JPS6322334B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical field to which the invention pertains] The present invention relates to an information output device that is equipped with a display device, a printing device, etc., and displays or prints predetermined information according to information from a processing device. It is something.

Specific examples of such information output devices include various display devices, various output printers, control consoles, and various terminal devices (devices). Here, the information output device is a general term for these in terms of output devices. Note that this information output device may naturally have an input function.

[Prior art and its problems]

Hereinafter, a video data terminal device (hereinafter simply referred to as a display terminal) will be described as a specific example of the information output device.

By the way, in a computer processing system, information is generally exchanged between a central computer and a terminal user.
In this case, display terminals are often used. In other words, computer information is visually transmitted to the user by displaying information on the display screen of the display terminal, and information can also be entered into a keyboard connected to the display terminal as necessary. This allows information to be transmitted from the terminal user to the computer.

As a display terminal of this kind, the present inventor proposed the patent application in 1983 as a prior art prior to publication.
-104169 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 58-221440) (title of invention: information output device), the general structure of which is as follows:
This is shown in FIG.

In the figure, 1 is a central computer and 2 is a display terminal.

The display terminal 2 is connected to the computer 1 via a line 3, receives information from the computer 1 through the line 3, and displays patterns of characters, symbols, etc. on a CRT display 4 in a predetermined format. On the other hand, the user can display necessary information on the CRT display 4 by using the keyboard 5. As needed,
The input information is transmitted from the display terminal 2 to the computer 1 via the line 3.

Further, the display terminal 2 inputs data information received from the line 3 to the device control circuit 6, and stores this as display data in a predetermined position of the refresh memory 7 according to predetermined control. The data thus stored in the refresh memory 7 is sent to a character/pattern generation circuit 8, where character or pattern information corresponding to the data is read out, and this is sent to a video control circuit 9. The generated character/pattern information is converted into a video signal and displayed on the CRT display 4.

Here, the display terminal 2 includes a display information analysis generation circuit 10 and a storage device 11.

The display information analysis generation circuit 10 is connected to the computer 1
It has a data conversion function of converting the data information from 1 to 10 into data information for display, and is composed of an interface circuit 10a, a coordinate information generation circuit 10b, a display color code generation circuit 10c, and a character etc. code generation circuit 10d. There is.

The storage device 11 receives conversion information from the device control circuit 6 and stores it. A specific example of the conversion information is format information shown in FIG. 5, which will be described later. , is stored as display format information together with its identification number. The storage device 11 is accessed by the display format information identification number (sent from the computer 1) from the device control circuit 6, outputs predetermined format information (conversion information), and uses this to analyze the display information. The signal is sent to the generating circuit 10.

The display information analysis and generation circuit 10 generates control information for display (but , including coordinate information) and a character code or pattern code.

These pieces of information generated in the display information analysis and generation circuit 10 are then sent to the device control circuit 6, where they are stored at predetermined coordinate positions in the refresh memory according to the obtained coordinate information. The control information (excluding coordinate information) stored in the refresh memory 7 is sent to a video control circuit 9, while the character code or pattern code is sent to a character/pattern generation circuit 8. The character/pattern generation circuit 8 is addressed thereby to generate a predetermined pattern and sends it to the video control circuit 9. Therefore, predetermined characters or patterns are displayed on the display 4 according to a predetermined format.

Thereafter, data information transmitted from the computer 1 will be displayed in the same format unless the format is changed.

After the display format information is registered (stored in the storage device 11), information on the display format information reference command is sent from the computer 1 to the display terminal 2 together with the display format information identification number, and from this point on the display screen is , the display format will be followed.

The above is an overview of the display terminal 2 which is the prior art.

Since this prior art is also related to the embodiment to which the present invention is applied, the data processing method will be explained in detail here.

First, a display format information group 30 is transmitted from the computer 1 to the display terminal 2 via the line 3 in the format shown in FIG. In the display terminal 2, the device control circuit 6 first receives this data information, and the storage device 10 stores it as an information group in a display format.

