Display system for the suppression and regeneration of characters in a series of fields in a stored record

• US 4,486,857 A
• Filed: 10/06/1982
• Issued: 12/04/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1982
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Quickview Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: QuickView Partners
• Inventors: Heckel, Paul C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zache, Raulfe B.
• Application Number:
  US06/433,141
• Time in Patent Office: 790 Days
• Field of Search: 364/900 MS File, 340/723
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/00 Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of datacathode-ray oscilloscopes G01R13/20; radar display arrangements G01S7/04; display of digital non-picture data in television systems H04N7/0255
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A microprocessor having a limited display capability is programmed to display a series of data fields from a record in which certain characters are selectively suppressed so that the whole or a selected portion of a record is represented. Upon actuation a selected field will be restored to its full data length for temporary display on the display medium.

Claims

1. In a microprocessor system having an input subsystem, an output subsystem capable of displaying a string of alphanumeric characters of length S, and a storage subsystem capable of storing strings of alphanumeric characters, each made up of no more than n substrings F_i of alphanumeric characters each of length L_i, and a processor subsystem, an improved data display system comprising:

means for recognizing certain preselected alphanumeric characters in each substring F_i ;

means for selectively removing the recognized preselected characters in each substring F_i so that the length L_i of F_i is reduced to a shortened substring f_i of predetermined length l_i less than L_i and then displaying the reduced-length substrings f_i ; and

means for displaying a full-length substring F_i selectively chosen from one of the displayed reduced fields f_i.

2. The improvement of claim 1 wherein the means for recognizing certain preselected characters includes computer programming to recognize the vowel characters a, e, i, o, and u.

3. The improvement of claim 2 wherein the means for selectively removing preselected characters includes computer programming to remove the rightmost vowel character unless that vowel character occurs after a space, a comma, or a period.

4. The improvement of claim 2 wherein the means for removing preselected characters includes programming means for successively removing vowel characters from the substring F_i except vowel characters occurring after a space, a comma, or a period, starting with the rightmost vowel characters and continuing until L_i is reduced to l_i or until no more eligible vowel characters exist in the partially reduced substring F_i.

5. The improvement of claim 4 wherein the programming means further includes means for successively removing the rightmost characters of the partially reduced length substring F_i until L_i is reduced to l_i.

6. The improvement of claim 1 wherein the means for displaying a full-length substring F_i includes means to suppress the display of the reduced substring f_i and at least the adjacent reduced substrings f_i -1 and f_i +1 when i is greater than one and less than S.

7. The improvement of claim 1 wherein the means for displaying the full-length substring F₁ includes means to suppress the display of the reduced substring f₁ and at least the reduced substring f₂.

8. The improvement of claim 1 wherein the means for displaying the full-length substring F_n includes means to suppress the reduced substring f_n and at least the reduced substring f_n-1.

9. The improvement of claim 6 wherein the means for displaying a full-length substring F_i when L_i is greater than S includes programming means to successively remove predetermined characters from F_i one at a time over a predetermined time while displaying the remaining S leftmost characters of F_i.

10. The improvement of claim 9 wherein the predetermined characters are initially selected from the vowel characters a, e, i, o, and u where the vowel characters occur other than after a space, a comma, or a period.

11. A programming system for a microprocessor having an input subsystem, an output subsystem capable of displaying a string of alphanumeric characters of length S, and a storage subsystem capable of storing strings of alphanumeric characters, each made up of no more than n substrings F_i of alphanumeric characters each of length L_i, and a processor subsystem, comprising:

means for recognizing certain preselected alphanumeric characters in each substring F_i ;

means for selectively removing the recognized preselected characters in each substring F_i so that the length L_i of F_i is reduced to a shortened substring f_i of predetermined length l_i less than L_i and then displaying the reduced-length substrings f_i ; and

means for displaying a full-length substring F_i selectively chosen from one of the displayed reduced fields f_i.

12. The program of claim 11 wherein the means for recognizing certain preselected characters includes computer programming to recognize the vowel characters a, e, i, o, and u.

13. The program of claim 12 wherein the means for selectively removing preselected characters includes computer programming to remove the rightmost vowel character unless that vowel character occurs after a space, a comma, or a period.

14. The program of claim 12 wherein the means for removing preselected characters includes programming means for successively removing vowel characters from the substring F_i except vowel characters occurring after a space, a comma, or a period starting with the rightmost vowel character and continuing until L_i is reduced to l_i or until no more eligible vowel characters exist in the partially reduced substring F_i.

15. The program of claim 14 wherein the programming means further includes means for successively removing the rightmost characters of the partially reduced length substring until L_i is reduced to l_i.

16. The program of claim 11 wherein the means for displaying a full-length substring F_i includes means to suppress the display of the reduced substring f_i and at least the adjacent reduced substrings f_i -1 and f_i +1 when i is greater than one and less than S.

17. The program of claim 11 wherein the means for displaying the full-length substring F₁ includes means to suppress the display of the reduced substring f₁ and at least the reduced substring f₂.

18. The program of claim 11 wherein the means for displaying the full-length substring F_n includes means to suppress the reduced substring f_n and at least the reduced substring f_n-1.

19. The program of claim 16 wherein the means for displaying a full-length substring F_i when L_i is greater than S includes programming means to successively remove predetermined characters from F_i one at a time over a predetermined time while displaying the remaining S leftmost characters of F_i.

20. The program of claim 19 wherein the predetermined characters are initially selected from the vowel where the vowel characters occur other than after a space, a comma, or a period.

21. A computer program for operating on a file consisting of a plurality of records where each record consists of n ordered fields F_i where n is greater than one and wherein each field F_i consists of L_i alphanumeric characters, the program operable on a computer having a display capability for S alphanumeric characters, where S is less than the length of the record, the program comprising:

means for recognizing certain preselected alphanumeric characters in each field F_i ;

means for selectively removing the recognized preselected characters in each field F_i so that the length L_i of F_i is reduced to a shortened substring f_i of predetermined length l_i less than L_i and then displaying the reduced length substrings f_i on the computer; and

means for displaying a full-length substring F_i selectively chosen from one of the displayed reduced fields f_i while simultaneously displaying at least one other reduced field f_i or f_n.