Method for building menus during idle times

• US 6,067,087 A
• Filed: 03/03/1998
• Issued: 05/23/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Krauss, Jeffrey Thomas, Agrawal, Ravindra Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jackson, Chadwick A
• Application Number:
  US09/033,922
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• Field of Search: 707/7, 707/102, 710/3, 710/5, 711/134, 712/1, 712/245, 345/333, 345/352, 345/353, 345/302, 345/339
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A Menu Building Component (MBC) builds menus during a computer'"'"'s idle time. The MBC builds a menu for each menu title on a Menu Bar and stores each built menu in the computer'"'"'s random access memory (RAM). The MBC requests an allocation of idle time by registering with a Component Manager. The Component Manager notifies the MBC of the availability of idle time by sending a notification signal to the MBC. When the MBC receives the notification signal, the MBC builds the next unbuilt menu corresponding to a menu title on the Menu Bar. When the last menu has been built, the MBC unregisters with the component manager. If a user makes a menu demand for an unbuilt menu, the MBC will build the demanded menu on demand, rather than during an idle time. If the user makes a menu demand for a built menu, the built menu is recalled from RAM and displayed for use by the user. Because the MBC builds menus during idle times, start-up delays and menu demand delays are minimized. By storing the built menus in RAM, the MBC can display menus instantaneously upon demand, with little or no delay perceivable to the user.

Claims

1. In a computer system having a graphical user interface including a display device and a user interface selection device, a method for building a menu structure having a Menu Bar, at least one menu title, and at least one menu, for subsequent display on the display device, the method comprising the steps of:

building the Menu Bar;

in response to the Menu Bar having been built, making a determination as to whether the Menu Bar contains at least one menu title corresponding to an unbuilt menu;

in response to the Menu Bar containing at least one menu title corresponding to the unbuilt menu, receiving an idle time notification; and

in response to receiving the idle time notification, building the unbuilt menu.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the idle time notification comprises the steps of:

registering an idle time request with a Component Manager;

causing the Component Manager to make a determination as to whether an idle state exists; and

in response to a determination that an idle state exists, receiving an idle time notification from the Component Manager.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

in response to a determination that the Menu Bar does not contain a menu title corresponding to an unbuilt menu, unregistering with the Component Manager.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

in response to a determination that the user interface selection device has selected the menu title corresponding to an unbuilt menu, building the unbuilt menu.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the Menu Bar contains a left-most menu title and a right-most menu title, and wherein the building the unbuilt menu step comprises the steps of:

determining whether the left-most menu title corresponds to an unbuilt menu;

in response to a determination that the left-most menu title corresponds to an unbuilt menu, building the unbuilt menu corresponding to the left-most menu title;

determining which menu title corresponding to an unbuilt menu is closest to the left-most menu title; and

building the unbuilt menu corresponding to the menu title closest to the left-most menu title.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the Menu Bar contains a left-most menu title and a right-most menu title, and wherein the method further comprises the step of building the unbuilt menus in a predetermined order.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of building the unbuilt menu comprises the steps of:

converting the unbuilt menu into a built menu; and

storing the built menu in a random access memory (RAM) for subsequent retrieval.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of converting the unbuilt menu into the built menu comprises the steps of:

accessing at least one menu data file corresponding to the menu title;

retrieving menu data from the at least one menu data file;

building a menu in accordance with the menu data, such that the menu is in a format suitable for display on the display device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the built menu comprises at least one menu item and wherein the menu data includes a command corresponding to each menu item.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one menu data file can be modified, and whereby a display position of each menu item can be determined according to user input.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the built menu comprises at least one menu item, each menu item being defined by at least one menu item attribute selected from the group consisting of:

a text string of the menu item;

an enabled state of the menu item;

a checked state of the menu item;

a keyboard equivalent of the menu item;

an icon of the menu item; and

a text format of the menu item.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one menu data file can be modified, whereby the menu item attributes that define each menu item can be determined according to user input.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

in response to a determination that the user interface selection device has selected the menu title corresponding to the built menu, recalling the built menu from the RAM and displaying the built menu on the display device.

14. In an application program having a menu structure including a Menu Bar, at least one menu title, and at least one menu, wherein a command is issued by selecting one of the menu titles and selecting a menu item associated with the command from a menu corresponding to the selected menu title, a method for building the menu structure, the method comprising the steps of:

in response to a start-up of the application program, building the Menu Bar;

in response to the Menu Bar being completely built, determining whether each menu title contained in the Menu Bar has a corresponding built menu;

in response to the determination that at least one of the menu titles does not have a corresponding built menu, registering an idle time request with a Component Manager;

causing the Component Manager to make a determination that the application program is in an idle state;

in response to the application program being in an idle state, receiving an idle time notification from the Component Manager;

in response to receiving the idle time notification from the Component Manager, creating a built menu; and

in response to a determination that each menu for at least one of the menu titles that does not have a corresponding built menu title contained in the Menu Bar has a corresponding built menu, unregistering with the Component Manager.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

in response to creating the built menu, storing the built menu in a random access memory (RAM).

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

in response to a determination that the user interface selection device has selected a menu title not having a corresponding built menu, creating a built menu corresponding to the menu title.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of creating the built menu comprises the steps of:

accessing at least one menu data file corresponding to the menu title;

retrieving menu data from the at least one menu data file;

building a placeholder menu;

assigning commands to positions on the placeholder menu;

assigning menu item attributes to the positions on the placeholder menu; and

converting the placeholder menu to a built menu.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the built menu comprises at least one menu item and wherein the menu data includes the display position in which each menu item will be displayed on the display device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the built menu comprises at least one menu item, each menu item being defined by at least one menu item attribute selected from the group consisting of:

a text string of the menu item;

an enabled state of the menu item;

a checked state of the menu item;

a keyboard equivalent of the menu item;

an icon of the menu item; and

a text format of the menu item.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(a) building a Menu Bar,

(b) making a determination that an idle state exists;

(c) in response to the determination that the idle state exists, building a menu.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of:

(d) storing the menu in a random access memory (RAM) for subsequent retrieval and display on a display device.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the Menu Bar consists of at least one menu title and wherein steps (b) and (c) are repeated as many times as is necessary to build a menu to correspond to each menu title.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

i) determining whether an application program is idle;

ii) in response to a determination that the application program is idle, transmitting an idle time notification;

iii) receiving the idle time notification; and

iv) in response to the receipt of the idle time notification, building the menu.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the menu comprises at least one menu item, and each menu item is defined according to the contents of at least one menu data file.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the contents of the at least one menu data file include at least one menu item attribute selected from the group consisting of:

a text string of the menu item;

an enabled state of the menu item;

a checked state of the menu item;

a keyboard equivalent of the menu item;

a display position of the menu item;

an icon of the menu item; and

a text format of the menu item.