The configuration of the display format information group 30 shown in FIG. 2 includes a display format information identification number 31, a display format byte number (3
The number of bytes constituting 3) 32 and the format information 33 correspond to one screen, making one unit, which is made up of a plurality of screens.

Here, 1 consisting of display format information identification number 31, display format byte number 32, and format information 33 is displayed.
The unit data information is one piece of display format information, which defines the display format of data exchanged between the computer 1 and the display terminal 2.

At the beginning of the display format information group 30, information indicating a display format information registration command code 34 and the number 35 of display format information registration is attached. The information 34, 35 at the beginning is decoded by the device control circuit 6, and upon receiving it, the device control circuit 6 reads the display format information identification number 3 that follows.
1. Display format number of bytes: 32, format information: 3
3 are sequentially stored in the storage device 10.

Here, the content of the format information 33 is
For example, the information is displayed on a CRT display 4 in a format as shown in FIG.

Note that here, the conversion information is configured in the form of format information. That is, this format information has coordinate information, color information, number of field digits, etc. arranged at predetermined positions, becomes incorporated conversion information, and has a conversion identification code as the conversion information.

In FIG. 4, the display screen 50 has an X coordinate in the horizontal direction and a Y coordinate in the vertical direction, and the X coordinate is set from 0 to 9 and the Y coordinate is set from 0 to 6.

Here, the fourth field 51, the fifth field 52, the sixth field 53, and the seventh field 54
Let be each current display field. Here, the fourth field 51 has its leading X and Y coordinates as X=
1, Y=1. Similarly, the fifth field 52
Then, X=5, Y=2, in the sixth field 53, X=1, Y=4, and in the seventh field 54,
=5, Y=5.

Correspondingly, these are shown in the column of X coordinate information 41 and the column of Y coordinate information 42 of each field position shown in FIG. 3, respectively. Furthermore, display color identification information 43 is arranged in the subsequent column as information indicating the display color in each field. Here, W means white, R means red, B means blue, and G means green.

Column 44 is information indicating the number of digits in the field, and column 45 is information indicating the number of digits below the decimal point. Further, column 46 is a conversion identification code. In the conversion identification code 46, "I" means an integer, "R" means a real number, "C" means a character, and "S" means special data. Here, the conversion code for “S” is
It means to display the information 47 set after that, and in FIG.
The characters are "DATA".

Here, each data information shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is shown in binary code of the data system sent from computer 1, and each I column □ is a 1-byte binary code means data expressed in base numbers).

The computer 1 transmits command information 60 in the format shown in FIG. The data information 70 shown is sent out.

Here, the command information 60 includes a code 61 whose first 1 byte means display format information reference, and the next 1 byte.
It consists of 2 bytes of information, each byte indicating the display format information identification number 62.

On the other hand, the data information 70 shown in FIG. 6 is sequentially transmitted in the form of, for example, integer binary data 71, real number binary data 72, and character binary data 73.

When the device control circuit 6 receives these command information 60 and data information 70 via the line 3, the device control circuit 6 decodes the command information 60 and uses the display format information identification number 62 to
access. Then, among the display format identification numbers 31 of the stored information, the format information 33 corresponding to the number that matches the display format information identification number 62 is stored according to the number of display format information bytes 32. , and sends it to the display information analysis and generation circuit 10. At this time, the device control circuit 6 also controls the display information analysis generation circuit 1.
Sends a drive request signal to 0.

In the display information analysis generation circuit 10, the storage device 11
The first two bytes of X, Y coordinate information 41 and 42 of the format information sent from the X and Y coordinates are input to the coordinate information generating circuit 10b. Here, it is converted into predetermined coordinate information (address information) of the refresh memory 7. On the other hand, the display color identification information 43 in the third byte of the format information is input to the display color code generation circuit 10c, where it is converted into a code indicating the display color information on the CRT display 4. The remaining number of field digits 44, number of digits below the decimal point 45, and conversion identification code 46 of the fourth to sixth bytes are respectively input to the character code generation circuit 10d.

On the other hand, a drive request signal sent from the device control circuit 6 to the display information analysis and generation circuit 10 is input to the interface circuit 10a.

