Assisting controls in a windowing environment

Details Assisting controls in a windowing environment Assisting controls in a windowing environment

1997-11-10

2001-06-26

Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2173)

Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system

Display driving control circuitry

Controlling the condition of display elements

C345S215000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06252593

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to a computer system for storing of data and, in particular, a system for persistently storing data of a control of a window.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many computer systems provide a window-based user interface through which a user can interface with a computer program. A window is an area, typically rectangular, of a display device in which the computer program displays its output. A window may contain several different types of “fields” into which the computer program can display data. For example, in one field the computer program can display a label to be viewed by a user, and in another field the computer program can echo the characters entered by a user with a keyboard. Each of these fields are typically implemented as a child window of the window in which they are contained. These child windows are also known as “controls.”
FIG. 1
a
illustrates a window that contains controls. Because this window contains information relating to properties of a document, it is known as a property sheet. A property specifies certain characteristics of an object, such as a document For example, the properties of a document may include name of the author and date of creation, whereas the properties of a character may include font and color. The property sheet
101
contains five property pages: general
102
, summary
103
, statistics
104
, contents
105
, and custom
106
. Each property page is a child window of the property sheet and contains various controls, which are child windows of the property page. For example, the custom property page contains combobox
107
, edit box
108
, check box
109
.
Certain windowing environments, such as Windows® by Microsoft Corporation, provide various tools to help a programmer generate programs that use windows and controls. In particular, to create a property page, such as the custom property page, a programmer uses a resource editor to define the layout and characteristics of the property page. These characteristics are stored in a resource file, which is opened and used by the computer program. Table 1 contains an excerpt of a resource file corresponding to the custom property page. This portion of the resource file contains the definition of the combobox
107
, the edit box
108
, the check box
109
, and their associated labels. Each line contains the definition of a control. Line 1 corresponds to the label “Type:” to the left of combobox
107
and indicates that the control is a text control (i.e., “LTEXT”) and that the control is static and located at the specified location. The location represented by “[location]” in each line indicates the upper left coordinates and the lower right coordinates of the location of the control within the custom property page. Line 2 corresponds to the combobox
107
, indicates that the control is a combobox (i.e., “COMBOBOX”), and contains a unique identifier for the combobox (i.e., “IDC_COMBO1”). Line 2 also indicates that the combobox has a drop down list and that when a user tabs through the controls, the tab will stop at this combobox. Line 3 corresponds to the label “Value:” and indicates that the control is a text control and is static. Line 4 corresponds to the edit box
108
, indicates that the control is an edit box (i.e., “EDITTEXT”), and contains a unique identifier for the control. Line 4 also indicates that the control will scroll horizontally and that the tab will stop at this control. Line 5 corresponds to the check box
108
, indicates that the control is a control (i.e., “CONTROL”), and contains a unique identifier for the control. Line 5 also contains a label for the control (i.e., “Link To Content”) and indicates that the control is a check box and that the tab will stop at this control.
TABLE 1
BEGIN
.
.
.
1
LTEXT
“
T
ype:”, IDC_STATIC, [location]
2
COMBOBOX
IDC_COMBO1, [location],
CBS_DROPDOWNLIST,
WS_TABSTOP
3
LTEXT
“
V
alue:”,IDC_STATIC, [location],
4
EDITTEXT
IDC_EDIT1, [location],
ES_AUTOHSCROLL, WS_TABSTOP
5
CONTROL
“
L
ink To Content”,
IDC_CHECK1, “Button”, [location]
.
BS_AUTOCHECKBOX, WS_TABSTOP
.
.
END
The use of resource files allows for various changes to be made to the arrangement and content of the controls without the need to modify the computer program that displays the controls. For example, the controls corresponding to the labels of the various boxes can be changed by simply modifying the resource file. The computer program would then be re-built (but not re-compiled). The next time the re-built computer program is executed, the program will open the resource file with the modifications and will display the modified controls.
FIGS. 1
b
-
1
d
illustrate the operation of various types of controls.
FIG. 1
b
illustrates the operation of a combobox. The combobox
107
comprises an edit box
107
a
and a list box
107
b.
When the user selects the arrow to the right of the edit box
107
a,
the list box
107
b
is displayed. The list box contains a list of the possible values that can be entered into the edit box
107
a.
A user can select one of the possible values from the list box
107
b
by selecting a value with a mouse and mouse pointer or can use the keyboard to enter a value directly into the edit box
107
a.
FIG. 1
c
illustrates the operation of an edit box. The user can type in any information into an edit box, subject to editing performed by the underlying computer program.
FIG. 1
d
illustrates the operation of a check box. The check box
109
can be checked or unchecked by a user using a mouse and mouse pointer.
Typical computer programs allow for persistent storage of data entered into the various controls of a property page. Such data is typically persistently stored in a file on disk. Each computer program controls the retrieving of the values from the various controls and the storing of the values within the file. Thus, each developer of a computer program that persistently stores the values of the controls needs to develop code that implements such storing.
Typical computer programs use hard-coded values (i.e., defined in the source code) for the various list boxes, including for the list box of a combobox. Thus, to change the content of a list box, a developer would change and recompile the source code. Such changes of the source code are error prone and costly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a control method and system for altering the values of controls displayed within a window. The control system has resource information that contains a definition of each control within the window. For each control, the control system determines whether a buddy control is associated with the control. The buddy control has buddy control information and preferably has no visible manifestation when the window is displayed. When the control has a buddy control, the control system retrieves the buddy control information and displays the retrieved information as part of the control. A user can then modify the definition of the buddy control by modifying the buddy control information so that when the control is subsequently displayed, the modified buddy control information is displayed. The modified buddy control information is preferably displayed without modifying the computer program that controls the displaying of the window. Also, the buddy control is preferably adjacent to the control. Moreover, when the control is a list box, the buddy control information is a list of items to be displayed in the list box.
In another aspect the control system provides a general mechanism for passing parameter data to a computer program to affect a behavior of the computer program. The computer program has a window and resource information defining controls within the window. The control system defines a parameter control within the resource information in which the parameter control has no visible effect on the display of the window and contains parameter data to be passed to the computer program. The computer program retrieves the defini

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