WO1992015934A1

WO1992015934A1 - Compound action display system

Info

Publication number: WO1992015934A1
Application number: PCT/EP1992/000353
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paul Ernest Lugo
Original assignee: International Business Machines Corporation; Ibm Deutschland Gmbh
Priority date: 1991-03-01
Filing date: 1992-02-20
Publication date: 1992-09-17
Also published as: KR920018571A; BR9200592A; JPH04319726A; CA2060553A1

Abstract

An apparatus and method for producing an icon generated, compound action in a display system with a plurality of icons is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processor for interpreting cursor placement device signals and positioning a cursor symbol on the display. The cursor placement device is used to position an icon in close proximity to another icon. Then, a user input, such as releasing a mouse button invokes a compound action based on the particular icons. Alternatively, the particular mouse button can influence the action that is invoked.

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

COMPOUND ACTION DISPLAY SYSTEM

This invention generally relates to

improvements in assisting users of a display system, and more particularly to an ergonomic technique for invoking a compound action by positioning a first icon in close proximity to a second icon and pressing a key to coordinate initiation of the action.

Display systems such as IBM's OS/2

Presentation Manager are designed to assist a user via a detailed help function. The help function is hierarchically organized into a set of chapters with a plurality of window displays for each chapter. Chapters are further broken down into topics as necessary. The Help function is initiated by pressing function key one (F1). When F1 is pressed, a menu of selections

representing the various chapters is presented for the user to select from. Thereafter, a user can select the chapter representing the topic of interest. Function enablers such as these have a basic flaw fatal to the ergonomic characteristics of the application. There is no direct linkage between an item of interest on the display, such as an icon, and the enabled function (Help function). US Patent 4,835,685 discloses an interrupt driven message processor with the capability of recognizing event occurrences on a plurality of attached hardware devices. Each device is treated as a separate process and an event occurring on one device is passed to another process associated with a separate device for handling. The receiving process performs all of the operations to handle the event. This architecture facilitates the dynamic connection or disconnection of hardware devices without interrupting system operations. While the flexibility this approach provides to a system designer is similar to the operation of the compound action processing of the subject invention, there is no hint of combining the handling of the plurality of operations into a combined single action based on the multiple operations. Thus, the prior art patent fails to provide the functions embodied in the subject invention.

Icon driven display systems are well known in today's computer display systems. Examples include IBM's Presentation Manager, Apple's Macintosh Computer and Xerox's computer systems. Details of an early Xerox windowing system appears in the books, SMALLTALK-80, published by Xerox and copyrighted 1990 with corrections; and SMALLTALK-80, published by Xerox and copyrighted 1984. Improvements to the Smalltalk environment which added icon support appear in US Patents 4,939,507 and 4,937,036. However, none of these references provide an ergonomic technique for invoking a compound action by positioning a first icon in close proximity to a second icon and pressing a key to coordinate initiation of the action.

A more efficient technique for processing user interactions with a windowing system is disclosed in US Patent 4,982,344. The patent discusses a method for creating hypertext

linkages between areas on a display and an application window. The area created on the display is actually a data structure that is queried upon user selection of the specific area by placing a cursor over the area and pressing a mouse button. Thereafter, control is passed to the application window defined in the data structure associated with the area.

Alternatively, a link icon can be used to

explicitly represent the application linkage. Then, a user can select the link icon to perform the transfer of function to the linked

application window. However, there is no

teaching whereby a first icon can be brought into close proximity with a second icon to invoke a preferred user action based on the combination of the two icons and a user action such as pressing a mouse button. Apparatus and method for producing an icon generated, compound action on a display with a plurality of icons is disclosed in the subject invention. Specifically, a cursor placement device is used to select a first icon via a processor managed user cursor positioning.

Thereafter, a user positions an icon in an area proximal to another icon and presses or releases a button on the cursor positioning device or a key on the keyboard to indicate that a compound action should be commenced. Finally, the

processor means initiates an appropriate compound action based on the particular pair of icons via a query of a predefined set of rules associated with the icons.

Alternatively, a compound action can be invoked by placing a cursor over a particular icon and selecting a specific key or mouse button that has been predefined to invoke a specific action for a given icon. So, for example, a cursor can be positioned over an icon and an appropriate key pressed to invoke help

information for the particular icon.

Figure 1 is a system diagram of the

apparatus in accordance with the subject

invention;

Figure 2 is a flowchart of the method in accordance with the subject invention;

Figure 3 is a flowchart of the method in accordance with the subject invention; Figure 4 is an illustration of a typical display and help icon in accordance with the subject invention;

Figure 5 is an illustration of a typical display and a cursor pointing to a particular icon in accordance with the subject invention; and

Figure 6 is an illustration of a typical compound action display operation in accordance with the subject invention.

