Display and manipulation of window's border and slide-up title bar

• US 5,586,244 A
• Filed: 07/31/1995
• Issued: 12/17/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Werner, Jon H., Berry, Richard E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Breene, John E.
• Application Number:
  US08/509,718
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• Field of Search: 395/155-161, 395/152, 345/119-120, 345/163-166, 345/173-179, 345/117-118, 382/181, 382/187-189
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A technique for the display and manipulation of windows resembling real-word objects in an object-oriented graphical interface displays windows without substantial borders, continuously displayed title bars, scroll bars, and various graphical icons and symbols that surround the information in conventional windows. Window components are provided to support window manipulation functions such as MOVE, SIZE and CLOSE. A slide-up title bar with a close-box is generally kept hidden behind the window until dragged-up by the user when desired. Thin borders, which are used to conserve screen real estate, may be manipulated to perform a CLOSE operation with a "flicking" gesture or perform a SIZE operations by dragging the window'"'"'s border. Moving a window may be performed by clicking a "whitespace" area and dragging to a desired destination.

Claims

1. A method for executing a predetermined operation on a borderless window displayed on a display device coupled to a data processing system, comprising the steps of:

displaying, on said display device, a substantially borderless window having a configuration representing a two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional object, without display of any icon associated with said window;

positioning a displayed input device pointer over a predetermined area of said window;

activating an input means associated with said input device; and

moving said pointer in accordance with one of a plurality of predetermined pointer movements to cause an action to be taken on said window.

2. A method, according to claim 1, wherein said action is a change in size of said displayed window.

3. A method, according to claim 1, wherein said three-dimensional object is a sheet of paper.

4. A method, according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined pointer movement further comprises the step of moving said pointer toward an inside area of said window to reduce the displayed size of said window.

5. A data processing system, comprising:

one or more processors;

a storage system;

an input/output subsystem coupled to said storage system and said one or more processors by a bus, said input/output subsystem further coupled to a display device;

means for displaying, on said display device, a substantially borderless window having a configuration representing a two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional object, without display of any icon associated with said substantially borderless window;

means for positioning a displayed input device pointer over a predetermined area of said window;

means for activating an input means associated with said input device; and

means for moving said pointer in accordance with one of a plurality of predetermined pointer movements to cause an action to be taken on said window.