Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1 339754
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING ~HE LOCATION
OF qHE CONTENTS OF BORDERED AREAS QF A GENERIC FORM
F I E LD OF THE I NVENT I ON
An apparatus and method are disclosed for
incorporating a topological two dimensional partitioning
procedure for dynamically creating, revising, storing,
printing and displaying generic forms.
BACKGROUND OF THE I NVENT I ON
In the past decade a growing interest has evolved
for using computers for generating forms. Forms have
been and always will represent a communications metaphor
that document many different types of transactions.
Whether transactions happen with or without computers,
forms are everywhere. Most forms are preprinted, created
and supplied by external form suppliers. The Bus iness
Forms Management Association estimates that businesses
spend between S6 and $8 billion dollars a year to create
and print preprinted forms. Industry pundits estimate
that businesses spend as much as twenty times that amount
storing, managing and printing forms.
The process for generating a form is typically a
tedious one. When the form finally receives final
approval and goes on to an outside printer, it gets
printed, distributed and hundreds of thousands of copies
of the form are inventoried into a paper storage. Each
1 339754
time the form undergoes modification, the process of
approval and storage starts all over again.
In an effort to economize the process of generating
forms, electronic form software has been developed. Such
software is another example of the personal computer's
rapid displacement of functions previously done on
expensive, dedicated, single-purpose types of business
equipment, such as electronic publishing and business
presentation graphics. Electronic forms are defined as
computer-generated forms that incorporate graphics which
exist independent of variable data and can be generated
on demand. Electronic form software provides individuals
with an alternative to using expensive phototypesetting
equipment, with the additional benefit of adding speed
and accuracy.
Electronic forms represent significant cost savings
to businesses. When compared to the costs of designing
and completing preprinted forms, electronic forms save
businesses money; they require no physical space, they
are easily revised (reducing waste of obsolete forms),
and they often are printed on cut sheet paper. The costs
of using computer-generated forms on cut sheet paper is
less than purchasing preprinted forms. The cost of
completing forms, estimated to be as much as twenty times
the cost of the form, will be reduced by having built-in
calculations and logic checking.
Although electronic forms are stored in computers,
the user can do many things with electronic forms that
are now done on preprinted forms; they can be filled in,
approved, filed, and printed. The current packages,
however, are limited in their application because these
packages are really just typing programs for enabling a
user to efficiently fill in a~d have neatly typed up a
form.
-3- 13397~4
Another type of form package enables a designer to
design a form on screen and save it for reuse, or to scan
in an existing paper form, which is then displayed on
screen for completion. The advantage of these form
packages is the ability to produce the electronic form to
the exact specifications of the preprinted form, easing
the user transition to the electronic form by providing
the same "look" to the electronic form. Many of these
form packages result in intelligent forms or smart forms.
Intelligent forms generally imply forms that are
interactive in numerical intelligence. In contrast to
"dead forms", these forms will accept user entries,
compute values and may even link values or amounts to
other forms. The sophistication of the user entry
acceptance (i.e. formatting, error checking, etc.) and
the sophistication of computation and linking may vary
considerably across different form packages.
A significant design issue in form generation with
regard to these existing packages is the level of
flexibility that the package has in editing or revising
the form after a layout has been created. Stated
differently, even if a form package has tackled the
complex issues of computations, linking, interfacing with
the database, etc., the ability of the package to edit or
revise the layout of the form is a pressing issue in
determining the value of an electronic form generation
package. The issue boils down to whether a form once
created can be easily changed, for example, by deleting a
field, making a field smaller, making a field larger,
moving a field, all while the rest of the form
automatically adjusts to accommodate the change.
To date, no package has incorporated a concept of
~graphics intelligence" to enable a system to dynamically
adjust and accommodate for changes in the form. Graphics
intelligence is a type of intelligence in form creation
" 1 339754
which enables all of the elements within a form to
"understand" their positional relationships vis-a-vis
each other. Hence, changes made to element size, text
font, text size, placement, shape, etc., may cause other
portions of the form to readjust, stretch, move over, or
realign to positionally accommodate the change while
maintaining the overall integrity or "basic look" of the
form. By contrast, in existing form packages, when
certain changes in layout are made, subsequent manual
adjustments of other individual elements in the form to
fit the new design may be required. Without
incorporating graphics intelligence, such changes to the
graphic layout of the form require a designer to redraw
portions of the form and in some circumstances to redraw
the entire form.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION r 1 339754
The present invention provides a method and
apparatus that reduces or eliminates the disadvantages
referred to above.
Briefly the present invention includes an apparatus
and method for incorporating a topological two
dimensional partitioning procedure for dynamically
creating, revising, storing, displaying and printing
generic forms. For the first time, changes to the
graphical layout of a form, particularly a complex form,
do not necessarily require designer intervention in order
to redraw portions of the form and, in some
circumstances, the entire form. Particularly, the
present invention provides a method and apparatus for
maintaining the integrity of the form (i.e. information
integrity and structural integrity) by readjusting,
stretching, realigning, etc. bordered areas within the
form in order to accommodate changes made to bordered
area size, text font, text size, placement, shape, etc.
