IP Innovation L.L.C. and Technology Licensing Corporation (collectively, "Plaintiffs") have brought a patent-infringement action against Red Hat, Inc., and Novell, Inc., alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Numbers 5,072,412; 5,533,183; and 5,394,521. The patents concern a user interface that has multiple workspaces. The Plaintiffs' complaint identifies as accused products "Red Hat Linux system," the "Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop," and the "Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Server."
UPDATE: THESE THREE PATENTS WERE INVALIDATED BY THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, ON APRIL 30, 2010, IN THE ABOVE REFERENCED ACTION.
UPDATE: THESE THREE PATENTS WERE INVALIDATED BY THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, ON APRIL 30, 2010, IN THE ABOVE REFERENCED ACTION.
Last updated: 3 months ago
Summary / Description
| Summary / Description | In a multiwindow system in which a plurality of windows are set on a display screen at positions such that these windows partially overlap and the display priority and position of each window can be arbitrarily changed, when the operator instructs to change the display priority of the window, a check is automatically made to see if there exists the window which will be completely covered by the other windows having priorities higher than that of this window and will fully disappear from the screen if the display priority is changed or not. If such a window is found out, the display priority of this window is changed in the state in which this window is automatically shifted to the position where a part of this window can be seen on the screen, thereafter the window is displayed on the screen. The changing process of the display priority of the window and the automatic shifting process of the position of the window are controlled by referring to and correcting the contents of the window management tables in which the data indicative of the sizes, positions, display priorities, and the like of the respective windows is stored. |
Basic Information
| Type of Prior Art | Issued Patents - US |
| Country | United States of America |
| Patent/Application # | 4783648 |
| Kind Code | United States (US) - United STATES Patent - A |
| Patentee Name | Hitachi, Ltd. |
| Relevant Pages, Columns, or Lines | See excerpt |
| URL | http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/... |
| Publication Date | June 27, 1986 |
| Additional Information | Date listed is filing date |
Notes / To Do
| Notes | |
Excerpt
1.FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a whole arrangement of a control system of the information processing terminal apparatus mentioned above. The data and commands input from the keyboard 12 and the screen coordinate values of the display menu instructed by the input apparatus 17 are input to a register 2 through an interface circuit 1 and read by a CPU 3. The CPU 3 executes control programs stored in a memory 51 in accordance with the input commands. Numerals 52, 53, and 54 denote memories to store table data for management of windows which will be explained hereinafter. Data of a plurality of logic screens is stored into a memory 55. The partial regions of these logic screens are displayed in each window on the CRT 10. When data is input from the keyboard 12, the data is produced or corrected for the logic screen designated in the memory 55 and the display data is sequentially transferred to a bit map processor (BMP) 4 in accordance with the content of the window management table. The BMP 4 expands the display data as a bit map in a frame memory 5. A CRT controller 6 sequentially reads out the content of the frame memory 5 and outputs this data to the CRT 10.
FIG. 3 shows the relation between the logic screen and the windows. In this example, a partial region S.sub.20 of a logic screen 200, a partial region S.sub.21 of a logic screen 210, and a partial region S.sub.22 of a logic screen 220 stored in the memory 55 are displayed in a first window 20, a second window 21, and a third window 22 set in the display screen 11 of the CRT 10, respectively. The display priority of the first window 20 is the lowest and the second and third windows 21 and 22 overlap the first window 20, so that a part of the window 20 is hidden. The second window 21 is displayed in the region where it is completely included in the display region consisting of the first and third windows 20 and 22 and only a partial region 21A is displayed. Therefore, in this state, if the operator changes the display priority so that the whole region of the first window 20 can be seen, according to the conventional apparatus, the second window 21 will be completely hidden under the first and third windows as shown in FIG. 4. According to the present invention, however, when the display priority is changed, the positional relation of each window is automatically checked and if there exists any window which will be completely covered and hidden by other windows as shown in FIG. 4, this window is automatically shifted to another position, thereby enabling some portions of all of the windows to certainly appear on the screen as shown in, e.g., FIG. 5. With this method, any desired window can be designated by a cursor C as well. Therefore, the operator can sequentially change the display priorities of the windows without worrying about the positional relation among the windows.
The above-mentioned automatic shifting operation of the window position can be executed by use of window management tables 30, 360, and 50 shown in FIG. 6.
The first table 30 defines the relation amount the display position and size of the window and the logic screen corresponding thereto for every window defined in the display screen 11 and is formed in the memory 52. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the first table 30 comprises: a window name 31; X coordinates 32 and Y coordinates 33 of the start points of the windows on the display screen 11, (these coordinates correspond to (X.sub.0, Y.sub.0), (X.sub.1, Y.sub.1), and (X.sub.2, Y.sub.2) in FIG. 3); size 34 in the X direction of the window; size 35 in the Y direction; a pointer 36 to the second table 360, which will be explained hereinafter; window attribute information 37 to designate the presence or absence of the window stripe, color of the window frame, and the like; data pointer 38; X coordinates 39 and Y coordinates 40 of the positions of the start points of the corresponding partial regions (S.sub.20, S.sub.21, S.sub.22 in FIG. 3) on the logic screen; and sizes 41 in the X direction and sizes 42 in the Y direction of the foregoing partial regions (col. 3, ln 6 to col. 4, ln 14).
Relevance
Claims
User interface with mulitple workspaces
An article of manufacture for use in a system that includes a display; a processor for controlling the display; and display object data the processor can use to generate first and second display objects the processor can present on the display; the article comprising:
memory that can be accessed by the processor; and
data stored in the memory; the data comprising:
first and second workspace data structures relating respectively to first and second workspaces that the processor can present on the display; each of the first and second workspaces including a respective set of display objects; each of the display objects being perceptible as a distinct, coherent set of display features; the display objects of each respective set being perceptible as having spatial positions relative to each other when the respective workspace is presented on the display; and
first and second linking data structures; the first linking data structure linking the first workspace data structure and the display object data so that the processor presents the first display object in the first workspace's set of display objects; the second linking data structure linking the second workspace data structure and the display object data so that the processor presents the second display object in the second workspace's set of display objects; the first and second display objects being perceptible as the same tool.
Relevance
To be specified
To be specified
Claim Chart
All


