JPS6126087B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to interfacing hardware and software elements in a text processing device, and more particularly to interfacing hardware and software elements for performing one of several selected operations. It is concerned with setting the highlighted display area of text.

Conventional text processing devices have had hardware and controls that enable an operator to highlight on a display screen a single character or block of characters in text stored on the device. One or more selected functions may also be applied to the characters within this block. Typical such functions include deleting, moving, or copying highlighted characters contained within a block. However, the control mechanism allows the operator to begin setting the region of emphasized characters by positioning the cursor at the starting point closest to the beginning of the characters to be emphasized, and then placing the cursor at the ending point closest to the end of those characters. It had the limitation of positioning the cursor to finish setting the highlighted area. This limitation reduces operator productivity by unnaturally forcing the way the operator sets the characters or blocks of characters to be highlighted.

In accordance with the present invention, a system is provided for establishing a region for highlighting text stored in a text processing device by delimiting the characters to be highlighted by characters designated by an operator. . The highlighting area setting system includes a text storage buffer for storing characters in a contextual arrangement and a display screen for displaying the characters stored in the text storage buffer in a coordinate arrangement. Highlighting a character or a block of characters displayed on the display bounded by the character identified by the start pointer and the character that subsequently occurs within the text and identified by the end pointer. A display control block is provided for the display. The keystroke service routine is
Determine the character indicated by the operator to bound the earliest occurring text to be emphasized, identify one character by the start pointer, and identify the subsequently appearing character identified by the operator also by the end pointer. Give control commands to emphasize the point.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a text storage buffer control block determines first and second position pointers and a cursor pointer for pointing to individual characters in the text storage buffer. A display control block is provided which determines a display cursor for pointing to individual characters displayed on the display. The operator can select the first character by highlighting it with the display cursor on the display screen.
Determine the character to be pointed to by the position pointer. The operator then determines with the display cursor the character to be pointed to by the second position pointer. The keystroke service routine provides control instructions to highlight characters between the start and end pointers in both the text storage buffer and the display. The keystroke service routine is
and a second position pointer, respectively, which appears earlier in the text and identifies this point with the start pointer. The keystroke service routine then identifies the latter character with the exit pointer, and the display control block highlights the text bounded thereby.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the keystroke service routine prohibits any emphasis other than the emphasis between the start and end points.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided for emphasizing a character or a block of characters bounded by characters indicated by an operator in a text processing device. The method includes the steps of storing characters in a text storage buffer in a contextual arrangement and displaying the characters stored in the text storage buffer in a coordinate arrangement on a display screen. The method further includes the step of highlighting the character identified by the start pointer and subsequent characters appearing in the text bounded by the character identified by the end pointer. The method also includes the steps of determining the first operator-identified character that occurs in the text, identifying this character with a start pointer, and identifying a subsequent operator-specified character with an end pointer. There is.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a text processing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. The text processing device 10 produces a hard copy or printed copy of text entered into the device by an operator controlling keys on the keyboard 12. keyboard 12
drives the processor 14. Processor 14 is operatively interconnected to display 16, diskette drive 18, and random access memory 20 by memory bus 22. A system clock 23 is provided for timing functions within the text storage device 10.
Text is entered into the device by an operator entering keystrokes on the keyboard 12. Keyboard 12 may be a conventional typewriter keyboard with additional control keys. Text entered by the operator appears as a representation of the text on display 16, and keystrokes and command data are placed in memory for reproduction when making a hard copy.

One important control function on the keyboard 12 is determining the highlighting of a character or a block of consecutive characters stored in memory and displayed on the display screen 16. Once the highlighting of a block of characters has been determined, a number of functions are available for performance regarding this block. For example, one or more characters within the block may be deleted, moved to another portion of the text in memory, or copied to another location in the text. The present invention allows an operator to set a highlight area by moving a cursor or other pointing pointer back and forth within the text. This allows the operator to move the cursor in whatever direction is easier (from the character that appears earlier in the text to the character that appears later), without the unnatural forcing on the direction of cursor movement that was required in previous devices. , or by moving the cursor from the character that appeared later to the character that appeared earlier) to set the highlighting area. Text processing device 10 functions to highlight characters within blocks in addition to other functions.