The preferred embodiment of the invention includes
an apparatus and method for dynamically altering a
generic form in a computer. The form can be
characterized as a two-dimensional space partitioned into
a plurality of bordered areas. One or more bordered
areas include text. The text includes none, one or more
lines of characters and each character of the text has
adjustable font attributes. The adjustable font
attributes include font type, font style, and font size.
The method of the preferred embodiment for dynamically
altering the form occurs in the following two steps.
First, for one or more bordered areas of the form,
the size of the one or more bordered areas is altered by
changing the adjustable height and/or the adjustable
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width of the one or more bordered areas so that the
adjusted one or more bordered areas overlap one or more
other bordered areas of the form. For the bordered areas
having one or more lines of text, the font attributes of
the text may also be changed so that the text overlaps
into one or more other bordered areas of the form.
Second, for one or more bordered areas of the form,
the adjustable height and/or the adjustable width and/or
the adjustable font attributes of the text are
dynamically altered (i.e. increased or decreased) in
order to ensure that overlapping does not occur.
In the preferred embodiment the step of dynamically
altering the adjustable height and/or the adjustable
width and/or the adjustable font attributes includes the
step of aligning the borders of at least two of the
bordered areas so that the borders maintain alignment
regardless of what happens as a result of the step of
dynamically altering. This step typi~ .ly includes
aligning the borders of the at least two bordered areas
in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction.
The present invention also includes an apparatus and
method for representing a generic form in a computer.
The form comprises a plurality of bordered areas. The
bordered area is considered to be the fundamental
structural unit within the form and it contains other
smaller bordered areas, text or graphics. Text consists
of one or more characters, and graphics includes two
dimensional drawings (i.e. lines, arrows, circles,
polygons, fills, pictures, etc.). For purposes of
describing the preferred embodiment of the present
invention, bordered areas shall be limited to containing
text or other bordered areas, but it should not be
limited thereto. Each of the bordered areas may also be
included within a larger bordered area. Each of the
1 339754
bordered areas of the form is associated with a record
which defines the characteristics of the associated
bordered area. The method for representing a generic
form comprises the following two steps. For each of the
associated records of the bordered areas of the form, the
first step includes indicating the larger bordered area,
if any, which contains the bordered area, and the second
step includes indicating the plurality of smaller
bordered areas, if any, which are included within the
bordered area.
Furthermore, the method may also include the step of
indicating within the associated record of the bordered
area whether the included smaller bordered areas are
arranged horizontally or vertically within the bordered
area. The orientation of the bordered areas is important
for enabling the preferred embodiment to properly
accommodate changes in the size of each bordered area.
The preferred embodiment also includes a method and
apparatus in a computer for calculating the size of one
or more bordered areas within a generic form. The size
of each of the bordered areas is represented by a width
and a height. Each of the bordered areas may be included
in a larger bordered area and each bordered area includes
a plurality of smaller nonoverlapping bordered areas or
text. Text consists of none, one or more lines of
characters. The method for calculating the size of the
bordered area occurs in the following steps.
The width of one of the bordered areas (the
currently processed bordered area) of the generic form is
obtained. Then a determination is made as to whether the
bordered area includes a plurality of smaller bordered
areas or whether the bordered area includes text. When
the bordered area includes text, the next step includes
determining the height of the bordered area by
1 339754
determining the cumulative height of the none, one or
more lines characters. When the bordered area includes
the plurality of smaller bordered areas, the next step
includes determining whether the included smaller
bordered areas are arranged within the bordered area
horizontally or vertically. When the included smaller
bordered areas are arranged horizontally, the next steps
includes determining the height of each of the included
smaller bordered areas, determining which of the
determined heights is the maximum height and determining
the width of each of the included smaller bordered areas.
When the included smaller bordered areas are arranged
vertically, the next step includes determining the height
of each of the included bordered areas and determining
the cumulative height of all of the included bordered
areas. The widths of the vertically arranged included
smaller border areas are equal to less than the width
obtained for the currently processed bordered area.
The steps for determining the height of each of the
included smaller bordered areas further include the step
of performing one or more of the steps of the above
method one or more times to determine the size of each of
these smaller bordered areas. This process continues
until all of the bordered areas within the form and their
descendants have been sized.
Additionally, the preferred embodiment of the
invention includes a method and an apparatus in a
computer for determining the location of the contents of
a bordered area. The contents of the bordered area
includes a plurality of nonoverlapping smaller bordered
areas or none, one or more lines of text. The bordered
area has top, bottom, left and right boundary locations
and the bordered area may be included within a larger
bordered area. The smaller included bordered areas also
have top, bottom, left and right boundary locations. The
~ 133~754
g
method for determining the location of the contents
occurs in the following steps.
