Aspects of the present invention are directed generally to window arrangements in an operating system. More particularly, aspects of the present invention are directed to a method and system for orienting multiple windows in an operating system and allowing some intelligent behavior to exist between the windows.
As the use of computers in both the workforce and personal life has increased, so has the desire to allow for easier use of them. Many operating systems today utilize a windows based configuration of application programs. Information is displayed on a display screen in what appears to be several sheets of paper. By interfacing with the windows, a user can access any window as if grabbing a single sheet of paper. A windows based configuration allows a user to compare and contrast content of two or more windows simultaneously.
A commonly desired orientation for windows is “two-up”, where the contents of the two windows occupy as much desktop space as possible while still allowing full visual access to both windows, e.g., the windows do not overlap. However, a user must take time to arrange the windows into a desired position. Operating systems do not currently allow for multiple windows to be associated with each other so that an operation performed on one window is performed automatically on a second independent window.
One application program, Microsoft® Office Word 2003, for example, allows a user to perform a split operation on a window. The split operation allows a user to see two different segments of the same file simultaneously. Although such an application program may help to compare and contrast a single file, a need exists for a method to compare and contrast the content of two independent windows where an action performed on one window automatically performs a corresponding operation on a second window.
There is therefore a need for a method for displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen where the behavior of one of the windows automatically may affect the behavior of the other(s) windows. The method may includes steps of associating a first window with a second window, where the second window is independent of the first window, arranging the first window and the second window on a display screen, where the first window and the second window are configured to fit within a predetermined region of the display screen, and notifying an application program corresponding to the first window that the second window is associated with the first window. An application corresponding to the second window may also be notified.
Another aspect of the invention provides an indicator that may appear on the display as a target region when a user desires to associate the first and the second windows. Subsequent operations performed on the first window are performed automatically on the second window.
The foregoing summary of the invention, as well as the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to the claimed invention.
In the following description of various illustrative embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The invention is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
With reference to
Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electronically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computer 110. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media.
The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as ROM 131 and RAM 132. A basic input/output system 133 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 120. By way of example, and not limitation,
The computer 110 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in
The computer 110 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 110, although only a memory storage device 181 has been illustrated in
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 110 is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 110 typically includes a modem 172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. The modem 172, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user input interface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation,
It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used. The existence of any of various well-known protocols such as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and the like is presumed, and the system can be operated in a client-server configuration to permit a user to retrieve web pages from a web-based server. Any of various conventional web browsers can be used to display and manipulate data on web pages.
A programming interface (or more simply, interface) may be viewed as any mechanism, process, protocol for enabling one or more segment(s) of code to communicate with or access the functionality provided by one or more other segment(s) of code. Alternatively, a programming interface may be viewed as one or more mechanism(s), method(s), function call(s), module(s), object(s), etc. of a component of a system capable of communicative coupling to one or more mechanism(s), method(s), function call(s), module(s), etc. of other component(s). The term “segment of code” in the preceding sentence is intended to include one or more instructions or lines of code, and includes, e.g., code modules, objects, subroutines, functions, and so on, regardless of the terminology applied or whether the code segments are separately compiled, or whether the code segments are provided as source, intermediate, or object code, whether the code segments are utilized in a runtime system or process, or whether they are located on the same or different machines or distributed across multiple machines, or whether the functionality represented by the segments of code are implemented wholly in software, wholly in hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.
Notionally, a programming interface may be viewed generically, as shown in
Aspects of such a programming interface may include the method whereby the first code segment transmits information (where “information” is used in its broadest sense and includes data, commands, requests, etc.) to the second code segment; the method whereby the second code segment receives the information; and the structure, sequence, syntax, organization, schema, timing and content of the information. In this regard, the underlying transport medium itself may be unimportant to the operation of the interface, whether the medium be wired or wireless, or a combination of both, as long as the information is transported in the manner defined by the interface. In certain situations, information may not be passed in one or both directions in the conventional sense, as the information transfer may be either via another mechanism (e.g. information placed in a buffer, file, etc. separate from information flow between the code segments) or non-existent, as when one code segment simply accesses functionality performed by a second code segment. Any or all of these aspects may be important in a given situation, e.g., depending on whether the code segments are part of a system in a loosely coupled or tightly coupled configuration, and so this list should be considered illustrative and non-limiting.
This notion of a programming interface is known to those skilled in the art and is clear from the foregoing detailed description of the invention. There are, however, other ways to implement a programming interface, and, unless expressly excluded, these too are intended to be encompassed by the claims set forth at the end of this specification. Such other ways may appear to be more sophisticated or complex than the simplistic view of
A communication from one code segment to another may be accomplished indirectly by breaking the communication into multiple discrete communications. This is depicted schematically in
In some cases, it may be possible to ignore, add or redefine certain aspects (e.g., parameters) of a programming interface while still accomplishing the intended result. This is illustrated in
It may also be feasible to merge some or all of the functionality of two separate code modules such that the “interface” between them changes form. For example, the functionality of
A communication from one code segment to another may be accomplished indirectly by breaking the communication into multiple discrete communications. This is depicted schematically in
Yet another possible variant is to dynamically rewrite the code to replace the interface functionality with something else but which achieves the same overall result. For example, there may be a system in which a code segment presented in an intermediate language (e.g. Microsoft IL, Java ByteCode, etc.) is provided to a Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler or interpreter in an execution environment (such as that provided by the Net framework, the Java runtime environment, or other similar runtime type environments). The JIT compiler may be written so as to dynamically convert the communications from the 1st Code Segment to the 2nd Code Segment, i.e., to conform them to a different interface as may be required by the 2nd Code Segment (either the original or a different 2nd Code Segment). This is depicted in
It is also noted that the above-described scenarios for achieving the same or similar result as an interface via alternative embodiments may also be combined in various ways, serially and/or in parallel, or with other intervening code. Thus, the alternative embodiments presented above are not mutually exclusive and may be mixed, matched and combined to produce the same or equivalent scenarios to the generic scenarios presented in
As shown in
As shown in the example of
Upon activation of the association of window 203 to window 205, a notification message may be sent to one or each application program corresponding to window 203 and window 205 to inform the other that each is now associated with the other. In one example, if window 203 were behind any other window when the association was initiated, window 203 would be brought to the top of the Z-order. The application program associated with window 203 may be a different application program or the same application program corresponding to window 205.