Referring to Figure 1, a hardware diagram in accordance with the invention is shown. The computer 10 is an IBM Rise Systems/6000 with a memory, disk drive and various adapters for communicating with a display, host, modem, printer, keyboard and mouse. A description of the hardware, operating system and window manager are found in an IBM publication entitled. Getting Started: Using RISC SYSTEM/6000, GC23-2377, first published in January 1991. A more detailed discussion of the AlXwindows Environment is set forth in AIXwindows Environment for PS/2

Configuration Guide, SC23-2280 published by IBM in 1990. Finally, another useful document describing some of the function calls of

AlXwindows described below is X.desktop

Configuration Guide, published by IXI Limited in 1989. These publications are incorporated by reference in their entirety and will be referred to as appropriate. The computer 10 has a display 20, keyboard 50 and mouse 30 attached via the appropriate adapter as described in the referenced

publication. Moreover, the mouse has a right, center and left mouse button 40. The display has a variety of icons that are used to represent various functions or objects that are available on the system as shown in Figure 4 at 400 and 450. The invention allows a user to obtain help for an icon by first selecting it with a mouse by positioning a cursor character over the icon and simultaneously holding down the shift key, and pressing the left mouse button. This action is trapped by AIXwindows Desktop program in XDT and a decision is made based on the trigger mapping resource to see what trigger, if any, is mapped to the particular action. Using the mapping defined in ICONHELP XDEFAULT, the action can be mapped, for example, to the S99 trigger.

XDT is the name of the executable module for AIXwindows Desktop. Details on its operation are set forth in the manuals discussed above. Of particular interest is the discussion of MFYI, a desktop utility, discussing rule files in Section 3, pp. 37-70 and Section 4, pp. 73-89 of the publication entitled, X.desktop Configuration.

The XDT application queries the rule data base to determine the rules associated with the particular icon that was selected to determine if an action was previously defined for the S99 trigger. An example of a rule is illustrated below in ICONHELP RULES. Assuming that no superseding rule has redefined the actions of the S99 trigger, the XDT application initiates a background task on the processor utilizing the AIXwindows Desktop utility program MFYI. MFYI displays the information contained in the

ICONHELP program, which is called with the name of the file associated with the icon that was clicked on as a parameter. However, if ICONHELP does not identify a match in its database, MFYI fails because it has nothing to display. Upon failure, MFYI displays a predefined default message.

The ICONHELP PROGRAM appears below and employs a parameter passed to it as an argument to search its database of help messages. A sample entry in the database appears below in ICONHELP MESSAGES. Upon detection of a match, the matched message is printed or displayed.

Alternatively, getting help for an icon, or a plurality of icons is achieved by dropping them on an icon associated with the ICONHELP program. Thus, when a user drops an icon, or a plurality of icons on the icon for the ICONHELP program, the XDT application checks its trigger mapping resource to see what trigger, if any, is mapped to that drop action. Using the mapping defined in ICONHELP XDEFAULT, that action is mapped to one of the triggers, depending on what the particular key/button is active when the icon is selected.

The XDT application examines a rule data base associated with the ICONHELP program to determine if an action is defined for the

trigger. Using the rule defined in ICONHELP RULES, the XDT application signals the processor via an internal command to force the actions associated with the trigger for each file that was dropped on the ICONHELP program. Then, processing proceeds in a similar manner to the selection method described above.

A simple shell script that searches the ICONHELP message file using an input parameter as a search argument is set forth below.

awk "/s $1/,/e $1/ {if (\$2 != \"$1\")

print \$0}" iconhelp.messages

An example of an icon help message appears below in accordance with the subject invention.

* sample ICONHELP message

*

s toolchest

Drop an icon onto this icon

to add it to the tool chest,

e toolchest s iconhelp

Drop an icon onto this icon

to get help for the icon.

e iconhelp A sample rule file illustrating the specification of icon help for any file used to enable the help function in accordance with the subject invention appears below.

%// Note: "%//" indicative of a one-line comment statement

%// is ignored at compilation.

icon rules

{

%// rule for the toolchest directory

%// this applies to any file/directory

{trigger action: s99 %// the trigger used for help

{actions

%// When the *99 trigger is selected (mapped to shift-button 1), call %// the Desktop utility program "mfyi" to display the output of the %// iconhelp program, which is invoked with the name of this file as %// a parameter. If iconhelp doesn't find a match, mfyi gives a

%// bad return code (because it has nothing to display) and the

%// defaults message gets displayed,

{background: mfyi "'iconhelp %BO"' \\

mfyi "There is no help for this icon."