The locations of the top, bottom, left and right
boundaries of the bordered area whose contents need to be
located are obtained. Then a determination is made on
whether the bordered area includes the plurality of
smaller bordered areas or text. When the bordered area
includes text, then a determination is made on whether
the text is aligned to the top, middle or bottom
boundaries of the bordered area. When the bordered area
includes smaller bordered areas, then a determination is
made as to whether the smaller bordered areas are
arranged within the bordered area horizontally or
vertically. Assuming that the bordered area contains
horizontally arranged smaller bordered areas, the
location of the left and right boundaries for each of the
included smaller bordered areas are determined. The
location of the top boundary for each of the included
smaller bordered areas are aligned to the top boundary of
the bordered area. The location of the bottom boundary
for each of the included smaller bordered areas are
aligned to the bottom boundary of the bordered area.
When the bordered area contains vertically arranged
bordered areas, the location of the top and bottom
boundaries for each of the included smaller bordered
areas are determined. The location of the left boundary
of each of the included smaller bordered areas are
aligned to the left boundary of the bordered area, and
the location of the right boundary for each of the
included smaller bordered areas are aligned to the right
boundary of the bordered area.
The displayed form is represented by a plurality of
pixels which are selectively enabled or disabled on a
display. Each pixel identifies an X,Y coordinate
address. In the preferred embodiment, each of the
1 339754
--10-- - '-
bordered areas within the generic form is rectangular in
shape and each of the bordered areas is represented by
two pairs of X,Y coordinate addresses. One of the pairs
of the X,Y coordinate addresses represents the location
of one corner of the rectangular bordered area and the
other one of the pairs of the X,Y coordinate addresses
represents the opposite corner of the rectangular
bordered area. The method for locating a bordered area
further contains the step of, for each bordered area of
the generic form, assigning the locations of the bordered
areas of the generic form their X,Y coordinate addresses.
In this way, the locations of the top, bottom, left and
right boundaries for the bordered areas are defined.
Lastly, the preferred embodiment of the invention
also includes an apparatus and method for displaying and
printing the generic form according to the locations
determined for each of the bordered areas of the generic
form.
~ 1339754
BR I EF DESCR I PT I ON OF THE DRAW I NGS
Fig. 1 is a block diagram representation of a
computer base system 2 for creating, revising, storing,
displaying and printing generic forms in accordance with
the present invention;
Fig. 2 depicts a bordered area having three elements
and demonstrates reconfiguration without graphics
intelligence;
Fig. 3 depicts the same bordered area having three
elements as shown in Fig. 2 and demonstrates
reconfiguration with graphics intelligence and without
horizontal constraints;
Fig. 4 depicts the bordered area having three
elements as shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 and demonstrates
reconfiguration with graphics intelligence and with
horizontal constraints;
Fig. 5A depicts a typical form as displayed on the
screen display means 5 (Fig. 1) of the computer based
system 2 (Fig. l);
Fig. 5B depicts a menu item requested by a user of
system 2 (Fig. 1) for changing font size of a portion of
the form text (the "Caption Text" i.e., columns 44 and
46, Fig. 5A) from 9 points to 15 points;
Fig. 6A depicts the form as shown in Figs. 5A and 5B
with the font size increased to 15 points resulting in
rewrapping of text and the vertiral length of the
resulting form scrolled off the top and bottom of the
screen;
Fig. 6B depicts the form of Fig. 6A with the
numbering field moved to the left, forcing text to the
-12- 1 339754
left of it to rewrap again and vertical length to
readjust in order to accommodate for the reduced
horizontal width;
Fig. 7A depicts the form of Fig. 6B with the right
border of the numbering field moved to the right,
extending the horizontal width of the numbering field and
causing the numbers to recenter themselves;
Fig. 7B depicts the form of Fig. 7A with the left
border of the numbering field moved further to the right,
causing text to automatically rewrap to fill the
additional horizontal space and causing the form to
shrink vertically;
Fig. 8A depicts a form similar to Figs. 5A-7B, which
is further divided into rectangular bordered areas;
Fig. 8B shows a hierarchial tree structure
representation of the top portion of the form as shown in
Fig. 8A;
Fig. 8C is a table representation of the top portion
of the form as shown in Fig. 8A and 8B, indicating
whether the bordered area includes children or text;
Fig. 9 depicts a flow block diagram of the
RESIZE/REDRAW Routine performed by the computer base
system 2 (Fig. 1) for resizing and redrawing generic
forms;
Fig. 10 depicts a flow block diagram of the FITFORM
Routine referenced during the RESIZE/REFORM Routine (Fig.
9) for determining the size and placement of the root
bordered area of the form and all of its descendants;
Fig. 11 is a flow block diagram of the DRAWFORM
Routine referenced during the RESIZE/REFORM Routine (Fig.
