JPH11272382A - Computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to always display necessary information by specifying a range capable of preventing data from being hidden by the display of other information out of data to be displayed on a display part. SOLUTION: The computer system is provided with a normally display area management table 26 for managing an area required to be always displayed out of data displayed on a display part 27 and a data I/O control part 25 for displaying new data on the display part 27 so as to avoid the area set up as the normally display area by referring to the table 26. In the constitution, such a trouble that information required to be urgently processed by an application is hidden by information displayed by another application driver and can not be processed can be removed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer system capable of changing display contents of a display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Input / output devices (CD-ROMs, printers, etc.) which are constituent elements in a computer system.
In, the control is performed by software for each device called a driver. In a computer system, there are a plurality of components, a group of these drivers is managed by an operating system (hereinafter, referred to as “OS”), and individual application programs are
It is controlled via S. With such a configuration, it is not necessary to directly control all devices when developing an application. In other words, even if the types of individual components are different, computer systems employing the same OS can be operated by application programs having the same contents. For example, the application program “B” developed by Company A is called “Windows
95 "(registered trademark) OS," Win
The application program “B” can be used in all types of computers equipped with “Windows 95”. In a computer system that operates with such a configuration, an application program, an OS, a driver, and a plurality of software developed separately from these are present on one computer system.

A problem here is that a display device for displaying data (CRT display, liquid crystal display, etc.)
Means that there is usually only one. When an error or the like occurs in a device constituting the computer system, the driver software needs to notify the user of the occurrence of the error or the like. However, the display device is usually used by an application program, and the display of an error message or the like from the driver software is displayed on the front of the screen while hiding a part of the screen being displayed.

[0004] In recent years, computer systems equipped with a multi-window compatible OS, which has become mainstream, can execute a plurality of application programs at the same time, at least in appearance. In this case, a plurality of application programs or a plurality of application programs held by one application program is introduced by introducing an area called a “window” that can be regarded as one virtual display terminal into a displayable area of the display device in the computer system. Can be simultaneously displayed on one screen. The area called this window does not simply divide the display area of the display device into a window, but in general, overlapping between windows is allowed,
A window displayed on the front can be selected according to a request from an input device such as a keyboard or a pointing device.

In this case, a window area located behind the other window is hidden by the window on the front. In such a computer system equipped with a multi-window compatible OS, an error message from driver software or the like is often displayed as one window.

[0006]

However, in the above conventional example, data displayed by the application program may be hidden by display of other information. In particular, an error message or the like from the driver software is displayed on the foreground unless the cause of the error is removed, and in many cases, the user cannot control the display of the error message. The error corresponding to the error message needs to be dealt with urgently, and is considered to be always displayed. However, depending on the application program, there is no need to remove the error, or there is information that must be processed prior to the error, and you want to always display it without being hidden by other information displays. . Since the driver software and other applications have no way of knowing the situation of such application software, there is no choice but to display an error display or the like at a position considered to be most convenient. Therefore, conventionally, even if an application has information that the user wants to always display, there is no means that can always display the information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a computer system capable of preventing the display of information that is urgently required to be processed by an application from being hidden by a display by another application or driver software.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a CPU for operating a system, an operating system used by the CPU, an application program, and the like are provided. And a storage device on which a driver for each component such as an input / output device can be installed, and a display system for outputting a display accompanying execution of the application program or the like to a display device. A data input / output control section for changing the display content of the data, and a constant display area management table connected to the data input / output control section for managing a data area which is to be always displayed for each data being displayed on the display device. And a computer system.

According to this configuration, the display contents of the display device can be managed by referring to the constant display area registered in the constant display area management table by the data input / output control section. For example, when displaying new data on the display device, the data input / output control unit refers to the constant display area registered in the constant display area management table, and may display the data in a place avoiding the constant display area. It is possible to control such that information that must be processed prior to an error is always displayed, and the application can execute processing of information that is urgently required.

In a specific configuration for realizing the object of the invention according to the present application, the data input / output control unit is configured to execute a new data input / output operation according to an instruction from the application program or the operating system. Is displayed, new data is set so as to avoid the area that is already set as the always-display area, and an ID for identifying the new data and a data area that should always be displayed and are identified by the ID. The data area to be deleted is registered in the constant display area management table.
D and a data area which is always desired to be displayed among the data identified by the ID is deleted from the constantly displayed area management table.

According to this configuration, the data input / output control unit refers to the always-on display area management table when displaying new data, and avoids the registered always-on display area.
Determine the data display area. At this time, the data input / output control unit registers the ID of the data to be newly displayed and the constant display area of the data in the constant display area management table. When the display data is deleted, the ID for identifying the data to be deleted registered in the constant display area management table and the constant display area of the data to be deleted are deleted from the table. As a result, the application program can always display the data that the user wants to display at any time without being conscious of the operation of the application program or the system that will display the data on the computer system.