Referring to FIG. 2, processor 14 will be detailed to illustrate typical logic hardware elements found in such a processor. The processor may be one commercially available from Intel Corporation as model 8086. Generally, the processor includes a control logic unit 30 that responds to interrupts on device bus 21 from keyboard 12.
The control logic unit 30 is also connected to a data and address bus 34 interconnected to other logic units of the processor 14.

In response to fetch instructions from random access memory 20, control logic unit 30 generates control signals to other logic elements of the processor. These control signals are interconnected to various other elements by control lines 36, which are connected directly to the arithmetic and logic unit 38 and are also represented as control lines 36 to other elements of the processor. Synchronous operation of control unit 30 and other logic elements of processor 14 is accomplished by clock pulses input to the processor from an external clock source. This instruction bus is interconnected to other logic elements of the processor shown in FIG.

Data and instructions to be processed in processor 14 are input via bus control logic unit 42. The data to be processed may come from the program input/output control unit 44. A bus control logic unit 42 is connected to the storage elements of the memory 20 and a programmable input/output control unit 44.
or from the random access memory 20. Thus, input/output control unit 44 receives data from keyboard 12 or memory 20, while bus control logic unit 42 receives instructions and data from the same memory. Various storage areas of random access memory are distinguishable as instruction storage and data storage.

Device control information from processor 14 is output via program input/output control unit 44 and data buses 48 and 49. keyboard 12
Input data on data buses 48, 49 from the processor is processed internally by the processor by instructions on bus 34 to scratch registers 52.
In response to control signals on line 36 and in accordance with instructions received via memory bus 22, arithmetic logic unit 38 performs calculations and stores them in temporary scratch registers 52. Various data transfers between arithmetic logic unit 38 and other logic elements of the processor are, of course, possible. These other transfers are carried out in status register 60, data
It may be to pointer register 56 or stack pointer register 58. The data stream for these various logic elements via bus 34 also includes a stream to program counter 54.

The particular sequence of operations for processor 14 is determined by instructions and data on memory bus 22 and input data on bidirectional buses 48 and 49. For example, in response to a received instruction, the processor transfers data stored in scratch register 52 to one of registers 56, 58, or 60. Such operation of processors is well known to those skilled in the data processing arts. A detailed description of each processor operation with respect to FIG. 2 will not be helpful in understanding the present invention.

Referring again to Figure 1, the operator keystrokes will cause the operator keystrokes to appear on the display screen 1, which is identical in nature to the screen of a conventional television receiver.
6. This screen may display an entire page of text, a portion of the page, or just a single line. The display not only visually displays the text being created to the operator, but also provides the operator with instructions on how to interface with the device.

The diskette drive device 18 is a random drive device which will be described later.
As part of the access memory 20, there is a magnetic disk associated with a text storage buffer (TSB) for semi-permanently retaining keystroke and command data. Typically, a portion or all of a page of text in a document stored on device 10 is stored in a text storage buffer, while the remaining document is stored in a diskette.

Random access memory represents a combination of electronic hardware and software for performing many functions in text processing device 10. Keystroke control routine 70 takes a keystroke from keyboard 12 and determines which of keystroke service routines 72 should be used to process the keystroke. One routine in keystroke service routine 72 is found to service each keystroke on keyboard 12. If the keystroke represents a typed character for insertion in text, one routine in keystroke service routines 72 stores the data in a text storage buffer (TSB) 74 for display and conventional hard copy. - Insert the keystroke into the stream. Also within the keystroke service routine 72 are a set block routine 76 and an emphasis routine 100. These routines operate to set up a block of characters and perform the desired highlighting function for that block.