-13- 1 339754
9) for displaying the resized form and all of its
descendant bordered areas on display screen 5 (Fig. l);
Fig. 12 is a flow block diagram of the PLACEFORM
Routine referenced during the FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10)
for determining the location or placement of the root
bordered area of the form and all of its descendants;
Fig. 13A is a flow block diagram of the FITCELL
Routine referenced during the FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10)
for resizing a bordered area of a form;
Fig. 13B is a flow block diagram of the COMPUTE SIZE
FOR TEXT CELL Routine referenced during the FITCELL
Routine (Fig. 13A) for calculating the size of a bordered
area containing text;
Fig. 13C is a flow block diagram of the COMPUTE SIZE
FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine referenced during the FITCELL
Routine (Fig. 13A) for determining the size of a bordered
area which contains vertically arranged children and all
of its descendants;
Fig. 13D is a flow block diagram of the COMPUTE SIZE
FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine referenced during the FITCELL
Routine tFig. 13A) for determining the size of a bordered
area which contains horizontally arranged children and
all of its descendants;
Fig. 13E is a flow block diagram of the REAPPOR~ION
CHILDRENS' WIDTH Routine referenced during the COMPUTE
SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D) for
apportioning the total width available among each of the
children and all of its descendants;
Fig. lgA depicts a "blown-up" version of the upper
lefthand corner of the form shown in Fig. 8A;
~ 133q754
-14-
Fig. 14B is a table representation of the form shown
in Fig. 14A along with old and new widths, height,
rectangular coordinates and the contents of each bordered
area;
Figs. 15A, 15B and 15C depict a results table for
showing the contents of a stack and the currently
processed bordered area according a detailed example of
FITCELL Routine Set (Figs. 13A-F);
Fig. 16A is a flow block diagram of the PLACECELL
Routine referenced by the PLACEFORM Routine (Fig. 12) for
calculating the boundary locations for the contents of
the bordered area currently processed;
Fig. 16B is a flow block diagram of the PLACE TEXT
CELL Routine referenced during the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A) for determining the displayable area and the
text drawing area for the text of the currently processed
bordered area;
Fig. 16C is a flow block diagram of the PLACE
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine referenced during the PLACECELL
ROUTINE (Fig. 16A) for determining the left and right
boundary locations for each of the horizontally arranged
children associated with the currently processed bordered
area and determining placement of all of its descendants;
Fig, 16D is a flow block diagram of the PLACE
VERTICAL CELL Routine referenced during the PLACECEL~
ROUTINE (Fig. 16A) for determining the top and bottom
locations for each vertically arranged child within the
currently processed bordered area and determining
placement of all of its descendants;
Fig. 16E is a flow block diagram of the DETERMINE
VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine referenced during the PLACE
VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16E) for determining the
1 33~7~4
--1 s--
vertical location of the top-most border of the first
vertically arranged child within the currently processed
bordered area and determining placement of all of its
descendants;
Fig. 16F is a flow block diagram of the JUSTIFIED
Routine referenced during the DETERMINE VERTICAL
ALIGNMENT Routine (Fig. 16E) and the PLACE TEXT CELL
Routine (Fig. 16B) for calculating the starting location
of which the contents are to be drawn (i.e., border of
first child for the DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine
(Fig. 16E), or the first line of text, for the PLACE TEXT
CELL Routine (Fig. 16B)) within the currently processed
bordered area;
Fig. 17A, 17B, 17C and 17D depict a results table
for sho,wlng the contents of the stack and the pointer t-
the currently processed bordered area according a
detailed example to the PLACECELL Routine Set (Fig.
16A-F);
Fig. 18A is a flow block diagram of the ~RAWCELL
Routine referenced during the DRAWFORM Routine (Fig. 11)
for displaying each of the bordered areas of a form,
their descendants and ~text;
Fig. 18B is a flow block diagram of the DRAW BORDERS
Routine referenced during the DRAWCELL Routine (Fig. 18A)
for displaying each nonprintable and/or printable border
of the currently processed bordered area;
Fig. 18C is a flow block diagram of the DRAW
CONTENTS Routine referenced during the DRAWCELL Routine
(Fig. 18A) for displaying the contents (i.e. all
descendant bordered areas and text) of the currently
processed bordered area.
-16-
TABLE OF CONTENTS TO THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION 1 339754
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A) INTRODUCTION
B) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODIMENT
1) Introduction to "Graphics Intelligence"
2) Bordered Area Record and Text Record
3) RESIZE/REFORM Routine (Fig. 9)
4) FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10)
5) DRAWFORM Routine (Fig. 11)
6) PLACEFORM Routine (Fig. 12)
7) FITCELL Routine Set (Figs. 13A-F)
a) FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A)
b) COMPUTE CELL FOR TEXT CELL Routine
(Fig. 13B)
c) COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL
Routine (Fig. 13C)
d) COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL
Routine (Fig. 13D)
e) REAPPORTIONED CHILDRENS' WIDTH
Routine (Fig. 13E)
8) DETAILED EXAMPLE of the FITCELL Routine
Set (Figs. 13A-E)
9) PLACECELL Routine Set (Figs. 16A-F)
a) PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A)
b) PLACE TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 16B)
c) PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine
(Fig. 16C)
d) PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine
(Fig. 16D)
e) DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine
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(Fig. 16E) 3 339754
f) JUSTIFIED Routine (Fig. 16F)
10) DETAILED EXAMPLE OF THE PLACECELL Routine
Set (Figs. 16A-F)
11) DRAWCELL Routine Set (Figs. 18A-D)
a) DRAWCELL Routine (Fig. 18A)
b) DRAW BORDERS Routine (Figs. 18B)
c) DRAW CONTENTS Routine (Fig. 18C)
-18-
DETAILED DESCRIPTION 1 3397S4
A) INTRODUCTION
The following description of the present invention
is largely in terms of algorithms and symbolic
representations of operations on data (Fig. 9 through
Fig. 18C), received by and stored within a computer Fig.
l. These representations are the means used by those
skilled in data processing to most effectively convey the
nature of their conceptions to others skilled in the art.
