JPH06175816A - Method and device for re-tracking input-device pointer on computer display - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve the likelihood of the staying of the pointer of an input device within one area on a display by allowing the inputting device to operate not at a default tracking rate but an area retracking rate while judging that the pointer of the input device is within the area on the display. CONSTITUTION: When the pointer of the input device 19 enters one area on the computer display 17 such as a rectangular scroll bar area 21, etc., the tracking rate of the input device 19 is changed. This retracking rate is made slower than the default tracking rate in an area desired to facilitate staying and made faster than the default tracking rate in an area desired to facilitate escaping. The retracking rate can be stored as a value in common with all the areas and stored separately by each area as well.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the field of data processing. More specifically, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for retracking an input device pointer within an area on a computer display screen.

[0002]

The "Graphical User Interface" was first introduced to the market by Apple,
It was later adopted by Microsoft in its "Windows" program and by IBM in OS / 2 and Presentation Manager. Computer systems that use this graphical user interface are a fairly recent emerging technology. is there. These graphical user interfaces
One of the common features of the system is the appearance of one or more windows or viewports on the computer display screen. The data contained in these windows as well as the appearance of the windows themselves can be manipulated by the user using an input device such as a mouse. For example, if a user is using a word processing program to view part of a document in a window and wants to move to a different part of the document, the user can scroll the mouse pointer. Place it on the bar slider, hold down the left mouse button, move the pointer to another point on the scroll bar, and release the mouse button. This is an operation called "drag and drop". The problem is that it requires considerable skill on the part of the computer user to perform this operation successfully. A slight glance to the left or right of the mouse will result in the pointer leaving the scroll bar and returning to the position before the scroll bar slider started.

Other operations in the graphical user interface environment are difficult to perform, as are scroll bar slider "drag and drop" operations. For example, changing the size of a window requires the user to move the mouse pointer to a narrow window boundary and perform another drag and drop operation. To move a window, select the window title bar and then drag another
You need to perform an and drop operation. Micr
ografx Windows Draw! To resize a clip art within a desktop publishing application, such as, the user must find the "corner handle" on the clip art and perform another drag and drop operation. You need to cling to it enough.

Due to the above problems, an unskilled user may feel that he is "pulled around" when trying to operate a current graphical user interface. Also, those users can use Windows or OS / 2 from their workplace.
You might want to "pull out" and throw it out the window through the street. These computer users
Discouragement, one might start to think that the graphical user interface is only for computer users under the age of 15 who have spent too much time playing video games and getting stuck.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The main object of the present invention is to enhance the operation of a graphical user interface system.

Another object of the present invention is to increase the likelihood that an input device pointer will remain within an area of a computer display.

The above and other objectives are met by the input device pointer retracking area on a computer display disclosed herein.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An input device pointer retracking area on a display is disclosed. When the input device pointer enters an area on the computer display, such as a rectangular scroll bar area, the tracking speed of the input device is changed. This re-tracking speed is slower than the default tracking speed in areas where it is desirable to stay more and faster than the default tracking speed in areas where it is desirable to escape easily. The re-tracking speed can be stored as a common value for all areas, or can be stored separately for each area.

[0009]

1 is a block diagram of a computer system 1 of the present invention.
It is a block diagram of 0. Computer system 10
Has a display 17, a keyboard 18 and an input device 19, each of which is a system unit 11
Connected to. System unit 11 is memory 1
3, including a processor 12 connected to a storage device 14 and a display adapter 15. The processor 12
It is suitably programmed to carry out the present invention, as detailed in the flow charts of FIGS. The memory 13 is
It includes a region list 40 and a common remapping field 50.

In the preferred embodiment, computer system 10 is an IBM PS / 2, in which case processor 12 is an Intel 80386 processor.
The display adapter 15 is an IBM 8515 display adapter and the display 17 is an IBM 851.
5 display device. Input device 19 is preferably an IBM mouse, but may be a track ball, light pen or other input device. Storage device 14 is operating system software, preferably OS / 2 2.0, including a presentation manager,
Optional Microsoft Windows 3.
1 and one or more Windows or OS / 2 application programs, shown as application program 20.

Display 17 includes the following areas which may be defined as "areas" in the present invention. Scroll bar area 21 is considered to be a rectangular area, as are upper window boundary 22, lower window boundary 23, left window boundary 24, right window boundary 25 and title bar 26. The clip art 28 is considered to be a composite area composed of a plurality of areas. The corner 29 of the clip art 28 is a circular area. The input device pointer 30 is also shown.

