Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
69 words
Graphic display apparatus comprising means (30) for generating views (100) on a display screen (80), said views (100) comprising at least one graphic object (180) characterized by at least one region (110) defined within the view (100), and at least one attribute (RegionProp) associated with the at least one graphic object (180) to indicate in which of said at least one region (110) the graphic object (180) is located.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
26 words
Apparatus according to claim 1 further characterized by a definition file (RegionDef) (170) in which the structure of said at least one region (110) is defined.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
48 words
Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 further characterized by at least one layout routine (200) which loop through the graphic objects (180) to be positioned in the view (100) to extract said attribute (Region Prop) and to lay the graphic object (180) out in said region (110).
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
43 words
Apparatus according to one of the above claims further characterized by at least one moving routine (200) which change said attributes (RegionProp) when one of the graphic objects (180) is moved from one of said regions (110) to another of said regions (110).
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
125 words
Method of laying out at least one graphic object (180) within a view (100) displayed on a graphic display apparatus (80) comprising the following steps: a first step of defining the view (100) within which the graphic object (180) is to be displayed, a second step of defining regions (RegionDef) within the view (100) within which the graphic object (180) is to be displayed, a third step (320) of associating with the graphic object (180) an attribute (RegionProp) to indicate within which region (110) the graphic object (180) is to be displayed, a fourth step (340) of laying out the graphic object (180) within the region (110), and a fifth step (360) of presenting the laid out view (100) on the graphic display apparatus (80).
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
23 words
Method according to claim 5 wherein said second step comprises creating a region definition file (170) containing the definition of said region (110).
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
79 words
Method according to claim 6 wherein said fourth step comprises looping (440; 700, 710) though all of the graphic objects (180) to be positioned in the view (100) to extract the value of said attribute (RegionProp), searching (720, 725, 730, 735, 740) through said region definition file (170) to select the region (110) corresponding to said extracted value of said attribute (RegionProp), positioning (340, 800, 810, 820, 830, 840, 850) said graphic object (180) within the selected region (110).
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
57 words
Method according to claim 7 wherein the step of positioning said graphic object (180) comprises passing all of the graphic objects (180) within the selected region (110) together with the region size, region shape and region layout to a sub-layouter (200) for determining (840) the optimal position of the graphic objects (180) within the selected region (110).
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
89 words
Method of moving a graphic object (180) within a view (100) with a plurality of regions (110) as claimed in any of the above claims comprising the following steps: a first step (900) of selecting the graphic object (180) to be moved, a second step (910, 920, 930) of selecting the new position to which the graphic object (180) is to be moved, a third step (940, 950) of placing the graphic object (180) to the selected new position and a fourth step (960) of reordering the view (100).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
63 words
Method according to claim 9 wherein the second step (920, 930) comprises determining the region (110) in which the selected new position is located and the third step (940, 950) comprises changing the value of said attribute (RegionProp) from the region (110) in which the graphic object (180) is located to the region (110) in which the graphic object is to be located.