An algorithm, as defined in the context of this
invention, is a self-consistent sequence of steps leading
to a desired result. Such steps are those requiring
physical manipulation of physical quantities. These
quantities are typically in the form of electromagnetic
signals capable of being stored, transformed, combined,
compared, and otherwise manipulated. The signals are
typically referred to as bits, values, elements, symbols,
characters, terms, memory cells, display elements, or the
like. It should be kept in mind, however, that all of
these and similar terms are to be associated with the
appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient
labels applied to such quantities.
Although the manipulations performed by the
algorithms may be associated with mental operations
performed by human operators, there is no human operator
necessary or, in fact desirable, in any of the opera~ions
described herein which form the present invention.
Useful machines for performing the operations of the
present invention include general purpose digital
computers or other similar devices.
The present invention also relates to an apparatus
for performing these operations. This apparatus may be
specially constructed for the required purpose or may
comprise a general purpose computer (i.e., IB~ PC-AT
Trademark
--1 9--
1 3397~4
Apple Macintosh, Compac-386, etc.), However, it should
be noted that the algorithms presented herein are not
necessarily related to any particular computer. Various
general purpose machines may be used with the teachings
discussed herein, or it may prove more convenient to
construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the
required method steps of operation.
It should be noted that no particular program
language is indicated for performing the various
operations described herein. This omission is
deliberate, for there are no universally accepted
programming languages available for all machines or
procedures. Due to the complexity of the present
invention, it would be tedious and difficult to follow a
computer listing on the same. Therefore, the operations
and procedures described herein are illustrated in the
accompanying figures which sufficiently depict to one
ordinarily skilled in the art the methodology for
performing the present invention. It should also be
apparent to those skilled in the art that although the
present invention may be depicted in the form of
algorithms shown in the figure herein, well known
circuits and structures may also be used to implement the
present invention in a "hard-wired" form.
Figure 1 depicts a computer based system 2 for
generating generic forms according to the present
invention. Computer 8 contains controller board 6 f~r
performing three major operations of the computer. They
are, one -- input/output operations for communicating
information in the properly structured form to and from
other parts of the computer 8, two -- a central
processing unit (CPU) (not shown) for performing all
arithmetic operations, and three -- a memory for storing
data. The generation of generic forms according to the
present invention may be carried out by software programs
1 339754
processed by microprocesssor chips 7 on controller
board 6 or in the form of special purpose hard-wired
microprocessor chips 9 which would also be located on the
controller board 6. When the software programs for
generating the generic forms are stored on controller
board 6 or when the microprocessor chips having the
proper hard-wire logic are implemented via the controller
board 6, a platform or card for generating generic forms
is created. This card may then interface with any one of
a variety of computers presently available on the market.
Figure 1 also shows two forms of input devices,
including keyboard 10 and mouse 12. It should be
understood that the input devices may actually include
card readers, magnetic or paper tape readers, or other
well-known input devices, including other computers.
Computer system 2 also contains a memory device 14 for
storing object code, for representing the generic forms.
The mouse 12 permits the user to input graphic
information to the computer 8 through its input circuitry
in a well-known manner. Generally mouse 12 provides
cursor control to identify positions of the cursor on a
display screen 5 within display mean 4. The display
screen 5 is used to display the generic forms being
generated by the present invention. The display mean 4
may be any one of several systems well-known to those
skilled in the art. Another form of output device for
displaying the form is printer 11. There are also many
different and well known printers which are suitable for
printing forms.
The cathode ray tube (CRT) of the display screen 5
comprises a plurality of pixels or picture elements which
are selectively enabled or disabled in order to define
desired images on tne display screen 5. The pixels form
a grid disposed over the CRT and the pixels are
identified by a bit map. More particularly, the pixels
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are organized such that they can be identified according
to unique X,Y coordinates in a 2-dimensional array. The
0, 0 coordinate of the bit map has been typically picked
to reside in the upper left-hand corner of the CRT. The
0, 0 coordinate also represents the first point of any
generic form. The pixels elements of the CRT are enabled
and disabled according to the object code stored in
memory 14. Although the bit map may be present on the
CRT, it is not completely stored in the memory 14;
instead a compressed encoded version of the form is
stored in memory 14. The compressed encoded version
consists of only enough information to produce the form
on the CRT. A more detailed discussion on the encoding
scheme for rectangular bordered areas will be presented.
B) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
1) Introduction to "Graphics Intelliqence"
A typical form has many rectangular components
filled with text, for example, the familiar I.R.S. 1040
form. The main distinction between forms and word
processing documents is that forms have much more
structure. Forms are characteristic in that they provide
a lot of information in small bordered areas or cells.
