8a of the function driver 8 in FIG. 4 of the present embodiment may be provided according to the function to which the present invention is applied. The configuration of the function driver 8 can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention in which the selection order and the execution of the functions are linked and controlled. Further, the display format of the selection order and the method of determining the selection order can be modified without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0032]

According to the present invention, when applying an edit function having an order to a plurality of objects, the complexity of the operation in consideration of the order is eliminated, and erroneous operations and the number of operations are reduced. It is possible to improve the operability of editing an object.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing operation according to the present invention of the selection order recognition unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example according to the present invention of the selection order management table in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the function driver in FIG. 1 according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific application example of the object editing system of the present invention according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Pointing device, 2: Display, 3:
Information processing device, 4: selection order recognition unit, 5: selection order management table, 5a: selection order, 5b: object identifier, 5c: object type, 6: selection order information display control unit, 7: selection function recognition unit, 8 : Function driver, 8a:
Function execution condition management table, 8b: function execution controller, 9: window system interface, 10: function ID, 11: execution condition flag, 12: graphic object group, 13: selection order information display window, 14: pull-down menu.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A system for editing a plurality of objects created by object-oriented programming and displayed on a display based on instructions from an operator, the system corresponding to each of the objects to be edited. Means for registering the selection order instructed by the operator,
An object editing system comprising means for associating a function to be applied to each object designated by an operator with each object in the registered selection order, and performing object editing based on the order definition by the operator. 2. The object editing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying on the display the selection order of each of the plurality of registered objects, and operating the selection order of each object to be edited. An object editing system that visually notifies a person.