Electronic paper display updates

A method for minimizing updates to a display, comprising:

• determining multiple update areas, each update area of the multiple update areas corresponding to a smallest area of the display to be updated in response to one or more changes being made to a window that is displayed on the display, each update area including the window that is being changed and portions of higher layer windows that overlap the window;
• determining a cumulative update area based on the update areas that are determined during a time period between a begin update instruction and an end update instruction;
• and
• performing an update of the display based on the cumulative update area, the update comprising one of an area non-flashing update, an area flashing update, a full screen non-flashing update, or a full screen flashing update.

An electronic device, comprising:

• a display;
• a compositor configured to determine multiple update areas, each update area of the multiple update areas corresponding to a smallest area of the display to be updated in response to one or more changes being made to a window that is displayed on the display, each update area including the window that is being changed and portions of higher layer windows that overlap the window;
• a display controller;
• and
• a display controller manager that is configured to:
• determine a cumulative update area based on the update areas that are determined during a time period between a begin update instruction and an end update instruction,
• determine whether to perform an update that includes a flashing update or a non-flashing update, and
• instruct the display controller to perform the update to a portion of the display corresponding to the cumulative update area.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by a processor for:

• determining multiple update areas, each update area of the multiple update areas corresponding to a smallest area of the display to be updated in response to one or more changes being made to a window that is displayed on the display, each update area comprising the window that is being changed and overlapping portions of higher layer windows;
• determining a cumulative update area based on the update areas that are determined during a time period between a begin update instruction and an end update instruction, wherein the cumulative update area is smaller than an entire display but larger than any single update area;
• determining an update to perform based on the cumulative update area, the update comprising one of an area non-flashing update, an area flashing update, a full screen non-flashing update, and a full screen flashing update;
• and
• performing the update of the display.