In the preferred embodiment, the form is characterized as
a two dimensional space partitioned into a plurality of
cells or bordered areas. The bordered area is the
fundamental structural unit within a form. It must be
noted that the bordered areas can be of any shape;
however, for purposes of simplifying the description of
the preferred embodiment, the bordered areas are assumed
to be rectangularly shaped. Bordered areas are not
entirely independent of one another, rather they
correspond to one another by various graphical/ spacial
or topological relationships. Therefore, changes made to
the spacing or relative- sizes of the one or more bordered
1 339~54
-22-
areas within the form may effect portions of the rest of
the form. In order to maintain these relationships the
entire form may need to be altered or reconfigured when
resizing occurs to any one of the bordered areas within
the form.
There are several principles which are unique
to the processing of forms and unique to the present
invention. In order to maintain the integrity of a form
(i.e. information integrity, structural integrity, etc.)
certain topological relationships of the form must be
maintained. The first and most important topological
relationship in a form is that the bordered areas do not
overlap one another. The bordered areas are considered
overlapping one another when: (1) the text of one
bordered area overlaps the text of another bordered area,
(2) the text of one bordered area overlaps a border of
another bordered area or (3) the border of one bordered
area overlaps a border of another bordered area. In
order to ensure that such overlapping does not occur, the
system of the present invention controls one, two or all
three variables which dictate the size of a bordered area
and the size of the text of the bordered area. The three
variables are: (1) horizontal width of the bordered
area; (2) vertical length of the bordered area; and (3)
font attributes of each character of text in bordered
area. The attributes consist of font style, font size
and font type, etc.
More particularly, the nonoverlapping principle
as controlled by these three variables (i.e. width,
height and font attributes) is illustrated by the
following examples. If a bordered area is widened such
that the bordered area overlaps one or more adjacent
bordered areas, then the adjacent bordered areas' width
could be increased in an appropriate amount and the text
shifted over in order to avoid such overlapping.
1 33q754
Likewise, if the height of a particular bordered area of
a form were increased such that the bordered area
overlapped into another one or more adjacent bordered
areas, then the adjacent bordered areas could have their
heights increased in an appropriate amount and text
shifted up or down in an appropriate amount in order to
avoid such overlapping. Also, if the text of a
particular bordered area were to "spill over" the borders
of the bordered area such that the text overlapped other
adjacent bordered areas, then the font size of the text
could be reduced and the text shifted in an appropriate
amount to ensure that the text did not spill over the
borders of the bordered area. Lastly, to avoid
overlapping into the adjacent bordered areas as discussed
above, one or more of the variables (i.e. width, height
and font size) in any combination could be altered (i.e.
increased, decreased or shifted (text) in the appropriate
amount) in order to ensure that overlapping does not
occur. Also any such adjustment to avoid overlapping may
cause new overlapping in other adjacent bordered areas.
This will require further adjustment until all bordered
areas do not overlap. Although the preferred embodiment
disclosed herein is directed to a specific apparatus and
procedure for ensuring that overlapping bordered areas do
not occur, it should not be limited thereto, for it is
envisioned that a number of different embodiments could
be implemented which could all successfully ensure the
integrity of the form.
A second important topological relationship for
a form is that certain borders of more than one bordered
area of the form maintain alignment, either horizontal or
vertical vis-a-vis each other, so as to create a
contiguous line. For example, a column of bordered areas
vertically arranged will require that the left and/or
right borders of each bordered area align with one
another in order to remain a column. Another example of
-24- 1 339754
such alignment would be the outer boundary of the form
which is made up of several bordered areas.
Additionally, the need for alignment may occur when the
bordered areas of the form are aranged as a table, a
grid, etc. The requirement to align particular bordered
areas adds additional constraint to the way in which the
three variables (i.e., width, height, and font
attributes), can be used in order to maintain overlapping
within the form.
The procedures for maintaining the topological
relationships discussed thus far are hereinafter referred
to as "graphics intelligence". Because the concept of
graphics intelligence is rather abstract and difficult to
grasp in a few sentences, it is best to start with a
basic example of how the concept works visually. To
provide "snap shots" of graphics intelligence in action,
figures 2 through 7b demonstrate how it may be applied.
Referring to Figure 2 a particular bordered
area 16 having three elements or smaller bordered areas
18, 20 and 22 is shown. Bordered area 16 may be a row of
a larger form not shown. In order to adjust the "sizing"
of the first element 18 of the bordered area 16 without
using graphical intelligence, the vertical bar separating
element 18 from element 20 must first be shifted to the
right and the information within element 20 must then be
manually reconfigured to fit in the reduced area of
element 20. Bordered area 24 (Fig. 2) shows the result
of shifting to the right the vertical separator between
elements 18 and 20.
