Method and apparatus for organizing window groups and windows in a table
First Claim
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1. A method for organizing windows displayed on a screen of a computer, the method comprising the steps of:
- defining a plurality of predetermined window groups;
sorting windows into the predetermined window groups, wherein a given window may belong to more than one window group and each window group contains at least one window; and
assigning membership status to each window of a group,wherein a window'"'"'s membership status in a given window group determines whether, in response to selection of the window, to display either the selected window individually or all windows of the given window group.
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Abstract
"A method and apparatus for organizing windows to be displayed on a screen of a computer system into window groups by attribute, function, content, or any arbitrary characteristic. A window'"'"'s membership in a window group is also assigned a status that determines whether the window, upon selection, is displayed individually or as part of that group. Each window may simultaneously belong to a plurality of window groups. A data structure may be formed in a table where windows represent rows and window groups represent columns".
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method for organizing windows displayed on a screen of a computer, the method comprising the steps of:
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defining a plurality of predetermined window groups; sorting windows into the predetermined window groups, wherein a given window may belong to more than one window group and each window group contains at least one window; and assigning membership status to each window of a group, wherein a window'"'"'s membership status in a given window group determines whether, in response to selection of the window, to display either the selected window individually or all windows of the given window group. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus for organizing windows displayed on a screen of a computer, the apparatus comprising:
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a processor; an operating system cooperating with the processor to control the screen; at least one application program cooperating with the operating system to define the windows that may be displayed on the screen; means for organizing windows into a plurality of window groups, each window group containing at least one window and a given window capable of belonging to more than one group; and means for assigning membership status to each window of a group, such that a window'"'"'s membership status in a given window group determines whether, in response to selection of the window, to display either the selected window individually or all windows of the given window group. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for organizing windows displayed on a screen of a computer, the method comprising the steps of:
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sorting windows into predetermined window groups, wherein each window group contains at least one window; and assigning membership status to each window of a group to display either the window or the window group, wherein the step of sorting comprises; organizing the windows of the predetermined window groups using an arrangement of data structures; manipulating the contents of the data structures using application programming interface (API) system calls; and arraying the data structures into a pair of data tables having a plurality of rows and columns, wherein the rows represent the windows and the columns represent the window groups.
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Specification