Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-13
2001-08-21
dela Torre, Crescelle N. (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S473000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278455
ABSTRACT:
This application includes a Microfiche Appendix containing computer source code. The Microfiche Appendix consists of 1 sheet having a total of 81 frames.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a graphical user interface for accessing information stored in a computer. More particularly, the invention relates to a user definable graphical interface for a computer operating system which utilizes pictorial information and animation as well as sound.
2. State of the Art
Very early computers were provided with a minimal interface which often consisted of little more than switches and lights. Rows of switches were set in positions representing binary numbers to provide input and rows of lights were illuminated representing binary numbers to provide output. Eventually, computer input and output included text and decimal numbers, which were input using punch cards and output using line printers. A major advance in computing was the interactive video display terminal (VDT). Early VDTs displayed several lines of alphanumeric characters and received input from a “QWERTY” keyboard. VDTs were a great improvement over switches and lights and even over punch cards and line printers.
As computers became more complex, it became necessary to systematize the manner in which information was stored and retrieved. The hierarchical file system was developed and is still substantially the only system in use today with a few exceptions. Under the hierarchical file system, information is stored in files and files are stored in directories. Directories may be stored in other directories and called sub-directories. Using this system, any file can be located by using a path name which identifies the path from a root directory through one or more subdirectories to the file; e.g., a typical path name may take the form: “rootdirectory/directory/subdirectory/filename”.
In addition to the development of the hierarchical file system was the development of various “operating systems”. The early computers did not require an “operating system” per se. They were manually programmed to perform a single task and then reprogrammed for a different task. Programs were stored on punch cards or tape and were loaded directly into the computer's random access memory (RAM) individually when needed by a system operator. With the development of various file systems, including the hierarchical file system, various programs and data could be stored on the same medium and selected for loading into the computer's random access memory (RAM). An operating system is a program which is used to access information on a storage medium and load it into RAM. The operating system allows the computer user to display the contents of directories and choose programs to be run and data to be manipulated from the contents of the directories. Every operating system, therefore, has a user interface, i.e. a manner of accepting input from a user and a manner of displaying output to a user. The input typically includes commands to the operating system to find information in directories, to display the contents of directories, to select files in directories for execution by the computer, etc. In addition, operating systems provide means for the user to operate on files by moving them, deleting them, copying them, etc. Output from the operating system typically includes displays of the contents of directories, displays of the contents of files, error messages when a command cannot be completed, confirmation messages when a command has been completed, etc. With many operating systems, when a program is selected for execution through the operating system, the selected program takes over control of the computer and returns control to the operating system when the program is ended. Modern operating systems share control with programs and several programs can run while the operating system is running.
The most primitive operating system interface is known as a “command line interface”. While this type of interface is not necessarily indicative of a primitive operating system, it is primitive as an interface. The command line interface is purely text and presents the user with an arbitrary “prompt” such as “C:\” or “%\:”. The only information conveyed to the user by the command line prompt is that the operating system is ready to receive a command, and in the case of “C:\”, that the operating system will perform commands with reference to the currently selected root directory “C”. The commands to which the operating system will respond are most often obscure abbreviations like DIR to display the contents of the currently selected directory and CD to select a different directory. Moreover, the responses provided by the operating system interface to commands such as DIR may be equally obscure such as displaying a rapidly scrolling list of directory contents or the cryptic “Abort, Retry, Fail” message. Thus, in order to explore the contents of a file system using a command line interface, the user must repeatedly type DIR and CD and try to remember how the scrolling lists of filenames relate to each other in the hierarchy of the file system. Most users find this to be a tedious and trying experience.
More recently, the command line interface has been abandoned in favor of a fully graphical user interface (“GUI”) such as those provided by the Apple Macintosh operating system and the IBM OS/2 operating system. To date, GUI interfaces to the operating system have been “WIMP” interfaces; that is they use Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers. In the development of WIMP interfaces, a central issue has been the organization of information for display on a the limited viewspace provided by a computer monitor. This issue has bee?r addressed by using the metaphor of a messy desktop to guide the design and layout of information on the graphical display. The metaphor of a messy desktop, which arose in the research on Rooms, and more recently 3-D Rooms, has become universal as an organizing paradigm for the display of user interactions with a computer operating system. In addition to the Macintosh and OS/2 operating systems interfaces, Unix systems X-windows, Microsoft Windows, and others are based on this metaphor. In a WIMP interface, windows are used to demarcate regions of the display assigned to individual programs, graphical icons are used to represent objects such as files and directories known to the operating system, menus can be displayed to list text string names of available operations, and a pointing cursor is used to select object icons or menu items that are visible on the display.
Graphical layouts provided by movable windows,icons, and menus of the WIMP interface have been very successful in helping to organize information, particularly data from alternative programs in progress, on a computer display. Nevertheless, they are offer limited functionality for depiction of operating system procedures and for graphical information about the files and directories present in the file system. Most computer users find the graphical interface to be much easier to learn and much easier to use than the command line interface. Many people have described the graphical interface as “intuitive”. However, some people do not find it so intuitive and need more time to learn how to use it than do others.
Despite their vastly enhanced use compared to command line interfaces, the graphical interfaces presently used for access to operating system functionality are still somewhat regimented. For example, the icons are typically all rectangular and of the same size, e.g. 32 by 32 pixels. They are also generally generic. That is to say, for example, that a document concerning the subject of elephants would have the same icon as a document concerning the subject of roses. Typically, all of the directory icons are identical graphics of a folder with no graphical indication of what the folders contain either in subject matter or in amount of information. A folder containing one file has the same size and shape icon as
dela Torre Crescelle N.
Gallagher Thomas A
Gordon David P.
Jacobson David S.
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