Computer system 10 is an Appl
It could also be another type of computer, either another microcomputer such as Macintosh of e., a minicomputer such as the IBM AS / 400, or a mainframe computer such as the IBM 390, and nevertheless the spirit and scope of the invention. include.
In addition, the computer system 10 is an IBM AS
It can also be a microcomputer, such as those described above, connected to a larger computer system such as a / 400.

Referring to FIG. 2, the input device pointer 30 of the present invention is shown.
Shows how to move the scroll bar area 21 on the display 17. In FIG. 2, the input device pointer 30 moves in a normal manner at the default tracking speed until the point 31 reaches the point 32 on the area boundary. In the preferred embodiment, the default tracking speed is OS / 2.
It is established by the part of the operating system responsible for such things, such as Presentation Manager, but can be modified by the user. In OS / 2 and Windows, the default tracking speed controls pointer movement across the display.

When the input device pointer 30 reaches a point 32 on the area boundary, it advances in the area 21 at the retracking speed of the area 21. For example, when the default tracking speed is “8” on a linear scale of 0 to 10 (0 is low speed, 10 is high speed), and “4” is selected as the retracking speed of the area 21, the input device is The pointer 30 takes twice as long to move in the area 21 as in other cases. This increases the likelihood of staying within region 21. The broken line with a narrow interval in the area 21 indicates the area 2
1 indicates that the slower retracking speed is selected.

According to the present invention, it is also possible to set a retracking speed higher than the default tracking speed for an area where it is desirable to facilitate escape.

FIG. 3 shows the fast retracking speed in region 21, as indicated by the widely spaced dashed lines. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the default tracking velocities and area retracking velocities can be represented in forms other than a 0 to 10 linear scale. For example,
Area tracking speed as a percentage of the maximum speed allowed by the operating system, as a position on a graphical knob or slide switch, or between the distance traveled by the input device and the distance traveled by the pointer on the display screen. It can be expressed by the actual correlation.

FIG. 4 shows the area list 40 of FIG. 1 in detail. In the preferred embodiment, area list 40 is stored in memory 13.
However, it is also possible to store this in the storage device 14. Region list 40 contains information used and updated in the flow chart of the present invention as described below.

The area type field 41 determines whether the area is a rectangle, a circle, a square or a composite area. The area ID field 42 assigns an identifier to each area. The area definition point field 43 defines the area. For example, a rectangular or square area would be defined by including in the area definition point field 43 the xy coordinates of two opposing vertices. The circular area is xy between the center of the circle and one point on the circumference.
Can be defined by coordinates. The composite area may include up to N xy coordinates used to define the boundaries of the area within the area definition point field 43. The number of coordinates existing in the area definition point field 43 is stored in the score field 44. Field 45 stores the retracking speed for this area. If this field is blank, the global area retracking speed (FIG. 5) is used for this area.

FIG. 5 details the common retracking field 50 of FIG. In the preferred embodiment, the common retracking field 50 is stored in the memory 13, although it could be stored in the storage device 14. Field 51 stores whether the user wishes to turn the pointer retracking of the present invention on or off. The current pointer position (CPL) is stored in the current pointer position field 52. Field 55
Stores the global area retracking speed used for all areas for which the retracking speed of the area itself is not specified.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary screen used to set the user modifiable parameters of the present invention. Possible user modifiable parameters include whether pointer retracking is set on or off, and what the value of global area retracking speed is.

7 through 9 are flow charts of the present invention. These flowcharts are executed when the user instructs to perform pointer retracking on the screen of FIG.

By the time we enter the flow chart of FIG. 7, we are already at point 32 in FIG. In block 101, x at the new pointer position
Obtain the y coordinate (measured in millimeters in the preferred embodiment, where the lower right corner of the screen is 0,0). In block 200b, the subroutine for determining whether the current pointer position in FIG. 8 is within the area is called.

Referring now to FIG. 8, block 205.
To check if there are any untested areas in the area list of FIG. If so, block 210 gets the next region in the region list.
In this example, the item in area 21 should be selected.
The inspection is performed at block 215 and the area type is square,
Find out if it is a rectangle or a "dummy" (discussed later). Since the region in this example is a rectangle, the answer in block 215 is yes and a check is made in block 220 to determine whether the CPL is a rectangle formed by the coordinates stored in the region definition point field 43 in the region list or Check if it is inside the square. Point 32 is area 21
(FIG. 3), the answer at block 220 is affirmative. The subroutine then returns a value of "YES" to block 200b of FIG. 7 along with the selected area for which the pointer was determined to exist unless block 240 determines that the area is a dummy area.