According to a specific configuration for realizing the object of the invention according to the present application, the constant display area management table section is configured to identify data being displayed on the display device. A computer system is characterized in that an ID is set, and the ID is associated with the data area that is to be always displayed, and the display area is constantly managed.

When an OS is installed, a plurality of driver software may separately display an error message or the like. When the information is no longer displayed, the always-displayed area set in the information must be removed from the always-displayed area management table. There is a risk that the user may not know which data to delete. However, in the constant display area management table of the present invention, an ID for identifying data and a data area which is always to be displayed among the data identified by the ID are managed in association with each other. , The efficiency of the deletion process is high.

A specific configuration for realizing the object of the invention according to the present application on a computer system equipped with a multi-window compatible OS is as follows. Identify
3. The computer system according to claim 2, wherein a rectangular area in the window identified by the ID is registered as a data area identified by the ID and always desired to be displayed.

The multi-window compatible OS generally manages each window by ID, and manages a rectangular area where a window in the display area is displayed in order to determine a display position of the window. By registering a rectangular area in the window as a constant display area with relative coordinates in the window, the position of the window itself is managed by the OS, so that the relative coordinates can always be converted to absolute coordinates. Yes, there is no need to constantly update the display area management table even when the window moves. Further, when creating an application program that runs on a computer system with a multi-window compatible OS, the window design is changed to a GUI (Graphical User)
An interface construction tool that can be visually constructed is mainly used, but a GUI construction tool capable of setting a constant display area by setting a constant display area as a rectangular area in a window is created. Things can be done easily.

[0016]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a computer system according to the present invention. It is assumed that the computer system 10 described below has an OS compatible with multi-windows.

The computer system 10 is mainly composed of a CPU 11 for executing overall processing, control and management. The bus 12 connected to the CPU 11 includes:
ROM 13 in which programs are stored, RAM 14 in which data and the like are temporarily stored, and an input device (CD-RO used for installing and referring to application programs and the like)
M) 15, a display device (C for displaying processing results and errors)
An RT display, a liquid crystal display, etc.) 16, an auxiliary storage device (hard disk, etc.) 17 for storing an OS and application programs are provided.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main part of a software system operating on the computer system 10 shown in FIG. In the figure, the display management device of the present invention is:
Data input / output control unit 25, constant display area management table 2
6 is comprised.

The program 21 is used to perform a specific task, and includes a plurality of application programs 22 and a plurality of driver software 23. The driver software 23 controls various devices constituting the computer system 10. The computer system 10
Normally, since a plurality of devices are used, driver software is also provided for each device. The driver software 23 constitutes a part of the computer system 10, but may be considered to be the same as the application program 21 when viewed from the apparatus of the present invention. The program 21 is managed by the multi-window compatible OS 24.

The multi-window compatible OS 24 is basically the same as that used in a conventional computer system, but requires processing corresponding to the present invention in order to use the present invention. In the present embodiment, only processing corresponding to the present invention, that is, processing required by the present invention for these components will be described. Further, the multi-window compatible OS 24 controls the data input / output control unit 25, and the data input / output control unit 25 has a display area management table 26 set at all times. Further, the multi-window compatible OS 24 displays a window at a predetermined position on the display unit 27.

2, the function of the application program 22 relating to the present invention is timing control such as creation and destruction of a window. To ask. At this time, the information of the constant display area required in the present invention is given to the multi-window compatible OS 24. Multi-window compatible OS
At 24, a plurality of application programs 22 can be executed, at least in appearance.

The multi-window compatible OS 24 actually performs various processes such as managing a plurality of windows, but the functions related to the present invention are only creation and destruction of windows. Is left to the data input control unit 25. When a window is created, an ID for identifying the window and a constant display area of the window are given to the data input / output control unit 25. When a window is discarded, an ID for identifying the window to be discarded is given.

When the data input / output control unit 25 receives a window creation instruction from the multi-window operating system 24, the data input / output control unit 25 refers to the constant display area management table and sets the constant display area of the already displayed window as much as possible. The display area of the window is determined so as to avoid it, and the determined display position is returned to the multi-window compatible OS 24. Upon receiving the display position, the multi-window compatible OS 24 displays a window at that position on the display unit 27. When receiving an instruction to create a window, the data input / output control unit 25 manages the ID for identifying the creation window given from the multi-window compatible OS 24 and the constant display area set for the creation window. Register in the table 26. When the data input / output unit 27 receives an instruction to discard a window, an ID for identifying a window to be discarded is given from the multi-window compatible OS 24.
Display area management table 2
Delete from 6.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the exchange between the program 21, the multi-window compatible OS 24, and the data input / output control unit 25 using the computer system 10. In the figure, S represents a step.