If graphics intelligence were applied and there
were no constraints on the horizontal width of bordered
area 16, then Figure 3 shows the resulting bordered
area 28. The width of bordered area 18 expanded
horizontally and the widths of bordered areas 20 and 22
1 339754
remain the same but are physically shifted over to the
right of the newly positioned separator. In many
situations however, horizontal constraints are placed on
the form which forces the total horizontal width of the
bordered area 16 to remain constant. Figure 4 represents
a result of shifting to the right the vertical separator
between elements 18 and 20, yet maintaining the total
horizontal width of bordered area 16 constant. Note, to
accommodate the horizontal width constraint, the bordered
area 32 had to stretch vertically downward. In addition,
the text in second element 20 rewrapped in order to
accommodate the smaller horizontal width within element
20. Although this example only demonstrates changes to
bordered area 16, if bordered area 16 were part of a
larger form then the orientation of the rest of the form
could be affected.
Figure 5A depicts a typical I.R.S. Form 3800.
The form is displayed at normal width and text font size.
Form 3800 is broken up into a series of rows and columns
where each of the rows 17 - 42 pro~ide particular
information. Parts 1 and 2 of the form entitled
"Tentative Credit" and "Tax Limit~tions" are broken into
three columns, 44, 46 and 48. Column 44 includes text
regarding questions and information, column 46 is a
numbering field having numbers 1 through 10, and column
48 lists monetary figures. Figure 5B depicts a menu item
selected by a user of system 2 (Fig. 1) to change the
font size of some of the form text (the "caption text"
i.e. 44 and 46 (Figs. 5A, SB and 6A)) from 9 points to 15
points. Figure 6A depicts Form 3800 where the font size
has increased to 15 points. In this example, the form
has been constrained horizontally so that it does not
expand or scroll off to the right or left of the screen
display 5. In this way the horizontal width of the form
has been preserved and the larger font size forces the
text to rewrap where necessary. For example, referring
- 26 -
1 339754
to Figure 5A and 5B under Part 1, text lines 24, 26, 30
and 32 which only occupied one line, wrap to the
following line as shown in Figure 6A. The result is that
the Form 3800 stretches in the vertical direction in
order to accommodate for the changes in font size. In
one sense, the form 3800 acts like a rubber sheet that
can be pulled and tugged in any direction (in this case,
the vertical direction).
Note that horizontal and vertical dimensions of
a bordered area can be graphically manipulated
independent of one another. In Figure 6B the numbering
field (column 46) has been moved to the left, forcing the
text under part 1 (column 44) to further wrap and
readjust to accommodate for the reduced horizontal space.
Note in Figure 6B that text lines either wrap for the
first time (i.e., 20 and 28) or further wrapping occurs
on lines 24, 26, 30 and 32.
Referring to Figure 7A, the right border of the
numbering field in column 46 has been moved to the right,
extending the horizontal width of the numbering field 46
and causing the numbers to recenter themselves.
Referring to Figure 7B, the left border of the numbering
field 46 moved further to the right, causing the numbers
in column 46 to move over and recenter, and the text in
column 44 to automatically rewrap to fill up the
increased horizontal space in the column and causing the
form to shrink (replace) vertically. Note that line 17
is now visible in Figure 7B, whereas in Figure 7A, line
17 scrolled off the top of screen.
Several observations can be made regarding the
changes to IRS form 3800 in Figures 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A
and 7B. Namely, changes made to bordered area size, text
font, text size, placement, shape, etc., may cause all
the other bordered areas to readjust, stretch, move over
1 33~754
or realign to positionally accommodate the change while
maintaining the overall integrity or basic look of the
form. A preferred embodiment for fulfilling these
operations is depicted in figures 9 through 18C.
Additional observations include the following
points. A bordered area containing text can have
different widths by "rewrapping" text. To make a
bordered area narrower (or wider), the text is broken at
certain points in order to allow it to fit inside the new
specified region. To make a bordered area narrower
requires more lines of text, causing the bordered area to
stretch or become vertically taller. Alternatively,
making a border wider requires fewer lines of text,
causing the bordered area to shrink or become shorter.
A form can also have different widths by
adjusting the boundaries of several bordered areas
contained within the form. To make a form narrower or
wider, the widths of one or more bordered areas
containing text are reduced or increased in appropriate
amounts. The appropriate amount for each bordered area
may be calculated by determining the total amount the
widths increases or decreases for each row of bordered
areas of a form, and then apportioning the increase or
decrease among each of the bordered areas in the same
row. The text within the bordered area is rewrapped to
fit the new widths. The heights of all of the bordered
areas are increased (or decreased) in appropriate amounts
to include the rewrapped text. Finally, the positions of
all of the bordered area are adjusted so that no bordered
areas overlap. In this way the height of the form as a
whole will increase (or decrease).
Referring to Figure 8A, I.R.S. Form 3800 is
shown further divided into rectangular bordered areas.
Particularly, the top portion of the I.R.S. Form 3800
-28- 1 339754
(52, Fig. 8A) is shown subdivided into several smaller
bordered areas. The IRS form 3800 may be considered a
hierarchical tree with the top level or highest node of
the hierarchical tree representing the largest bordered
area of the form and lower level nodes which branch from
the top level representing smaller bordered areas which
are included within the largest bordered area. The top
level bordered area can be considered to be the "parent"
to the lower level children bordered areas, "siblings."
