US 5,995,103 AGranted

Window grouping mechanism for creating, manipulating and displaying windows and window groups on a display screen of a computer system

AssigneeApple Computer, Inc.

InventorDylan B. Ashe

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A window grouping mechanism for creating, organizing and manipulating windows and, more specifically, window groups for display to a user of a computer system is disclosed. The window grouping mechanism preferably includes a series of linked data structures configured to organize information pertaining to all windows defined by an application program executing on the computer system. According to an aspect of the invention, the application program interacts with the window grouping mechanism to further organize the information into any number of window groups each of which contains a different subset of the previously defined windows. These window groups may then be manipulated by the application program to efficiently create various permutations of window groups.

Claims28

Dependent claims

a window grouping mechanism interactively coupled to the application program for efficiently organizing the set of application-specific windows into window groups for selective display on the display screen, the window grouping mechanism comprising:
A. means for organizing the set of predefined application-specific windows for the at least one application program into a plurality of window groups such that each window group may contain a different subset of the respective application-specific windows;
B. means for allowing a window group of the at least one application program to encompass one or more other window groups of the at least one application programs;
and
C. means for selecting, in response to opening the application program, one of the window groups so that the application program is represented on the display screen by the corresponding subset of the respective application-specific windows within the selected window group.

2 more elements

In a computer system including a display screen and at least one application program for defining a respective set of application-specific windows that correspond to the application program and which may be displayed on the display screen, a method for organizing the application-specific windows into window groups for display on the screen, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a window data structure for the at least one application program that is a list of window data elements that correspond to the respective application-specific windows, each window data element being a table array and having a plurality of entries for storing information;
generating a window group data structure for the at least one application program that is a linked list of group data elements that correspond to the window groups, each group data element having a plurality of group entries for storing information;
loading, in response to instructions from the at least one application program, one or more entries of a given window data element for the at least one application program with information identifying the window group to which the window, that is associated with the given window data element, belongs;
loading, in response to instructions from the at least one application program, one or more entries of a given group data element, corresponding to a given window group for the at least one application program, with information identifying the other window groups encompassed within the given window group;
selecting, in response to opening the application program, one of the window groups for the at least one application program;
and
in response to the step of selecting, displaying the subset of application-specific windows for the at least one application program within the selected window group on the screen.

4 more elements

In a computer system including a display screen and at least one application program for defining a respective set of application-specific windows that correspond to the application program and which may be displayed on the display screen, a computer readable medium containing executable program instructions for organizing the application-specific windows into window groups for display on the screen, the executable program instructions comprising program instructions for:

generating a window data structure for the at least one application program that is a list of window data elements that correspond to the respective application-specific windows, each window data element being a table array and having a plurality of entries for storing information;
generating a window group data structure for the at least one application program that is a linked list of group data elements that correspond to the window groups, each group data element having a plurality of group entries for storing information;
loading, in response to instructions from the at least one application program, one or more entries of a given window data element for the at least one application program with information identifying the window group to which the window, that is associated with the given window data element, belongs;
loading, in response to instructions from the at least one application program, one or more entries of a given group data element, corresponding to a given window group for the at least one application program, with information identifying the other window groups encompassed within the given window group;
selecting, in response to opening the application program, one of the window groups for the at least one application program;
and
in response to the step of selecting, displaying the subset of application-specific windows for the at least one application program within the selected window group on the screen.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.