}

} %// end of rules for toolchest

%// rules for the iconhelp program

iconhelp /FX %// iconhelp is an executable File

{picture=help.px; %// the bitmap used for the icon

title=Help; %// the title of the icon on the desktop trigger_action: d* %// trigger if an icon is dropped on

{once_per_argument; %// repeat process for each icon dropped actions

%// When an icon is dragged and dropped onto this icon, invoke the

%// actions appropriate to the s99 trigger for the dropped icon.

{desktop: actions_of s99 %P1

}

} %// end of rules for iconhelp

} %// end of icon rules An example of an .Xdefaults file that is employed by X windows to define the s99 trigger used for enabling icon help in AIXwindows Desktop in accordance with the subject invention appears below.

XDesktop*triggers*mapping: \

1=1s; 2=-s; 3=-s; 1:c=-s; 2:c=-8; 3:c=-s; 1,1=S1; 2,2=S2; 3,3=S3; \

1=D1; 2=D2; 3=D3; 1:c=D4; 2:c=D5; 3:c=D6; 1:s=D7; 2:s=D8; 3:s=D9; \

1:m=D10; 2an=D11; 3:m=D12; \

1:s=S99

!

! Note: the "1:s" above indicates that is a mapping for pressing mouse

! button 1 with the shift key held down.

Figures 2 and 3 provide two flowcharts for the two help functions enabled by preferred

embodiments of the subject invention. Referring to Figure 2, processing commences at label 100 and control immediately flows to output block 105 where the ICON array is initialized to zero.

Then, a first icon is selected at function block 110 by a user. This event is captured by the application at function block 115 by setting

ICON(0) equal to a value indicative of the icon that was first selected. Then, when the first icon is positioned proximal to a second icon and the left mouse button is released as indicated in output block 120, ICON(1) is set equal to a value indicative of the second icon as shown in

function block 125. Control is passed at this point to the common logic used by both of the preferred embodiments shown in Figure 3.

In Figure 2 at label 140, a slightly

different embodiment of the invention is set forth. As above, the first step involves

initializing the ICON array in the computer memory as shown at output block 145. Then, at output block 150 an icon is selected by a user and ICON(0) is equated to a value indicative of the selected icon as shown in function block 155. Finally, at output block 160, the compound action is initiated by pressing the shift key and the left mouse button simultaneously. Control is thereafter passed to the common control logic shared with the other preferred embodiment, set forth in Figure 3 and discussed immediately hereafter.

Figure 3 sets forth the common control logic in accordance with the invention. Execution begins at label 199 where an interrupt handler traps the interrupt generated by the mouse button and transmitted via the mouse adapter to the processor as shown in input block 200. Function block 210 processes the interrupt and queries the ICON array to select the appropriate rule number to attempt to match. The match is determined in decision block 220, or if no match is made, then a default rule is selected as shown in function block 230. Then, the selected rule is executed as shown in function block 240 carrying forth the compound action. In the case of the preferred embodiment, presenting help text on a display for the user based on the particular icon(s)

selected.

An embodiment of the invention is best illustrated by way of an example set forth in Figures 4, 5 and 6. Figure 4 illustrates a typical display in accordance with the subject invention. A user can select any of the icons on the display, such as InfoExplorer 400 and drag it over to the help icon 450 to obtain help

associated with the InfoExplorer. Alternatively, a user can select help on the InfoExplorer icon 400 by selecting the icon and pressing the shift key on the keyboard while simultaneously pressing the left mouse button.

Figure 5 illustrates a cursor 500 selecting a Tools Icon 510. A user can position the cursor over any of the icons and select the icon by depressing the left mouse button. Thereafter, the user drags the icon along with the cursor to the location it is desired to be dropped at.

Dropping occurs when the left mouse button is released. Thus, to obtain help, in accordance with the subject invention, a user can select the Tools Icon 510 by positioning the cursor 500 proximal to the Tools Icon 510 and pressing and holding the left mouse button. Then, by

continuing to depress the left mouse button, the icon can be dragged to the proximity of the help icon 520 and dropped on the help icon 520 to obtain a compound action display like that shown in Figure 6. The compound action display is designed to give help on the icon of interest that is dropped on the help icon 520.

To get help on more than one icon select all the desired icons, using the selection mechanism defined for XDT and drag and drop any one of the selected icons onto the help icon. The rules can be tailored to alternatively branch to other application programs to perform other activities rather then the help function. For example, an icon representing a file could be dragged into the proximity of another icon representing another file and the mouse button released to initiate the compound action and create a third icon comprising the contents of each of the two original icons. Similarly, three or four icons could be selected and a four icon compound action could occur. For example, deleting all four files when the shift left mouse button was selected.