The program 21 controls the timing of window creation / destruction in accordance with the progress of processing and instructions from the user (S311). If it is determined that a window needs to be created (S312), a window creation request is issued to the multi-window compatible OS 24 (S313). At this time, multi-window compatible O
In step S24, the size 301 of the window to be created and the constant display area 302 to be set in the window are specified. At this time, a program that uses a conventional multi-window compatible OS generally specifies the display position of the window. However, in the present invention, the display position of the window is set so as to avoid the always displayable area. Equipment adjusts.

It is conceivable to operate the display position only when it is hidden, but in this case,
As in the conventional case, if the program specifies the window display position and the window is displayed at that position and does not always hide the displayable area, the window may be displayed at the specified position. However, since these additional processes are not important points of the present invention, the display position is not simply designated from the program 21 in this embodiment, and the display position 304 is determined by the apparatus of the present embodiment of the present invention. It shall be. Therefore, the always-on display area 302 is designated by relative coordinates in the window.

As described above, when the program 21 issues a window creation request (S313), the multi-window compatible OS 24 creates and displays a window, and returns the window ID 303 assigned to the created window to the program 21. Thereafter, the program 21 designates the window ID 303 and performs various operations (such as moving and resizing the window) on the window. The only operation related to the apparatus of the present invention is the window discarding process. .

An ID for identifying data is stored in the data input / output control unit 2 in a conventional computer system.
5 passed. This is because display of a plurality of pieces of information cannot be controlled unless this ID is passed.
Therefore, the data input / output control unit 25 may use the ID as it is, or convert it to an ID in a format convenient for the constant display area management according to a certain rule, and register the ID in the constant display area management table. The constant display area 302 is information unique to the present invention, and it is necessary to pass this information to the data input / output control unit 25 when displaying data from an application program or a system using the apparatus of the present invention. This is because only the application program or the system that manages the information for setting the constant display area 302 can determine which area to set the constant display area 302 in. That is, in order to use the present invention, it is necessary to have the constant display area 302 to be passed to the data input / output control unit 25 in the system. If you do this,
At the same time, the application program can always display the desired display data without any awareness of the operation of the application program or the system that will display data on the computer system.

If it is determined in step S312 that the window is to be destroyed (S312), the window ID 303 is designated and the window
24 (S314).

Next, the processing of the multi-window compatible OS 24 when a window creation / destroy request is received from the program 21 will be described with reference to FIG.

When a window creation request is issued by the program 21 (S313), a window ID 303 for identifying a window to be newly created is generated according to a certain rule (S321). This processing is also performed in the conventional multi-window compatible OS, and the window display state and the like are managed by the ID. Next, in order to determine the window display position, the data input / output control unit 25 is notified of window creation (S3).
22). At this time, the window ID 303, the window size 301, and the constant display area 302 in the window are given to the data input / output control unit 25. Then, the data input / output control unit 25 returns the window display position. The processing of the data input / output control unit 25 at this time will be described later.
When the multi-window compatible OS 24 acquires the window display position, all information necessary for window display is prepared, so the display unit 27 is requested to display the window and the window size 301 is displayed (S323). At this time,
Actually, it is necessary to control the overlap between the windows, but this is the same as the processing of the conventional multi-window compatible OS 24, and thus the description thereof is omitted here. Finally, the window ID 308 is returned to the calling program 21 (S324).

If the window destroy request is a window ID 30
When the multi-window compatible OS 24 is issued by the program 21 with the number 3, the multi-window compatible OS 24 deletes the constant display area set in the window to be discarded.
The data input / output control unit 25 is notified of the destruction of the window specified by the window ID 303 (S331). Thereafter, the display unit requests the display unit 27 to delete the window identified by the window ID 303 (S3).
32). In this case as well, processing such as displaying a window hidden behind the deleted window is actually required, but these are not described here for the same reason as when the window is displayed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the details of the process in S322 of FIG. This processing shows the operation of the data input / output control unit 25 when receiving a window creation notification from the multi-window compatible OS 24.

First, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), information on all the constantly displayed areas registered at that time is obtained from the constantly displayed area management table 25 (S41). In this embodiment, since the relative coordinates in the window are managed as the always-display area, the ID for identifying the window is used.
Accordingly, it is necessary to obtain the display position of the window from the multi-window compatible OS 24 and convert the relative position into the absolute coordinates in the displayable area of the display device 97. Next, a position where a rectangular area having the same size as the newly created window 301 received from the multi-window compatible OS 24 can be arranged without overlapping all the display areas is searched (FIG. 5B). When there are a plurality of such positions, one may be selected from them according to a certain rule. Although there are a plurality of such rules, they are not the focus of the present invention and will not be described. Conversely, in the case where there is no position that can be arranged without overlapping the always-on display area, in this embodiment, one position is selected by a certain rule from an arrangement that minimizes the area that overlaps with the always-on display area (see FIG. 5 (c)). In this case, various processings can be considered, such as reducing the window to a displayable range and preferentially removing the most recently set always-on display area. However, since these are not the focus of the present invention, descriptions of these methods are omitted. I do. The display position of the newly created window is determined using one of the methods (S42). After the display position is determined, the ID 303 identifying the window whose display position is determined and the constant display area 302 set in the window (both given from the multi-window compatible OS 24) are stored in the constant display area management table 25. It is registered (S43).
After that, the display position 304 of the new window is returned to the multi-window compatible OS 24, and the process is terminated (S44).

