Windowing system and method for companion software products
AssigneeSiemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc.
InventorMichael Heydlauf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Windows corresponding to independent applications in a windowed computing environment can be linked to have unified behavior. A host application can monitor window activity to determine if windows are intended to be grouped. Commands applied to one or more windows in a group are applied to at least some other windows in the group. Windows can be grouped or ungrouped according to various criteria including a priori configuration or user action. The window grouping permits a unified user interface behavior to be established for two or more independent applications.
Claims22
A system for managing windows in a computer system comprising at least one display, at least one user interface and a processor executing instructions from a memory to:
- load a host application into memory and display a first window associated with the host application in the user interface;
- detect an input to the host application to launch an independent application that is grouped with the host application;
- launch the independent application and display a second window associated with the independent application in the user interface in accordance with one or more of stored window location or stored window size information referenced by the host application within the memory;
- detect an operation being applied by a user to either of the first window associated with the host application or the second window associated with the independent application;
- and
- apply the operation to at least the other of the first window associated with the host application or the second window associated with the independent application,
- wherein the operation is selected from the group consisting of moving, minimizing, maximizing, restoring, and closing the respective applications.
A method for managing windows in a computer system comprising at least one display, at least one user interface and a processor executing instructions from a memory, comprising:
- loading a host application into memory and displaying a first window associated with the host application in the user interface;
- detecting an input to the host application to launch an independent application that is grouped with the host application;
- launching the independent application and displaying a second window associated with the independent application in the user interface in accordance with one or more of stored window location or stored window size information referenced by the host application within the memory;
- detecting an operation being applied by a user to either of the first window associated with the host application or the second window associated with the independent application;
- and
- applying the operation to at least the other of the first window associated with the host application or the second window associated with the independent application,
- wherein the operation is selected from the group consisting of moving, minimizing, maximizing, restoring, and closing the respective applications.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.