In response to this, the interface circuit 10a
Coordinate information generation circuit 10b, display color code generation circuit 10c, and character code generation circuit 1, respectively.
The device control circuit 6 sends a signal generation request signal to each circuit in the order of 0d, receives each information generated from these circuits, and sends a signal generation request signal to each circuit.
The information is sent to.

Note that when the character code generation circuit 10d receives a generation request signal from the interface circuit 10a, it refers to the conversion identification code, and if the code is not "S", it sends a message to the interface circuit 10a.
A request to send data information 70 from computer 1 is issued. Then, in response to this, storage device 1
From each piece of information 44, 45, 46 starting from 1 and this data information 70, a predetermined character code or pattern code is generated corresponding to this data information.

For example, of the data information 70, the integer binary data 71 is a character code (numeric code) indicating each corresponding number based on the conversion identification code "I", which corresponds to the number of digits. is produced as. In addition, for the real binary data 72, character codes indicating each number, including each corresponding number and the number below the decimal point, are created based on the conversion identification code "R", and furthermore, each character code indicating each number, including the corresponding number and the number below the decimal point, is created. 2
In the case of a base number, each corresponding character code is created based on the conversion identification code "C".

Here, when the conversion identification code is "S", special data information, for example, information corresponding to "DATA" is read from the storage device 11,
Based on this, each character code indicating this "DATA" will be created.

Each piece of information generated in this way is transmitted to the device control circuit 6 under the control of the istaface circuit 10a.
sent to. The device control circuit 6 selects the corresponding coordinate position (address position) of the refresh memory 7 based on the information from the coordinate information generation circuit 10b, sets this as the start position, and then selects the corresponding coordinate position (address position) from the display color code generation circuit 10c. The code indicating the display color and the character code from the character code generation circuit 10d are sequentially stored in the refresh memory 7.

As a result, information as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on the screen 50 of the CRT display 4. In addition, in FIG. 7, the fourth field 5
"520" shown in 1 corresponds to the binary data of 71 in the data information, and "40.5" shown in the fifth field 52 corresponds to the binary data of 72 in the data information.
And "SWC" shown in the 6th field 53
correspond to 73 binary data in the data information. Here, “DATA” in the seventh field 54 is sent from the storage device 11.

However, in such a display terminal, the display format information stored in the storage device 10 is the same as the content at the time it is registered in the storage device 10 from the computer 1 via the device control circuit 2 in the format shown in FIG. It was fixed. Therefore, when trying to display a screen based on certain display format information,
It was necessary to prepare all the binary data necessary for the display format information on the computer 1 side, and then issue a display request to the display terminal. That is, there is an unresolved problem in that the screen display on the display terminal has to wait until all the binary data necessary for display is available on the computer 1. This problem increases the overhead when displaying the screen, or when randomly generated data is displayed on the screen, the display format information cannot be stored in the display terminal. have.

[Purpose of the invention]

This invention was made in view of the shortcomings of the prior art, and improves responsiveness by displaying on screen or printing even when binary data is not available on the computer side. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information output device capable of storing display format information, which is versatile and capable of displaying a screen or printout having randomly generated data.

[Key points of the invention]

The present invention provides an information output device that displays or prints predetermined information in response to command information and data information from a processing device, in which data information from the processing device is stored in a storage device as data used in the information output device. A plurality of pieces of format information to be converted into information are stored, and a data information generating device generates predetermined control information for display or printing used in this information output device and predetermined characters or characters based on the format information of the storage device. generates code information for generating a pattern, and determines the presence or absence of binary data in the data information from the processing device, and as a result, if there is no binary data, generates a predetermined symbol pattern, and the processing device In response to a command signal from the storage device, predetermined format information is read out from the storage device, and is supplied to the data information generation device to display or print according to the predetermined format information. .

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the display terminal of FIG. 1, and shows a block diagram of the data information generating device of the display terminal 2 and related parts.

In the figure, 12 is a display information generation circuit, which is a specific example of a data information generation circuit that is a component of the present invention.