A text storage buffer (TSB) 74 stores the text displayed on display screen 16. TSB the text stored there
Routines for processing and updating are provided in block 75. The display access method program 80 is a display refresh method.
Controls the formatting of text on display screen 16 via buffer 82. Display access method program 80 accesses screen 16 according to a "BUILD" subroutine.
You can also update the display above. The “formation” subroutine is
97579) in FIGS. 7A and 7B. A description of the "Formation" subroutine is not necessary for understanding the present invention and will not be described here.

The text stored in TSB 74 is in a contextual arrangement. In other words, the characters and the control information that formats the characters in the text are stored in serial order from the beginning to the end of the text. On the other hand, display screen 16
The above information is displayed in a coordinate array. That is, each graphic to be displayed is displayed at (X, Y) coordinates on the screen 16. Therefore, TSB14
A set block routine is stored as one of the keystroke service routines for setting the highlight area within and on display screen 16. A routine is provided in memory 20 for converting a contextual array into a coordinate array for interaction between the TSB and the display so that the first or last character of the highlighted area can be indicated first. Given.

A portion of the TSB control block 75 consists of a set of pointers that identify characters in the text stored in the TSB. TSB manager 84 generates a keystroke to set a first position pointer to identify a preselected character in the TSB.
Commanded by service routines. or,
The TSB manager also sets a second position pointer to a preselected character stored in the TSB as directed by the keystroke service routine. Whenever text is moved or modified within the text storage buffer, the position pointers indicate that the preselected character is on the device 10.
points to those characters as long as they remain in memory. These position pointers will point to the preselected character.
These characters are designated even when moved out of the TSB and into the diskette drive 18. As mentioned above, the TSB stores an entire page or a portion of the text in a given document stored within its device 10. The remainder of the document is stored on a magnetic disk in diskette drive 18. The position pointer indicates whether the preselected character is on the page or stored on the diskette. If they are stored on a diskette, the position pointer indicates whether the characters are on a previous or a subsequent page.

TSB control block 75 also has a cursor pointer that identifies the characters stored in the TSB. Display controlled by cursor keys
The cursor identifies characters displayed on screen 16 that are visually recognized by the operator. The cursor pointer and display cursor identify the same character substantially continuously during operation of device 10. The only time the indicated character does not correspond is during internal operations necessary to service an operator's request, such as while moving a display cursor across a line of displayed text. The time between the time the operator presses the cursor key and the time the cursor moves across the display screen is so short that the position pointer is not equal to the display cursor because the routine has no time to run. I have time.

Referring to FIG. 3, block setting routine 7
6 is represented by a series of logical sequences.
As represented by sequence 90, the operator first presses the delete, move, or copy key on the keyboard. The keystroke is forwarded to keystroke service routine 72 for processing in sequence 92. When the delete, move or copy key is pressed, the display. The cursor position represents the position of the first position pointer and identifies one end of the character or block of characters to be highlighted. This function is sequence 9
3.

The operator activates the "highlight to cursor" mode by pressing the appropriate key on the keyboard 12. When this mode is activated, the display cursor forms one boundary of the block and the first position pointer forms the other boundary, regardless of other actions of the operator. This operation is represented by sequence 94.

Generally, system 10 uses the "highlight to cursor" mode after a first end of a block of characters is identified and until the other end of the block is identified. After the two ends have been identified, device 10 uses the "highlight between pointers" mode described below until the function is completed or canceled.

Following sequence 94, block setting routine 76 inhibits any other highlighting on display screen 16, as represented by sequence 98. Prohibiting other highlighting avoids confusion for the operator since the only thing highlighted on the display screen 16 that the operator sees is the text to be deleted, moved or copied.

As represented by sequence 102, block setting routine 76 calls emphasis routine 100. The purpose of the highlighting routine is to determine the locations to be designated as the beginning and end of the block to be highlighted. This is necessary when the device 10 forms highlighted text starting at the top of the display and moving it downward.
However, in the case of emphasis between pointers, the second position pointer is a pointer that is used later in time, but is not necessarily within the text. do not have. The position of the second pointer may be at a corresponding position before the position of the first pointer in the text, or it may be placed after the position of the first pointer. In the "highlight to cursor" mode, the display cursor forming the last boundary for the block is positioned before or after the first position pointer in the text.

