JPS5859491A - Graphic japanese character display system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for displaying kanji in a computer system that does not include a character generator dedicated to displaying kanji.

Generally, when outputting kanji to a display device (e.g., a CRT display device), the character is printed in a set of enough dots to make up the typeface (e.g., 24 x 24 dots, 16
X16 dots). Conventionally, such kanji output has been employed in relatively 1% class computer systems (for example, word processors) equipped with memory circuits with large storage capacities and display devices with sufficient resolution to display kanji characters.

At this time, the computer system has a character generator for displaying kanji (hiragana and katakana characters are displayed with the same number of dots), and kanji pattern data output from this character generator is output to the display device.

However, small-sized computers such as personal computers are not equipped with a kanji pattern generator, which requires a large amount of kanji pattern memory within the pattern generator, due to problems such as storage capacity, processing speed, and price.

Small computers generally have fewer dot configurations (for example, 8×
(8-dot configuration) It merely implements an ANK character pattern generator. For this reason, when displaying kanji characters on a small computer, a method is used in which the characters are displayed graphically one dot at a time. However, this method has the disadvantage that the display speed of the entire screen is slow.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a kanji display method that can easily display kanji characters by adding a minimum amount of hardware to a computer that can only display a small number of dot structures.

To achieve this objective, we first added regular ANK characters '
The upper and lower rows of the display screen where are displayed are used. In order to make it possible to display the two rows of upper and lower rows, there is a first storage section that holds character information for one line to be displayed when a display command is executed; and a second storage section that holds kanji display information indicating that a kanji code is included in one line of character information. In order to increase the display speed, a video RAM is used in which ANK character codes and kanji pattern data are stored together, and the ANK character codes read from the video RAM are converted into character pattern data and displayed. A pattern generator for outputting to the device and means for outputting the Kanji pattern data read from the video RAM to the display device are provided. Furthermore, the kanji pattern data stored in the video RAM is held in an external storage location.

Hereinafter, the kanji display method of the present invention will be explained in detail using one embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a personal computer according to one embodiment. This personal computer is a system using a 780A processor. 1 is a microprocessor (MPU), 2 is a control program (particularly related to the present invention is a kanji display illumination
wA program) is stored in the ROM (Read
0nly Memory) There is. 3 is RAM (Rando) where data, user programs, etc. are stored.
s Access M memory >.

A first storage section 31 and a second storage section 32 are secured in this RAM area wLΩ-. The first storage unit 31 stores MP
One line of ANK character code displayed when tJl executes a display command to be described later and a Kanji code to which information indicating that the following code is a Kanji code are stored. Kanji display information indicating that a Kanji code is included in the character code stored in the first storage section 31 is held in the second storage section. 4 is C
RT'! This is a display device (CRT). 5 is a video RAM (V-RA) in which character information displayed on the CRT 4 is stored;
M). V-RAM 5G;t, ANK character codes and Kanji pattern data are mixed and stored. In this example, V-RAM5 is 1g! It is a 9-bit refresh memory, and the least significant bit is used as an attribution pit for distinguishing between ANK character codes and pattern data. The remaining 8 bits become the data portion.

6 is a read data register (RDR) in which data read from the V-RAM 5 is stored.

61 is a data signal line, and 62 is an AT signal line. 7 is a pattern generator (PG) that converts ANK character codes into pattern data. 8 is a multiplexer (which selects either the output of PG 7 or the data stored in RDR 6 based on the AT and other signals);
MPX). 9 is parallel data 1. Evening (8 in this example)
Parallel to serial converter (PS
C). 10 is writing data to V-RAM5,
This is a CRT controller (CRTC) that performs read control, PG7 control, etc. Reference numeral 11 denotes a refresh memory address (MA) signal line for refreshing the image displayed on the CRT 4 at regular intervals. 12 is a rask address (RA) signal line. Reference numeral 13 denotes a multiplexer (MPX) for selecting the write address signal sent from the MA multiplied signal MPU1. 14 is MPU1
This is a write data receiver (WDR) that receives write data sent from. 15 is the address bus (A-Bus) of MPLll, and 16 is the data bus (A-Bus) of MPU i.
D-Bus). 17 is a floppy disk driver (FD) in which kanji pattern data is stored. 1
8 is an FD controller (FDC).