While the invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment in a specific system environment, those skilled in the art recognize that the invention can be practiced, with modification, in other and different

hardware and software environments within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Especially, the following apparatus and methods are advantageous embodiments of the invention:

Apparatus for producing an icon generated,

compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, comprising:

(a) cursor selection means for selecting a

first icon;

(b) processor means for positioning the

first icon proximal to a second icon;

(c) indicia means for initiating a compound

action; and

(d) selection means for selecting the

appropriate compound action based on

the first icon, the second icon and the indicia means.

Apparatus for producing an icon generated,

compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, a cursor, a keyboard and a cursor placement device, comprising:

(a) cursor selection means for selecting an

icon by positioning a cursor over the

first icon and generating an interrupt;

(b) processor means for detecting an

interrupt condition emanating from

depression of a key, mouse button or

other cursor placement device; and

(c) selection means for selecting the

appropriate compound action based on

the icon, and the interrupt condition

emanating from depression of a key,

mouse button or other cursor placement

device. Apparatus for producing an icon generated, compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, comprising:

(a) cursor selection means for selecting a set of icons from the plurality of icons;

(b) processor means for positioning one of the set of icons proximal to a second icon of the plurality of icons;

(c) indicia means for initiating a compound action; and

(d) selection means for selecting the

appropriate compound action based on the first set of icons, the second icon and the indicia means.

Apparatus for producing an icon generated, compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, comprising:

(a) cursor selection means for selecting a first icon from the plurality of icons;

(b) cursor selection means for selecting a second icon from the plurality of icons;

(b) processor means for positioning one of the first or second icons proximal to a third icon of the plurality of icons;

(c) indicia means for initiating a compound action; and

(d) selection means for selecting the

appropriate compound action based on the first icon, second icon, third icon and the indicia means. A method for producing an icon generated, compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting a first icon;

(b) positioning the first icon proximal to a second icon;

(c) initiating a compound action; and

(d) selecting the appropriate compound

action based on the first icon, the second icon and the indicia means.

A method for producing an icon generated, compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, a cursor, a keyboard and a cursor placement device, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting an icon by positioning a

cursor over the first icon and

generating an interrupt;

(b) detecting an interrupt condition

emanating from depression of a key, mouse button or other cursor placement device; and

(c) selecting the appropriate compound

action based on the icon, and the interrupt condition emanating from depression of a key, mouse button or other cursor placement device.

Claims

C L A I M S

1. Apparatus for producing an icon generated,

compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, comprising:

(a) cursor selection means for selecting a

first icon;

(b) processor means for positioning the

first icon proximal to a second icon;

(c) indicia means for initiating a compound

action; and

(d) selection means for selecting the

appropriate compound action based on

the first icon, the second icon and the indicia means.

2. Apparatus as recited in claim 1, further

comprising rule processing means for

selecting the appropriate compound action

based on the first icon, the second icon and

the indicia means.

3. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 or 2, further

comprising means for initiating a background

task to carry out the appropriate compound

action.

4. Apparatus as recited in one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising means for displaying help

information associated with the first icon

as the appropriate compound action.

5. Apparatus as recited in one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising means for performing the

appropriate compound action in a window.

6. Apparatus as recited in one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising means for dragging an icon to

position the icon.

7. Apparatus as recited in one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising a mouse button for generating the

indicia means.

8. Apparatus as recited in one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising a keyboard for generating the

indicia means.

9. Apparatus as recited in one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising means for dropping the first icon

on the second icon to select the appropriate

compound action based on the first icon, the

second icon and the indicia means.

10. A method for producing an icon generated,

compound action on a display with a

plurality of icons, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting a first icon;

(b) positioning the first icon proximal to

a second icon;

(c) initiating a compound action; and

(d) selecting the appropriate compound

action based on the first icon, the

second icon and the indicia means.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, further

comprising the step of selecting the

appropriate compound action utilizing a rule

processor.

12. A method as recited in claim 10 or 11, further

comprising the step of initiating a

background task to carry out the appropriate

compound action.

13. A method as recited in one of claims 10 to 12, further comprising the step of displaying help

information associated with the first icon

as the appropriate compound action.

14. A method as recited in one of claims 10 to 13, further comprising the step of performing the

appropriate compound action in a window.

15. A method as recited in one of claims 10 to 14, further comprising the step of dragging an icon to

position the icon.

16. A method as recited in one of claims 10 to 15, further comprising the step of generating the

indicia means with a mouse button.

17. A method as recited in one of claims 10 to 16, further comprising the step of generating the

indicia means with a keyboard.

18. A method as recited in one of claims 10 to 17, further comprising the step of dropping the first

icon on the second icon to select the

appropriate compound action based on the

first icon, the second icon and the indicia

means.