A "formation" routine, represented by sequence 99, is called as necessary to modify a page, or a portion of a page, stored in the TSB. As shown in sequences 101 and 103, further keystroke information may be entered into the text during the emphasis. device 10
waits for the operator to press an input key,
Determining the position of a second position pointer or cursor pointer to set the character or block of characters to be highlighted. This function is represented as sequence 104. When the other end of the block of characters to be highlighted is defined by the second position pointer, the "highlight between pointers" mode, indicated by sequence 96, is entered. Once in this mode, the display cursor can be moved through the character block to be highlighted without shifting the boundaries of the character block.

Enhancement routine 100 is shown as a series of sequences in FIG. When the emphasis routine is called, it first determines whether the emphasis function of device 10 is active, as represented by test 105. If the emphasis function is not active, the routine is sequence 1
Display highlighting is inhibited as represented by 06 and the highlighting routine is returned to the routine of FIG.

If highlighting is active, the routine determines whether to be in "highlight to cursor" mode or "highlight between pointers" mode. This decision is represented by test 108. When in the "emphasis between pointers" mode, the routine determines whether the first location pointer is positioned beyond the second location pointer in the text, as represented by test 110.

The internal registers of processor 14 hold the start pointer (SP) and end pointer (EP) for entry into display control block 86 so that display access method program 8
On the next activation of 0, the displayed text is highlighted starting at the top border and moving downward. The main function of the emphasis routine is to determine which position pointer appears first in the text and make this the starting pointer. The other position pointer becomes the end pointer.

If test 110 returns yes, that is, if the first position pointer is located beyond the second position pointer in the text, then the first position pointer becomes the end pointer, as represented by sequence 112, and The second position pointer becomes the start pointer. If test 110 answers no, the second location pointer becomes the end pointer and the first location pointer becomes the start pointer, as represented by sequence 114.

Once the starting and ending points delimiting the block have been determined, an emphasis is often allowed to appear on the display screen 16. However, while most characters stored in the TSB 74 only occupy one byte of information, some characters, such as control instructions, are larger than one byte per character on the display.
To emphasize a multibyte character, the end pointer must point to the last byte of the bytes representing that character. However, the operator need only position the display cursor or position pointer on the first byte of a multi-byte character.

A multibyte character is preceded by a sequence byte,
class byte, count byte and type byte
A byte is placed. Sequence bytes represent the presence of multibyte characters. The class and type bytes tell device 10 what type of control is represented by the multibyte character. For example, commands such as format changes or keyboard changes can be indicated by these bytes. The second byte of the sequence, the count byte, indicates how long the sequence that begins and includes the count byte is.

Emphasis routine 100 provides a means for controlling multi-byte character text. The routine determines whether the end point is on the text control, as represented by test 116. If so, the end pointer is positioned at the end of the text control character by examining the count byte and moving the end pointer by the appropriate number of bytes, as represented by sequence 117. After sequence 117, ie, if the end pointer is not in the text control mechanism, the start and end pointers are moved to display control block 86, as represented by sequence 119.
and the text is highlighted on display screen 16.

If we are in "highlight to cursor" mode, test 108 will be answered yes. In its "highlight to cursor" mode, the text stored in the TSB 74 is in a continuous stream of contextual characters, but the text displayed on the display screen 16 is in (X,Y) coordinate format. ,
The highlighting routine is slightly more complex. As the operator moves the display cursor up or down the text, the device 10 must convert the movement in the coordinate array on the display screen 16 to the contextual array on the TSB 74.
This conversion is performed by the "MOVE" function. Its "move" function allows the cursor pointer in TSB 74 to point to the same character as the display cursor. Regarding the “movement” function, please refer to Japanese Patent Application No. 56-139871 (Japanese Patent Application No. 57-97579).
Figures 14A, 14B, and 14C of
As shown in the figure. A description of the "move" function is not necessary for understanding the present invention and will not be described here.

