Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-12
2003-10-21
Nguyen, Cao (Kevin) (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06636250
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to graphical user interfaces, and more particularly, to systems and techniques which present relationships between representations of objects displayed as icons within a graphical user interface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A typical computing system provides a graphical user interface (GUI) which allows users of the computing system to interact with the computing system and its associated software applications, filesystem(s), data, devices and/or peripherals. In many cases, a graphical user interface also provides a representation of remote computer systems and/or devices coupled to computer systems on a network via a graphical view of those remote computer systems and devices. The Windows series of operating systems (e.g., Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows CE, collectively referred to herein as Windows), manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash., provide various application programs that include graphical user interfaces that operate in the manner discussed above. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows CE are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
The Windows series of operating systems provide access to a computing system via a graphical representation of that computing system presented to the user on a display. Windows primarily allows a user of the computer system to navigate a file system contained within one or more storage devices (e.g., hard disks) associated with the computing system. A specific software application within Windows that provides such file system navigation capabilities via a graphical user interface is the Windows Explorer application program.
The graphical user interface within the Windows Explorer application can provide a graphical illustration of elements related to the computing system. In most cases, the application uses the graphical user interface to display elements graphically either as directory folder icons, which represent a list or directory of elements, or as icons that represent the specific elements within the folders. For example, if a user uses Explorer to view and graphically navigate a file system, Explorer presents a folder icon to the user via an output device (e.g., a computer display) for each directory or sub-directory on a disk. Explorer represents files within those directories by displaying file icons to the user on the output device that reflect the identity of the software application associated with (e.g., that created) that file. To navigate the file system using Explorer, the user simply clicks or double-clicks folder icons via a user input device such as a mouse that controls a pointer that is drawn upon the graphical user interface. In response to a user clicking a folder icon to “open” that folder, Explorer then redisplays the folder icon to appear as an “open” folder icon. Explorer also re-displays the graphical user interface to include any sub-folders icons or file icons that exist hierarchically below or “within” the open folder. The user may continue to navigate the file system by opening sub-folders in this manner, which causes Explorer to further open or “expand” these sub-folders into other lists of sub-folder and/or file icons.
A user may also close an “expanded” folder icon by clicking on an open folder icon. Closing an open folder in this manner causes Explorer to re-display the graphical user interface so that the graphical user interface no longer contains the sub-folder and file icons that appeared hierarchically below the formerly open folder. In other words, when a user closes an open folder icon, Explorer hides the icons (folders and/or files) that appear hierarchically below the open folder icon.
A user may elect to arrange a list of icons that Explorer displays according to certain pre-defined user selectable views. For example, the user may elect to have an application use a graphical user interface to present icons in a particular view, such as alphabetically, by creation date, by size, by author, and so forth. If a user elects to arrange a view of icons based on one of these attributes, Explorer consults information concerning each file or directory shown as an icon in the graphical user interface and then sorts the list of icons based on the user selected attribute. Then, Explorer displays the sorted list of icons according to the user selected attribute (e.g., size, date, etc.) within the graphical user interface. Explorer displays the sorted list of icons in a separate window for viewing by a user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Software applications and computer systems that provide conventional graphical user interfaces are quite limited in their ability to represent multiple relationships between objects which those prior art interfaces represent as icons. For example, prior art graphical user interfaces such as Windows Explorer are limited to displaying icons (representing files and folders) that are arranged in a hierarchical format. This is because designers have developed Windows Explorer and other similar graphical user interface-based applications over many years to take into account the parent—child data relationships that exist between files and folders (directories) in a file system. The Explorer graphical user interface interface, for example, is highly adapted for displaying hierarchical file system data. If a group of data elements is arranged in a non-hierarchical format, a graphical user interface such as Windows Explorer cannot easily represent such data. For instance, if data elements are arranged many-to-many, an application using a hierarchical-based graphical user interface will have difficulty trying to graphically represent such relationships. This limitation causes an application using a prior art graphical user interface to only be able to represent a limited number of relationships within the graphical user interface at one point in time.
For example, a user may be able to view a prior art graphical user interface to determine what elements are hierarchically related above and below a specific element, but the user may have difficulty determining other relationships concerning a specific element by viewing the same part of the graphical user interface at the same time. As an example related to a file stored in a file system on a disk, using only one view of a prior art graphical user interface at one point in time (i.e., without re-navigating and without re-displaying the graphical user interface), a user may not be able to simultaneously determine the following relationships: 1) upon which disk the file is located, 2) upon which volume within the disk the file is stored 3) an operating system type of that file and 3) what other operating systems types exist for other files stored on that same volume or on other volumes or on other disks and 4) what other volumes exist on that same disk or on other disks. As will be explained, the system of the invention provides a graphical user interface for use by an application (or an application that provides a graphical user interface of this invention) that conveys such relationships to a user in a concise format that does not require the user to navigate (e.g., via scrolling) to many different parts of a graphical user interface to determine these types of relationships. In other words, the invention equips an application with a graphical user interface that allows a user to overlay multiple relationships on top of one another so that the user can determine and view the relationships at the same time in the same view of the graphical user interface provided in accordance with this invention.
Another problem with conventional graphical user interfaces is that they do not support the representation of “recursive” hierarchies or multiple instances of the same icon in a single GUI. That is, known graphical user interfaces do not permit an icon that represents a single element (e.g., file or folder) to be represented in the prior art graphical user interface in more than one place at the same time. A prior art g
Chapin & Huang , L.L.C.
Chapin, Esq. Barry W.
Nguyen Cao (Kevin)
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