Next, the operation of the personal computer of this embodiment will be explained. The following description assumes that this personal computer operates in BASICg language.

Mike [] Procera rPRINT A B C”
Assume that the instruction: &3r76:&2839J is executed. IP'RINTJ is a display command in the BA81G language of this embodiment, and is a command that instructs the MPU 1 to display the following character string on the CRT. Furthermore, ANK character strings are given by enclosing them in "'' (quote sign mark), and Kanji characters are given in the form of [& (ambasand) + J Is Kanji Kuten code". The results obtained when the above display command is executed by the personal computer of this embodiment are shown in FIG. 2, and the procedure will be described below. In addition, one ANK character is displayed in an 8x8 dot area, and a Kanji character is displayed in a 16x dot area.
Displayed in the 16-dot area. That is, the CRT4 of this embodiment
is designed to be displayed with eight rasters per line, and kanji are displayed using two lines.

First, when the display command is executed, each character code of the specified character string is sequentially stored in the first storage unit 31. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the code of the above character string is stored in the first storage section 31. As shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the first storage section is an address area 7000H (H indicates a hexadecimal number)
It is allocated from. By executing the display command, the MP
U1 reads the character code to be displayed from the user program area (not shown) in RAM 3, and determines whether or not a kanji is specified. In this embodiment, Kanji period codes are distinguished from others by the presence or absence of the "&" (ambassand) code. In terms of structure, first of all, “” (
The left double quotation mark) makes MPLJ 1 aware of the existence of the ANK characters to be displayed.゛Then, the JIS code (41H) corresponding to rAJ is read from the area where the instruction is stored (user program area), and this code 4
1H is written to address 7000H of the first storage section 31.

rBJ, JIS code (42H) corresponding to "C"
, 43H) are sequentially read out from the user program area and stored at addresses 7001H17002H in the first storage section. Next, due to the presence of "&", MPU 1 learns of the request for Kanji display.

At this time, the MPU 1 counts the occurrences of "&", and the result is stored in the second storage unit 32 (this becomes the kanji display information in this embodiment). Next, the Kanji Kuten code is read from the user program area, but prior to this, information indicating that this code is a Kanji code is created and added to the code. The format of this information is shown in FIG. 41 is an extension code (ESC,
J Is coat 1 [3rd eye]. This ESC41
is a special control character that changes the meaning of the next finite number of pit combinations. The existence of this ESC code defines the meaning of the following code on the program. 4
2 is a control code, which is provided for outputting to a printer in this format. 43 is an area where the total number of bytes of the following Kanji code group is held.

First, ESC (
1BH) is stored, the Ill@code is stored at address 70048, and the byte length (initial value is 2) is stored at address 7005H. Then, the ward code 37H is stored at address 7006)-1 of the storage unit 31, and the point code 76th is stored at address 7007. Furthermore, MPU i reads the next "&", but
At this time, update the byte length area at address 70058 (
2) without adding the ESC code. Then, the kanji ward code 28th and point code 391-( are written at addresses 70088 and 7009H1t, respectively.

In this operation example, the display of one line ends here, but if more character strings continue, the above-described operation is repeated for one line of character strings. To manage the extraction of one line from the character string to be displayed, MPU1 extracts one ANK character,
This is done by counting kanji as two characters and comparing it with the number of characters in one line.

Now, once the character code for one line is stored in the first storage section 31, the code or pattern data is then transferred to the V-RAM 5.

First, MP (Jl refers to the contents of the second storage unit 32,
If it is not 0, it is determined that the kanji code is held in the first storage section and that kanji display is instructed.

If kanji display is not instructed, the codes (only ANK character codes) stored in the storage unit 31 are sequentially written into areas of the V-RAM corresponding to the display positions. The write address to V-RAM5 is given to V-RAM5 from MPtJl via A-BUS15 and MPX13. The code data read from the storage unit 31 is sent to the TV-RAM 5 via the D-Bus 16 and the WDR 14. On the other hand, if kanji display is specified,
In order to display character strings in two rows, upper and lower, the first storage section is
Referenced twice. First, in the first access by MPLJI, the code is read out from the first address of the storage unit 31, but if an ANK character code is read out, this code will be replaced with a space (SP>). The memory m in V-RAM 5 corresponding to the display position in the upper row is
Written to W. When ESC41 is read and it is found that there is a kanji code below, the pattern data of the kanji font "Higashi" stored in F:D17 is read out based on the next kanji kuten code <3776H). It is stored in a work area (not shown) in RAM3.

