Method and apparatus for implementing a virtual desktop through window positioning

• US 5,564,002 A
• Filed: 08/01/1994
• Issued: 10/08/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brown, Kurt R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HO, RUAY L
• Application Number:
  US08/284,013
• Time in Patent Office: 799 Days
• Field of Search: 395/155, 395/157, 395/159, 395/160, 395/161, 395/500, 395/600, 395/375, 395/163, 364/578
• US Class Current: 715/778
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

A novel virtual desktop system organizes open applications of a computer into groups of programs that perform common functions or tasks. The groups of programs are called Desktops and the virtual desktop system provides a Desktop Manager for assigning ranges of display screen coordinates to these Desktops, and then assigning open applications to them. Specifically, the Desktop Manager is a system software program that contains a plurality of Desktop groups and that provides a user interface for managing the display of selected open applications assigned to the Desktops. These selected open applications are displayed in application windows on a display screen of the computer when switching between Desktops in the virtual desktop system.

Claims

1. A method for organizing a plurality of open applications executing on a computer having a display screen, each of said plurality of open applications generating a screen image at assigned image coordinates, said display screen having a predetermined coordinate range representing a current visible view, said method comprising the steps of:

assigning a desktop range of display screen coordinates outside of said predetermined coordinate range to each of a plurality of desktop display areas;

assigning image coordinates within one of said desktop ranges to each of a plurality of screen images generated by a collection of said open applications so that said collection of open applications are assigned to one desktop display area, but are not visible; and

changing said image coordinates of each of said plurality of screen images by a fixed amount to place said image coordinates within said predetermined coordinate range of said current visible view to move said plurality of screen images generated by said collection of open applications as a group to said current visible view while maintaining relative positions between screen images.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing a list of open applications in said collection in a data structure associated with said one desktop display area.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of storing a list of said desktop display areas and their assigned display screen coordinates in a data structure associated with a desktop manager program.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the step of accessing said data structures to determine assigned open applications for each desktop display area.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of assigning further comprises assigning a desktop range of display screen coordinates to each of said desktop display areas, the desktop range having a size at least twice a size of the predetermined coordinate range of the current view.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each of the plurality of screen images is displayed in an application window and the step of setting comprises the step of moving each of said application windows to the predetermined coordinate range of the current view.

7. A virtual desktop system for organizing a plurality of open applications executing on a computer having a display screen and a memory, each of said plurality of open applications generating a screen image at assigned image coordinates, said display screen having a predetermined coordinate range representing a current visible view, said virtual desktop system comprising:

a plurality of desktop display areas stored in the memory, each desktop display area comprising a range of display screen coordinates outside of said predetermined coordinate range;

means for assigning image coordinates within one of said desktop ranges to each of a plurality of screen images generated by a collection of said open applications related by function so that said plurality of screen images are assigned to one of said desktop display areas, but are not visible; and

means for switching between said plurality of desktop display areas stored in said memory by resetting image coordinates of each of said plurality of screen images by a fixed amount to place said screen images within said predetermined coordinate range so as to move said plurality of screen images generated by said collection of said open applications into said current view while maintaining relative positions between said images.

8. The virtual desktop system of claim 7 further comprising means comprises a desktop manager for assigning a range of display screen coordinates to each of said desktop display areas.

9. The virtual desktop system of claim 8 wherein said desktop manager comprises means for assigning coordinates to each of said plurality of screen images corresponding to said open applications.

10. The virtual desktop system of claim 9 wherein said switching means further comprises a window manager for displaying each of said plurality of screen images in an application window.

11. The virtual desktop system of claim 10 wherein said window manager comprises means for moving each of said application windows to the predetermined coordinate range of the current view.

12. A computer having a virtual desktop system for organizing a plurality of open application programs stored in a memory of said computer for display on a display screen having a predetermined coordinate range representing a current visible view, each of said plurality of open applications generating a screen image at image coordinates, said computer comprising:

a processor for executing said open application programs stored in said memory;

an operating system cooperating with said processor to execute said open applications and to control said display screen;

a window manager program of said operating system, said window manager drawing application windows, each application window holding a screen image generated by one of said open applications;

a plurality of desktop display areas, each comprising a collection of said open application programs executed by said processor and a coordinate range within which application windows are drawn to hold screen images generated by said collection of said open application programs; and

a desktop manager program for managing display of said application windows by switching between said desktop display areas by changing a coordinate range of a selected desktop area to lie within said predetermined coordinate range to display application windows in said selected desktop display area on the screen with relative positions between said application windows unchanged.

13. The computer of claim 12 wherein said desktop manager comprises means for assigning a range of display screen coordinates to each of said desktop display areas.

14. The computer of claim 13 further comprising means for exchanging messages between said window manager, said desktop manager and said desktop display areas to display said application windows of said collection of open application programs in said selected desktop display area on the screen.

15. The computer of claim 14 wherein said messages include function calls for setting said range of display screen coordinates of said selected desktop display area to the predetermined coordinate range of the current view.

16. A computer program product for use with a computer system having a memory, a display screen and a window manager program, said computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for organizing a plurality of open applications, that are executing on the computer system, so that screen images generated by said applications can be selectively displayed on said display screen by said window manager program, said display screen having a predetermined coordinate range representing a current visible view, said computer readable program code comprising;

means for assigning a range of display screen coordinates outside of said predetermined coordinate range to each of a plurality of desktop display areas;

means for placing a collection of open applications into one of said plurality of desktop display areas by causing said window manager program to draw screen images generated by each of said collection of open applications at display screen coordinates within said display screen coordinate range assigned to said one desktop display area so that said screen images generated by each of said collection of open applications are not visible; and

means selectively displaying said screen images generated by each of said collection of open applications by changing said display screen coordinates of said display screen coordinate range assigned to said one desktop display area by a fixed amount so that said screen images are placed within said predetermined coordinate range of said current view while maintaining their positions relative to each other.

17. The computer program product as defined in claim 16, wherein said computer readable program code further comprises means for causing said computer system to store in said memory, a list of open applications in said collection in a data structure associated with said one desktop display area.

18. The computer program product according to claim 16 wherein the assigning means further comprises a means for assigning a range of display screen coordinates to each of the desktop display areas that spans a range of coordinates that is at least twice the predetermined coordinate range of the current view.