FIG. 6 shows a case in which a window discard notification is received from the multi-window compatible OS 24 (S33 in FIG. 3).
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining processing of the data input / output control unit 25 of 1). In this case, a process of simply deleting from the always-displayed-area management table 26 the always-displayed area related to the window ID 303 that specifies the window to be discarded and received from the window-compatible OS 24 is performed (S61).

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the data contents and processing contents of the constant display area management table 26. The constant display area management table 26 only needs to manage data in a format that can associate a window ID 71 for identifying a window with a constant display area 72 set for the window identified by the ID. A part that receives, from the data input / output control unit 25, an ID 303 for identifying a newly created window and a constantly displayed area 302 set for the newly created window, and registers the constantly displayed area 302 in the constantly displayed area management table 26. When the window is to be discarded, the window ID 303 identifying the window to be discarded is received, and the window ID and the constant display area 72 associated with the window identified by the window ID are received from the constant display area management table 26. If the part that performs the process of deleting the is collectively configured as a constant display area management device, it is convenient because it can flexibly cope with a change in the data storage format of the constant display area management table.

[0038]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the data input / output control unit and the constant display area management table unit are provided. It is possible to always display highly important information. As a result, it is possible to avoid such a problem that information that the application wants to process urgently is hidden by information displayed by other applications and driver software and cannot be processed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when displaying new data in accordance with an instruction from an application program or an operating system, the data input / output control unit avoids an area which has already been set as a permanent display area. Is set in the display area management table, and an ID for identifying the new data and a data area always desired to be displayed and identified by the ID are always registered in the display area management table. When the data is deleted, the ID for identifying the data to be erased and the data area which should be always displayed among the data identified by the ID are always deleted from the display area management table. At all about the operation of application programs and systems that will display data on Without having to identify, it will be able to display the data you want to see at all times at all times.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, an ID for identifying data being displayed on a display device is set, and the ID is associated with a data area which is to be always displayed. Since the constant display area management table is used for management, an ID for identifying data is associated with a data area that is always required to be displayed among the data identified by the ID. Therefore, the efficiency of the deletion process is improved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the constant display area management table section identifies the window by the ID and identifies the window by the ID as a data area identified by the ID and always desired to be displayed. Since a rectangular area in a window to be registered is registered, there is no need to constantly update the display area management table even when the window moves. Furthermore, when creating an application program that runs on a computer system equipped with a multi-window compatible OS, it is also possible to set an area that should always be visually displayed at the same time as designing a screen by using a GUI construction tool.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main part of a software system operating on the computer system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating details of the process of S322 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of the program and the multi-window operating system of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of acquiring a constant display setting area in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing of a data input / output control unit when a notification of window discard is received from a multi-window compatible operating system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing data contents of a constant display area management table and processing contents based on the data contents.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 computer system 11 CPU 12 ROM 13 RAM 14 input device 15 display device 16 auxiliary storage device 21 program 22 application program 23 driver software 24 multi-window operating system 25 data input / output control unit 26 constant display area management table 27 display unit 301 Data representing “window size” 302 Data representing “always displayed area” 303 Data representing “window ID”

Claims (4)

[Claims] A CPU for operating a system;
A computer system including an operating system used by a PU, an application program, and a storage device in which a driver for each component such as an input / output device can be installed, and a display accompanying execution of the application program or the like is output to a display device. A data input / output control unit that controls the operating system to change the display content of the display device, and is connected to the data input / output control unit and constantly displays each data being displayed on the display device. A computer system comprising: a constant display area management table unit for managing a data area to be created. 2. The data input / output control section, when displaying new data according to an instruction from the application program or the operating system, sets new data so as to avoid an area that is already set as a display area at all times. And I for identifying the new data
D and a data area that should always be displayed and the ID
Is registered in the constant display area management table, and when a data erasing instruction is given, an ID for identifying the data to be erased and the data identified by the ID are always displayed. 2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a data area to be set is always deleted from the display area management table. 3. The constant display area management table section sets an ID for identifying data being displayed on the display device, and associates the ID with the data area which is to be always displayed. 2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a display area is managed. 4. The always-on display area management table section identifies a window by the ID, and defines a rectangular area in the window identified by the ID as a data area identified by the ID and always desired to be displayed. 3. The computer system according to claim 2, wherein