If block 220 determines that the CPL is not within the region, then processing returns to block 205 to see if there are more regions to examine. If there are no more areas, or if the CPL is not contained in any area, the answer in block 205 is negative and a value of "NO" is returned to block 200b in FIG. A value of "NO" is also returned if the answer in block 240 is positive.

If the region is circular, then at block 230 an inspection is performed to find C by examining the center point and points on the circumference.
Check whether PL is included in the circle. If this area is a composite area consisting of two or more coordinate points stored in the area definition point field 43 of the area list of FIG. 4, then a check is made at block 235 to allow the CPL to Check if it is within the defined composite area.

In this example, since the CPL is in the area, "
A "YES" value is returned to block 200b of FIG. 7. A check is made at block 165 to see if the retracking speed is set in field 45 of the area list for this area. If so, block 166.
The tracking speed for the input device in the field 45
Set to the retracking speed stored in. Otherwise, at block 168, the tracking speed for the input device is set to the global retracking speed stored in field 55. In either case, as long as the pointer is within this area, the default tracking rate under operating system control is replaced with the retracking rate specified in either block 166 or block 168 and block 170 , The normal input device processing is executed. A check is made at block 180 to see if an indication was received from the system that all windows were closed. If so,
The program ends at block 199. If not like this example, the process returns to block 101 to obtain the coordinates of the new pointer position.

After the input device pointer 30 exits area 21 (as indicated by point 35 in FIG. 2), the subroutine 200 for determining whether the current pointer position is within the area, the block 200b returns a "NO" value. And returns to block 175 to reset the tracking speed to the default tracking speed and then to block 170 to perform normal input device processing as previously described. When all windows have been closed, the answer at block 180 becomes positive and the program ends at block 199.

The flow chart of FIG. 9 is executed independently of the flow chart above to process window messages. At block 501, a window message is received. In the preferred embodiment, these window messages are
Received from the part of the operating system that is responsible for managing such messages, such as the presentation manager for S / 2. Block 50
A check is made at 5 to see if the message received is for closing the window. If so, block 510 deletes all of the regions within the window to be closed from the region list of FIG. 4, and the program ends at block 599. If the message does not close the window, block 515 performs normal windowing. A check is performed at block 520 to see if a new region has been added, or if the position of the region has changed, such as if the entire window was moved to a different position on the screen. Otherwise, return to block 501. If so, block 525
Removes all previous areas for this window from the area list in FIG. At block 530, a dummy area of the same size as this window is added. As a result of doing this, the area below this area in the area list (that is, the area belonging to another window) is not searched. At block 535, all other areas that are part of this window are added to the area list of FIG.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing how an input device pointer moves through an area on a computer display.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how an input device pointer moves through an area on a computer display.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an area list of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a common area field of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary screen used to set the user modifiable parameters of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 15 Display Adapter 17 Display 19 Input Device 21 Area 30 Input Device Pointer 34 Axis 40 Area List 41 Area Type Field 42 Area ID Field 43 Area Definition Point Field 44 Point Field 50 Common Remapping Field 52 Current Pointer Position Field 53 Old Pointer position field 54 Adjustment flag field 55 Current area ID field

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A step of instructing an input device to operate at a default tracking speed; a step of determining that the pointer of the input device is within one area on a computer display; A step of instructing the input device to operate at an area re-tracking speed instead of the default tracking speed while determining that the pointer is out of the area; Instructing an input device to operate at the default tracking speed, the method for retracking the pointer of the input device when the pointer is within an area on a computer display. 2. Instructing an input device to operate at a default tracking speed; determining that the pointer of the input device is within a first area on a computer display; While in the first area, the input device is instructed to operate at the first area re-tracking speed instead of the default tracking speed, and the pointer exits the first area. Determining that the pointer is in the second area on the computer display, the input device is instructed to operate at the default tracking speed, While determining that the pointer is in the second area, the input device is provided with the default trace. Commanding to operate at a second area retracking speed different from the first area retracking speed instead of a king speed; determining that the pointer has exited the second area; Reordering to operate at a tracking speed, and retracking the pointer of the input device when the pointer is in the first and second areas on the computer display. 3. A means for instructing an input device to operate at a default tracking speed, a first determination means for determining that the pointer of the input device is within one area on a computer display, and the first determination. Means for instructing the input device to operate at the area retracking speed instead of the default tracking speed while the means determines that the pointer is within the area; and the pointer exits the area. Retracking the pointer when the pointer of the input device is within one area on the computer display, comprising second determining means for determining and means for instructing the input device to operate at the default tracking speed. Device to do.