As represented by sequence 115,
The cursor pointer is a temporary pointer (TP) during operation in "highlight to cursor" mode as represented by sequence 115.
It is represented by. If the display cursor is moved up or down, test 118 performs a "CONSP" routine (converts coordinate representation to contextual representation) represented by sequence 120.
Instructs the routine to call. The updated display cursor can be moved via the “Move” function.
Update the cursor pointer in TSB74. When this occurs, ie, there is no up or down movement of the cursor, a test 122 determines whether the temporary pointer is beyond the first position pointer. If so, the temporary pointer represents the start pointer and the first position pointer represents the end pointer, as represented by sequence 124. If the temporary pointer is not beyond the first location pointer, then the first location pointer forms the start pointer and the temporary pointer forms the end pointer, as represented by sequence 126. The start and end pointers are entered into the display control block 86 for display on the display screen 16 in a manner similar to the "highlight between pointers" mode.

Referring to FIG. 4, the cursor up/down movement routine is represented by a series of sequences. As represented by sequence 130, operator activation of cursor up and down movement is handled by the appropriate keystroke service routine, represented by sequence 132. The emphasis routine is called, as represented by sequence 134, and provides a pointer to perform the emphasis on the display. sequence 136
A "move" routine is called to update the display cursor, as represented by
Inform the device of the desired location of the cursor pointer on TSB 74. The routine, as represented by sequence 138,
4 and returns to the routine of FIG. 6 as represented by sequence 140.

During up and down movement of the cursor, the display cursor signals the proper position to the cursor pointer in TSB 74 so that the cursor pointer is synchronized with the display cursor.

Referring to FIG. 5, another routine for cursor movement is represented by a series of sequences. The operator can select functions on the keyboard 12 that will advance the cursor to a particular text page. The keystrokes for such a function are represented by sequence 152. As represented by sequence 154, the appropriate keystroke service routine processes the input keystroke. Internal calculations within the device determine where the cursor pointer should be placed within the TSB 74. Sequence 156 represents movement of the cursor pointer within the TSB. TSB7
It is necessary to update the display cursor in relation to the position of the cursor pointer at .4. That function calls the highlighting routine, as represented by sequence 158.

Two routes are possible. The new cursor pointer position is on the same page of text stored in TSB74, but the display
If not displayed on screen 16, sequence 160 will answer no. sequence 16
As represented by 2, an update routine is called to update the display when it is necessary to display various portions of the same page stored in TSB 74. If the new position of the cursor pointer is on a page before or after the current page stored in the TSB, then the cursor pointer
It is necessary to move the pointer to form the text within the TSB 74.

In summary, the block setup routine allows the operator to initiate the setup of a character or block of characters to be deleted, moved or copied at either end. This feature enhances operator productivity by allowing the user to set the highlight area by moving the cursor in any convenient direction without imposing any unnatural constraints on the direction of cursor movement. . Furthermore, depending on the functionality, device 10 can operate in either a "highlight to cursor" mode or a "highlight between pointers" mode. “Highlight to cursor” mode emphasizes characters between the initial cursor position and the current position.
The "highlight between pointers" mode allows the cursor to be moved across the display screen after setting the highlight area without affecting the block.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a block diagram of various components in a text processing apparatus in which the present invention is used; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of logic elements in the processor shown in FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 illustrates a portion of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a logical flow diagram for a cursor up/down movement routine forming part of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a logical flow diagram for a cursor movement routine for movements other than up/down; FIG. is a logical flow diagram of an highlighting routine that forms part of the present invention. 12...Keyboard, 14...Processor, 1
6...Display, 70...Keystroke control routine, 72...Keystroke service routine, 74...Text storage buffer (TSB), 75...TSB control block, 86...
Display control block.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A device for setting a highlighted display area in a display device that displays characters stored in a text storage buffer in a context array in a coordinate array, comprising: a display control block that causes the display device to highlight a character between the character identified by the start pointer and the character identified by the end pointer; A highlighting area setting device for a display device, comprising means for identifying a character that appears first in the text among the characters using the start pointer, and identifying a character that appears subsequently in the text among the designated characters using the end pointer. .