The display information generation circuit 12 is provided with a binary data determination circuit 13 in addition to the display information generation circuit 10 described above.

Here, the display information generation circuit 12 generates display information on the display terminal 2, and is a substitute for the display information analysis generation circuit 10 in FIG. At the same time, it is sent to the device control circuit 6. It also receives format information from the storage device 11. The connections beyond the device control circuit 6 are exactly the same as those shown in FIG. 1, and corresponding parts to those in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals. Furthermore, the function of the character code generation circuit 10d is somewhat different from that shown in FIG. 1, as will be described later.

The computer 1 transmits command information 60 in the format shown in FIG. The data information 70 shown is sent out.

Here, in the command information 60, the first 1 byte is a code 61 meaning display format information reference, the next 1 byte is a display format information identification number 62,
These are the same command information as shown in FIG. 5 above. Furthermore, the next 1 after display format information identification number 62
Byte is binary data judgment drive request code 63
Then, the next three bytes are used as drive parameters 64.

The binary data determination drive request code 63 is information indicating whether or not to drive the binary data determination circuit 13 of the display information generation circuit 12. When driving the binary data determination circuit 13, the 10th
As shown in the figure, a logic value "1" is inserted, and when the binary data determination circuit 13 is not driven, a logic value "0" is inserted.

Further, the drive parameters 64 are set by the computer 1.
For example, the 10th number indicates whether the binary data sent from the terminal to the display terminal 2 is invalid.
As shown in the figure, it consists of determination information 66 consisting of flag bits of "8000" and an alternative display symbol code 65 to be displayed on the display screen as a substitute for the binary data when the binary data is invalid. There is. In this case, as the alternative symbol represented by the alternative display symbol code 66, it is desirable to select a symbol that is unlikely to be mixed with the character or pattern represented by the original binary data. As shown in the figure, the "〓" symbol is selected.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 11, specific examples of the data information 70 are, for example, integer binary data 71, real binary data 7, as in the case of FIG.
2, and character-shaped binary data 73. And these binary data 7
1, 72, 73, if the binary data is invalid, the invalid binary data position is
Instead of binary data, as shown in Figure 11,
Flag bit "8000" is inserted.

Now, when the command information 60 is sent from the computer 1 to the device control circuit 6 of the display terminal 2 in the form of a binary data judgment drive request, the device control circuit 6 controls the interface circuit of the display information analysis generation circuit 10. A startup request is sent to 10a. As a result, the interface circuit 10a that has started driving first checks the binary data determination drive request code 63 included in the command information 60.

Thereafter, the interface circuit 10a transmits the alternative display character code 65 in the drive parameter 64 to the character code generation circuit 10d, and further transmits the determination information 66 in the drive parameter 64 to the binary data determination circuit 13. The character code generation circuit 10d stores an alternative display character code 65, and the binary data determination circuit 13 stores determination information 66.

Next, the interface circuit 10a issues a generation request to each circuit in the order of the coordinate generation circuit 10b, the display color generation circuit 10c, and the character code generation circuit 10d, and receives each piece of information generated from each circuit. The information is received and sent to the device control circuit 6.

The character code generation circuit 13 refers to the conversion identification code in the format information stored in the storage device 11, and in the case of conversion including display data in the format information, sends the display data to the interface circuit 10a. , in the case of conversion in which display data is not included in the format information, a request to read binary data from the computer 1 is sent to the interface circuit 10a. When the character code generation circuit 13 receives the binary data in response to the request from the computer 1 via the interface 10a, it first receives the binary data from the computer 1 via the interface circuit 10a and stores the stored binary data. Referring to the data judgment drive request code, if there is a drive request, the binary data is sent to the binary data judgment circuit 13. Here, the binary data determination circuit 13 selects the sent 2
The hexadecimal data is compared with the determination information 66 in the previously sent and stored drive parameters 64, and the result is sent to the character code generation circuit 10d. If the comparison result from the binary data determination circuit 13 is "mismatch," the character code generation circuit 10d generates display data as described above.
If it is a “match”, display data is generated to display the symbol 14 corresponding to the alternative display character code in the previously transmitted and stored drive parameter 64 for the number of field digits, and the interface circuit 10
Send to a. As a result, the first
As shown in FIG. 2, alternative display characters 14 are displayed for the number of digits in the field.