Upon activation of a mode selection button, such as mode selection button 311a, window 203 has an operation performed on it. In this case, a user may select to minimize window 203 upon depression of mode selection button 311a. In response, system 200 automatically performs the same operation on window 205 as the two windows, 203 and 205, are associated with each other. Similarly, an operation and/or orientation change performed on window 205 automatically may trigger a corresponding operation on window 203. As such, performing an operation on a first window may include changing an orientation of the first window based upon an activation of a mode selection interface, such as mode selection button 311a.
Although mode selection interfaces, buttons and common borders are described in these examples, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that other types of operations and/or orientation changes may be performed on the windows and that the present invention is not so limited to the examples herein. For example, a user may choose to perform an operation from a drop down menu for window 203, such as to save the content of the window 203. In such a case, the system 200 automatically may save the content of window 205 as well. In other embodiments, the system 200 may be configured to allow for certain operations to be performed automatically, such as maximizing and minimizing the windows, while not performing other operations automatically. For example, minimizing window 203 may automatically minimize window 205 as well, while saving the contents of window 203 may not save automatically the contents of window 205.
Although not shown in
The process also may continue to step 707 where a determination is made as to whether an input has been received to change the orientation of the first and/or the second windows. For example, the input may be a request to move a common border shared between the first window and the second window. If an input has not been received, the process ends. If an input has been received at step 707, the process moves to step 709 where the orientation of the first and/or the second window is changed in accordance with the request. For example, by moving the common border of the windows, both the orientations of the first window and the second window are modified. Alternatively and/or concurrently, from step 705, the process may proceed to step 711 where a determination is made as to whether an input has been received to perform an operation on the first and/or the second windows. One type of operation may include an operation to scroll through the content of the first window. If an input has not been received, the process ends. If an input has been received at step 711, the process moves to step 713 where the operation is performed on the first and/or the second windows. For example, the input may be a request to save the content within the first window. In such a case, if the operation is to be performed common to both windows, the contents of both the first and the second windows are saved. Alternatively, if the operation is independent of the other window, the operation is only performed on the one window to which the operation was directed.
From either step 709 or 713, the process moves to step 715 where a determination is made as to whether an input has been received to disassociate the first and second windows. For example, a user may decide that she no longer desires to have the first and second window share common operations. If an input has not been received, the process ends. If an input has been received at step 715, the process moves to step 717 where the first window is disassociated from the second window and the process ends. Various methods may be used to disassociate the first and second windows. For example, a mouse pointer may be used to drag one of the windows away form the other. Another example may be resizing and/or minimizing one of the windows. Resizing and minimizing may be done with the windows grouped together or, in the alternative, such functions may be used to disassociate the two windows.
At step 806, a determination is made as to whether the first open window is within a predefined area of a region of a display screen. For example, the predetermined region may be within an inch of the target region and the system may determine that the user has dragged the first open window within an inch of the target region. In another example, the predetermined region may be a fixed target location on a display and the system may determine that the user has dragged the first open window to over the fixed target location. If the first open window is not within the predefined area, the process returns back to step 806. If the first open window is within the predefined area, the process moves to step 808 where a visual indicator is displayed. It should be noted that an audio indicator may also or alternatively be used in the place of the visual indicator.
At step 810, a request to drop the first window over the visual indicator is received. Such a request may originate in the form of a user releasing a clicked and held electronic input device button from step 802. From step 810, the process may proceed to step 812 where the first open window and a second open window are associated with each other. Alternatively, from step 810, the process may move to step 814 where a request to drag the second open window is received by the system. At step 816, a request to move the second open window is received by the system. Such a request may originate in the form of a movement of an electronic input device, such as an electronic mouse. The process then moves to step 818.
At step 818, a determination is made as to whether the second open window is within a predefined area of a region of a display screen. If not, the process returns back to step 818. If the second open window is within a predefined area, the process moves to step 820 where a visual indicator is displayed. At step 822, a request to drop the second window over the visual indicator is received. Such a request may originate in the form of a user releasing a clicked and held electronic input device button from step 814. From step 822, the process may proceed to step 812 where the fist open window and the second open window are associated with each other.
With respect to an application programming interface (API), various aspects of the present invention may be performed by an API. For example, public APIs may interface with an operating system to allow an operating system to provide the various features of the present invention. In one embodiment, a software architecture for processing data representative of associated windows may include a component configured to associate a first open window and a second open window into a common open window and an application program interface to access the component. An API may receive a request to group two windows into a common window, access the necessary function(s) to perform the operation, and then send the results back to an operating system. The operating system may use the data provided from the API to perform the various features of the present invention.
While illustrative systems and methods as described herein embodying various aspects of the present invention are shown, it will be understood by those skilled in the art, that the invention is not limited to these embodiments. Modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. For example, each of the elements of the aforementioned embodiments may be utilized alone or in combination or subcombination with elements of the other embodiments. It will also be appreciated and understood that modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present invention. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on the present invention.
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