Temporally invasive display guide

• US 5,973,665 A
• Filed: 11/07/1996
• Issued: 10/26/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Davie, Brian John, Greer, Timothy Dan
• Primary Examiner(s): WU, XIAO MIN
• Application Number:
  US08/745,091
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/157, 345/145, 345/146, 345/141, 345/143, 345/163, 345/168, 345/112, 345/113, 345/115, 345/114, 345/347, 345/350, 345/351, 345/352, 345/354
• US Class Current: 715/821
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04895 Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting

Abstract

Method and apparatus for controlling a display device displaying a plurality of display elements, such as character strings, fields, icons, buttons and so forth. Responsive to user entry of a display indicia, such as a character string entered at a keyboard, or a field or button activated at the screen by a cursor or mouse pointer, determining if at least one display element corresponds to the display indicia; and if so temporarily highlighting that display element.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a display device, comprising the steps of:

displaying a plurality of display elements previously relayed to said display device pursuant to a host session application owning said display device;

operating a second application not owning said display device to;

capture a display indicia from said host session;

determine if a display element corresponds to said display indicia, and if so temporarily highlight said display element for a predetermined length of time; and

then

relay said display indicia to said host session application for display.

2. A method of operating a computer having an input device and a visual display, comprising the steps of:

pursuant to a primary session executing on behalf of an application owning said visual display,

operating said visual display to display a first set of characters,

operating said input device to input a set of input characters,

pursuant to a temporally invasive function not owning said visual display,

capturing and comparing said set of input characters with a second set of characters selected from said first set of characters to identify a match,

upon identifying a match, temporarily altering the display of said second set of characters for a predetermined length of time; and

relaying said set of input characters to said visual display.

3. A method of operating a computer display device, comprising the steps of:

displaying for a host session application owning said display device a first plurality of characters relayed to said display device,

capturing and testing within a temporally invasive function not owning said display device a second plurality of characters input to said host session for display,

upon determining that said second plurality of characters is included within said first plurality of characters, altering said display device to highlight said included characters for a predetermined length of time.

4. A method of operating a computer display device, comprising the steps of:

displaying a first plurality of characters input to an owner application owning said display device,

capturing and testing within a temporally invasive function of an application not owning said display device a second plurality of characters input to said owner application for display,

responsive to said temporally invasive function determining that said second plurality of characters is included within said first plurality of characters, temporarily altering said display device to highlight said included characters for a predetermined length of time and relaying said second plurality of characters to said owner application.

5. Apparatus for operating a computer display device, the apparatus including:

display means for d isplaying a first plurality of characters input to a host session,

testing means for capturing and testing a second plurality of characters being input to said host session for display,

temporally invasive means not owning said display device responsive to said testing means and said display means for temporarily altering for a predetermined length of time the display of a subset of said first plurality of characters upon determining that said second plurality of characters corresponds to said subset and relaying said second plurality of characters to said host sessions.

6. A memory device for storing program logic for controlling a display to temporarily alter the display of information subsequently entered at an input device, comprising:

temporally invasive code means not owning said display for capturing and parsing input characters entered at an input device, searching display characters being displayed on a display device to identify correspondence between said input characters and said display characters, responsive to said correspondence temporarily altering the display of said display characters for a predetermined length of time, and thereafter relaying said input characters for display.

7. A method of operating a computer having an input device and a visual display, comprising the steps of:

operating said visual display to display first set of characters,

operating said input device to input a set of input characters,

capturing and comparing within a temporally invasive function not owning said display device said first set of characters with a second set of characters selected from input characters to identify a match,

upon identifying a match, temporarily altering for a predetermined length of time the display of characters in the first set of characters matching the second set of characters, and

relaying said input characters to said visual display.

8. A method of operating a computer display device, comprising the steps of:

displaying a first plurality of characters,

capturing within a temporally invasive function not owning said display device and testing a second plurality of characters input for display,

upon determining that a subset of said second plurality of characters is included within said first plurality of characters, altering the display for a predetermined length of time to highlight said included characters, and

thereafter relaying said second plurality of characters to said computer display device for display on behalf of an application owning said display device.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps responsive to determining that a plurality of subsets of said second plurality of characters is included within said first plurality of characters, of altering the display of a plurality of said sets.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said altering step includes identifying the numerical instance of said sets in multiple screens.

11. A medium for storing a data structure for controlling the operation of a computer display device according to the steps of:

relaying a first plurality of characters to said computer display device for display,

capturing within a temporally invasive function not owning said display and testing a second plurality of characters input for display,

upon determining that said second plurality of characters is included within said first plurality of characters, temporarily altering the display to highlight said included characters for a predetermined length of time, and

relaying said second plurality of characters to said computer display device for display.

12. A medium for transmitting a data structure for controlling the operation of a computer display according to the steps of:

displaying at said computer display a first plurality of characters on behalf of an application owning said computer display,

operating a temporally invasive function not owning said computer display according to the steps of;

thereafter capturing and testing a second plurality of characters input for display,

upon determining that said second plurality of characters is included within said first plurality of characters, temporarily altering the display to highlight said included characters; and

thereafter relaying said second plurality of characters to said computer display for display.