In the above embodiment, the binary data determination drive request code 63 and the drive parameter 64
Although the case where the command information 60 is included in the command information 60 has been described, the command information 60 is not included in the command information 60, and the computer 1
You may also send it from . Furthermore, the determination information 66 may be stored in the binary data determination circuit 13 in advance.

Furthermore, when the binary data from the computer 1 is invalid, in addition to displaying it by the alternative display symbol 14, nothing is displayed in the display area, or
Alternatively, the currently displayed data may be displayed as is.

Furthermore, the storage device 11 may be replaced by the main memory built into the computer 1. In this case, the display format information is stored in the main memory, and the display format information on the main memory is stored in accordance with predetermined command information. The display terminal 2 performs predetermined processing with reference to the .

Furthermore, in the above embodiments, the description has focused on a display terminal as a display device, but
Of course, it can be applied to printing devices such as line printers, XY plotters, dot printers, and typewriters. Furthermore, although the description focuses on terminal devices, the present invention is not limited to terminal devices, but can be applied to various input/output devices, control consoles, etc. when the code systems are different. .

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, the binary data determination circuit 13 controls the character code generation circuit 10d to generate a predetermined display pattern. If the equal code generating circuit is provided, there is no need to control the character equal code generating circuit 10d.

Further, in the embodiment described above, the display information, command information, determination information, etc. are sent out from the computer 1, but it will be understood that this may be sent from a general processing device. In addition, in this invention, patent application No. 57-104169 is disclosed as prior art.
Although the drawbacks thereof have been explained, the application thereof is not limited to such prior art.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the display information generation circuit is provided with a binary data determination circuit, and even when there is no binary data from the processing device, the display information is displayed based on the display format information (format information). Since the processing device is configured to be able to perform display or printing, it is possible to display or print without having to prepare all the binary data necessary for display or printing on the processing device side, and as a result, response speed can be improved. At the same time, it is possible to reduce overhead during display or printing, to enable randomly generated data to be displayed on screen or in print, and to improve the versatility of an information output device capable of storing display format information.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a display terminal device proposed as a prior art of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of the display format information sent from the computer side to the display terminal side, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the specific structure of the format information of the display format information shown in FIG. 2. , FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a specific example of the display format of a CRT display displayed according to the format information shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 shows a specific example of command information sent from the computer in FIG. 1. An explanatory diagram, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of data information sent from the computer in FIG. 1, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a display terminal device according to an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the prior art shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 9 shows a specific example of command information sent from the computer in FIG. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the specific content of the command information in FIG. 9. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the specific content of the data information sent from the computer in FIG. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example of data displayed based on data information from the computer in FIG. 8. 1... Computer, 2... Display terminal device, 3... Line, 4... CRT display,
5...Keyboard, 6...Device control circuit, 7...
Refresh memory, 8...Character/pattern generation circuit, 9...Video control circuit, 10...Display information analysis generation circuit, 11...Storage device, 12...Display information generation circuit, 13...Binary data judgment circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 In an information output device that receives command information and data information from a processing device, displays or prints predetermined information, and outputs the information, a storage device that stores a plurality of format information and a display used within this information output device , or a data information generating device that generates data information for printing, the format information indicating the display or printing format, and the data information from the processing device,
The data information generating device converts data into data information used within this information output device, and the data information generating device converts data into data information used within this information output device, and the data information generating device converts the information into data information used within this information output device, based on predetermined format information. information and code information for generating a predetermined character or pattern, and determines the presence or absence of binary data in the data information from the processing device, and as a result, if there is no binary data, a predetermined symbol pattern is generated. generating information, reads predetermined format information from the storage device in response to a command signal from the processing device, supplies this to the data information generation device, and displays according to the predetermined format information; Or an information output device characterized by printing.