Then, pattern data corresponding to the upper half of the kanji font is written to a storage location in the V-RAM 5 corresponding to the display mW in the upper row.

At this time, the least significant bit (attribution bit) of V-RAM 5 is set, indicating that pattern data is stored at this storage location. In this way, the first round access of the storage unit 31 and the V-RAM 5
After the transfer of data to the storage unit 31 is completed, a second access to the storage unit 31 is subsequently performed. In the second access, when the ANK character code is read from the first storage unit 31, this read code is written to the storage position of the V-RAM 5 corresponding to the display position in the lower row. .

Also, when E'5C41 is read out and it is found that there is a kanji code below, the kanji pattern data stored in FD17 is read out based on the next kanji code and stored in the work area in RAM3. written. Then, the pattern data corresponding to the lower half of the kanji font is written to the storage position of the V-RAM 5 corresponding to the display position of the lower row.

On the other hand, V-RAMS side technology is always V-RAMS synchronized with the last scan of CRT4 by CRTClo (7) control.
Data is read from R8M5 and output to C'RT4. Data read from V-RAM5 is RDR
However, if the attribution bit is set, this data is stored in MPX
8 to the PSC 9. This pattern data is then converted to serial data by PS09 and CR
It is output to T4. If the attribution bit is not set (indicating that the data is an ANK character code), this code data is converted to pattern data by PO2. This butter >7-') HaM
It is output to TCRT4 via PX8 and PSC9.

With the above steps, display command rPRINT “ABC”; &
3776:&2839J is executed, and the pattern shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the CRT 4.

The kanji display method of the present invention has been described above with reference to embodiments, but according to the present invention, kanji can be displayed even in a computer system that is not manufactured exclusively for displaying kanji. In addition, an inexpensive computer system capable of processing Japanese is provided.

In the embodiment, a method is used in which the first storage section is referred to twice, but it is possible to refer to the first storage section once if the display order is changed from upper row to lower row and from upper row to lower row.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment, the following is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment, and Fig. 2 is a diagram showing one of the execution results of the display command.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of the first storage section, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the storage format of the Kanji Kuten code. 1...Microprocessor 31...First storage unit 32...Second storage unit 4...Display device 5...Video RAM 7... Pattern generator 8... Multiplexer 17... Floppy disk drive (731
7) Agent Patent attorney Norichika Mado (and 1 other person) Figure 1 □□□□-T-1 Figure 12, Figure 3, Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] A display device, a video RAM in which ANK character codes and kanji pattern data are stored as character information to be displayed on the display device, and a microprocessor that stores at least one line of ANK characters by executing a display command. a first storage section that stores a code and a kanji code to which information indicating that the code that follows is a kanji code is stored; and a kanji code that is stored in the character code stored in the first storage section; a second storage unit that holds kanji display information indicating that the kanji character code is included; a means for writing the ANK character code read from the first storage unit into a storage position corresponding to the display position; Kanji read from the first memory section]
- an external storage device that holds kanji pattern data that is accessed based on the code and stored in the video RAM, and converts the ANK character code read from the video RAM into a display pattern and outputs it to the display device; a pattern generator; and means for outputting the kanji pattern data read from the video RAM to the display device; When the processor refers to the kanji display information held in the second storage unit and determines that two kanji codes are stored in the first storage unit, the processor displays one line of character strings on the table or screen. In order to display using the display positions of the upper and lower rows, A is stored from the first storage section.
When a system character code is read out to N', a space code is written to the video RAM storage location corresponding to the upper row of the character display position, and the relevant character code is written to the video RAM storage location corresponding to the lower row. In rare cases, when the kanji code is read from the first memory location, the pattern data of the upper half of the kanji font is stored in the memory location of the video RAM corresponding to the upper row of the character display position, and the pattern data of the upper half of the kanji font is stored in the video R corresponding to the lower row.
A patented display method characterized in that pattern data for the lower half of a kanji font is written in the memory location of AM.