US 5,517,209 A · Windowing system with independent windows of arbitrary resolution for display on multiple devices of arbitrary resolution

Abstract

An independent windowing system that eliminates gridding comprises a method for performing windowing operations directly in device space for a graphics system which specifies all drawings in coordinate space. The re-sizing effects of rendering an object in different places on the coordinate grid are absorbed in the window borders, allowing the window contents to be moved without re-drawing them. The window can be moved without re-drawing it even when the resolution of the device the window is displayed in differs from the source resolution of the rendering system. Furthermore, window contents are drawn relative to the coordinate of the top left of the window to provide each window with its own device grid independent of the window position on the device. The present invention includes: a method for displaying a window that adjusts the window border to eliminate gridding; a method for rendering multiple, overlapping windows that eliminates gridding; and a method for scrolling a finite coordinate grid independent of resolution of the display device. These methods can be used alone or in combination to greatly enhance the graphic images displayed on a display device.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method for displaying a window on a screen of a display device that eliminates the effects of gridding, said screen having a device grid established according to a resolution of the display device, said method comprising the steps of:

defining the window as having a border, window contents, and a visible region, the border and the visible region being defined in global coordinates of a source space, and the window contents being defined in local coordinates of the source space;
mapping the window border and the visible region to the device grid;
drawing the window border on the screen;
mapping the window contents from local coordinates of the source space to the device grid to produce a map of the window contents;
trimming in device space the map of the window contents to match an area of the device grid to which the visible region was mapped;
and
drawing the trimmed window contents on the screen.

4 more elements

A method for displaying a plurality of windows on a screen of a display device, the method eliminating the effects of gridding, the screen having a device grid established according to a resolution of the display device, said method comprising the steps of:

defining a first window having a border being defined in a first coordinate space end window contents being defined in a second coordinate space;
defining a second window having a border defined in the first coordinate space and window contents being defined in a third coordinate space;
identifying one of the first and second windows as the top window, and the other window as the bottom window;
mapping the top window to the device grid;
drawing the top window on the screen of the display device;
defining a visible region for contents of the bottom window in the first coordinate space;
adjusting the size of the visible region by an overlap of the top window over the bottom window;
mapping the visible region and the bottom window to device space to produce a map of the visible region and a map of the bottom window;
adjusting the map of the bottom window to match the size of the map of the visible region;
and
drawing the adjusted map of the bottom window on the screen of the display device.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Windowing system with independent windows of arbitrary resolution for display on multiple devices of arbitrary resolution

Life of this patent

Windowing system with independent windows of arbitrary resolution for display on multiple devices of arbitrary resolution

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15