Method for enabling adaptive sizing of display elements

• US 6,414,698 B1
• Filed: 04/13/1999
• Issued: 07/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lovell, Douglas C., Thompson, Richard D.
• Primary Examiner(s): LAO, LUNYI
• Application Number:
  US09/290,164
• Time in Patent Office: 1,176 Days
• Field of Search: 345/127, 345/128, 345/129, 345/130, 345/132, 345/439, 345/472, 345/342, 345/788, 345/789, 345/790, 345/800, 345/809, 345/815, 345/472.1, 345/472.2, 345/660, 345/667-671, 345/715, 345/801
• US Class Current: 715/800
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Display elements are designed to answer element size queries by a layout manager which enable an enhanced layout manager to pack elements on the display with greater uniformity and density than is possible with the element size queries available in the state of the art. The layout manager automatically uses height-for-width and/or width-for-height trade-offs to optimally resize said elements according to the shape of the available area.

Claims

1. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a height and said preferred second dimension is a width;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein said providing step includes the following steps for determining said preferred width of said display element of type text element;

(a) conducting a search through a range of trial widths from an element minimum width to an element maximum width by first determining a preferred height for a given width,

(b) increasing the lower bound of said search if a resultant height is greater than said given height,

(c) returning a resultant width as said preferred width if the resultant height is within a desired number of pixels of said given height, and

(d) decreasing the upper bound of said search and returning to step (a) if the resultant height is less than or equal to said given height; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said first given dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display, wherein said type of display element is a text element.

2. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a height and said preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension is a width;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein said type of display element provided in said providing step is an image element, and wherein said providing step includes the following steps for determining said preferred width;

inputting said given height,

determining a preferred width by multiplying said given height by a stored ratio of width/height, and

returning said preferred width for said given height; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said first given dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

3. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a width and said preferred second dimension is a height;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein said type of display element provided in said providing step is an image element, and wherein said providing step includes the following steps for determining said preferred height;

inputting said given width,

determining a preferred height by multiplying said given width by a stored ratio of height/width, and

returning said preferred height for said given height; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said first given dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

4. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a height and said preferred second dimension is a width;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein said type of display element provided in said providing step is a container element, and wherein said providing step includes the following steps for determining said preferred width of said display element of type container element;

(a) conducting trials through a range of trial widths from an element minimum width to an element maximum width by first determining a preferred height for a given width of a row,

(b) if a resultant height is greater than said given height then

(1) if a previous trial was completed, then returning said trial width of the previous trial,

(2) otherwise, if a previous trial was not completed, then returning said trial width of the current trial,

(c) increasing the trial width by a minimum of additional width properties of all said rows,

(d) if the trial width is less than the element maximum width, then repeating steps (a) to (c), otherwise if the trial width is not less than the element maximum width, then returning as said preferred width the element maximum width; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said first given dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

5. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a height and said preferred second dimension is a width;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein said type of display element provided in said providing step is a container element, and wherein said providing step includes the following steps for determining said preferred height of said display element of type container element;

(a) conducting trials through a range of trial heights from an element minimum height to an element maximum height by first determining a preferred width for a given height of a row,

(b) if a resultant width is greater than said given width then

(1) if a previous trial was completed, then returning said trial height of the previous trial,

(2) otherwise, if a previous trial was not completed, then returning said trial height of the current trial,

(c) increasing the trial height by a minimum of additional height properties of all said columns,

(d) if the trial height is less than the element maximum height, then repeating steps (a) to (c), otherwise if the trial height is not less than the element maximum height, then returning as said preferred height the element maximum height; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said first given dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

6. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein said type of display element provided in said providing step determines a means for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, and wherein a first custom computation is used to determine a preferred width given a height and a second custom computation is used to determine a preferred height given a width; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said first given dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

7. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a height and said preferred second dimension a width and wherein said width is calculated using a table, wherein said table does not have a desired entry and said return of size queries is calculated by interpolating entries in said table;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said given first dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

8. A method of making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display, wherein said given first dimension is a width and said preferred second dimension a height and wherein said height is calculated using a table, wherein said table does not have a desired entry and said return of size queries is calculated by interpolating entries in said table;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension; and

accepting by said display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said given first dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display.

9. A machine readable medium containing code for making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, the code implementing the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension; and

accepting by the display element size queries, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said given first dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display, wherein said type of display element provided in said providing step of the computer code determines a means for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension, wherein a first custom computation is used to determine a preferred width given a height and a second custom computation is used to determine a preferred height given a width.

10. A machine readable medium containing code for making adaptive size adjustments for automatically sizing and arranging elements on a display, the code implementing the steps of:

receiving from a layout manager a given first dimension available for displaying an element on a display;

providing a display element for determining a preferred second dimension perpendicular to said first dimension; and

accepting by the display element size queries that are calculated using a table, said size queries including said preferred second dimension, wherein said given first dimension remains constant and said preferred second dimension is computed according to a type of said display element so as to adapt said display element to a type of display, and wherein said table does not have a desired entry and said size queries are calculated by interpolating entries in said table.