A sibling may also be a parent to lower level children as
well. Eventually, all branches stemming from the top
level bordered area end with a bordered area having text.
For each level of siblings (children who have the same
parent), the present invention assumes that none of the
siblings overlap regardless of the content (i.e.
descendant bordered areas or text) of each sibling
bordered area. Figure 8B shows the hierarchical tree
structure representation of the portion of the form shown
in Figure 8A. The tree structure representation
emphasizes which bordered areas are included in other
bordered areas. Figure 8C is a table representation of
the form shown in Figs. 8A and 8B. The table indicates
whether the contents of each bordered area include
children (horizontally or vertically arranged) or text;
(i.e. whether the bordered area contains sibling bordered
areas which are horizontally or vertically arranged with
relation to one another or whether the contents include
text.)
Referring to figures 8A, 8B, and 8C, each
bordered area 54, 56 and 58 is included within the larger
bordered area 52. Each bordered area contains a
plurality of smaller bordered areas or text; for example,
border area 60 within bordered area 54 contains smaller
bordered areas 61 and 63 and bordered area 62 also within
bordered area 5~ contains text, "Department of the
Treasury". The top portion 52 of the IRS Form 3800 (50,
-29-
1 33~
Fig. 8A) may also be considered a hierarchical tree
structure as shown in Figure 8B. The largest bordered
area or "parent" bordered area 52 is shown at the top or
first level of the tree structure. The parent bordered
area 52 is subdivided into "children" or "sibling"
bordered areas 54, 56 and 58. Bordered areas 54, 56 and
58 are shown at the second level of the tree structure
and they are arranged horizontally with relation to one
another (as shown in Fig. 8A and are indicated in Fig.
8C) within the bordered area 52.
Each bordered area 54, 56 and 58 contains
further smaller bordered areas and is, therefore,
considered to be the parent of the smaller bordered
areas. Specifically, bordered area 54 is the parent
bordered area for the children bordered areas 60, 62 and
64. Likewise, bordered area 56 is the parent bordered
area for children bordered areas 66 and 68. Bordered
area 58 is the parent bordered area for the children
bordered areas 70, 72 and 74. The children bordered
areas of each bordered area 54, 56 and 58 are arranged
vertically (as indicated Fig 8B). At the third level of
the tree structure, many of the bordered areas are bottom
nodes 62, 64, 66, 68 and 70. Referring to Figure 8A,
note that all bottom nodes to the tree contain text.
Looking to the fourth level of the tree structure,
bordered area 60 is the parent for child bordered areas
61 and 63. Child bordered areas 61 and 63 are arranqed
horizontally to one another within bordered area 60.
Because bordered areas 61 and 63 are bottom nodes, they
contain text. Specifically, bordered area 61 contains
the word n IRS No." and bordered area 63 contains the
number "3800n.
-30-
2) Bordered Area Record and Text Record 1 339 754
Each bordered area of the form is associated
with a record of data which defines the characteristics
of that bordered area. The total set of records defines
the hierarchical tree structure of the form (as shown in
Figs. 8A and 8B). The records interlink each of the
borders within the generic form. The system (Fig. 1)
incorporating the invention provides the necessary
information to the records associated with each of the
bordered areas of the form. The record for each bordered
area contains an indication of the larger (parent)
bordered area, if any, which includes the bordered area.
The record also indicates whether the bordered area
contains a plurality of smaller bordered areas
(children). For example the record associated with
bordered area 60 would indicate that it contains a
plurality of bordered areas (i.e. children bordered areas
61 and 63).
The record indicates whether the smaller
included bordered areas (i.e. 61 of 63) are arranged
vertically or horizontally within the bordered area 60.
For example, the record for bordered area 52 would
indicate that bordered areas 54, 56 and 58 are
horizontally arranged within bordered area 52. However,
the record for bordered area 54 would indicate that the
bordered areas 60, 62 and 64 are vertically arranged
within bordered area 54. Also, the record for bordered
area 58 would indicate tha- bordered areas 70, 72 and 74
are vertically arranged within bordered area 58. The
orientation of the bordered areas is important for
enabling the preferred embodiment of the invention to
properly accommodate changes to the generic form (to be
discussed further shortly).
1 339754
-31-
The record for the bordered area indicates
which of any other bordered areas, are ordinally adjacent
(previous and next for horizontally arranged bordered
areas, above and below for vertically arranged bordered
areas) to the bordered area and are included within the
same parent bordered area (~siblings"). For example,
bordered area 56 is adjacent to both bordered areas 54
and 58. Additionally, bordered area 62 is adjacent to
bordered areas 60 and 64, which are above and below
bordered area 62. The record indicates the quantity of
smaller bordered areas (children) contained in the
bordered area. For example, bordered area 54 contains
three bordered areas -- 60, 62 and 64. The record
indicates the size of the bordered area by "width" and
~height~ of the bordered area. In the preferred
embodiment width and height are measured in units of
pixel elements.
In the preferred embodiment, the placement or
location of the bordered area within the form is also
indicated in the record associated with the bordered
area. The location is represented by at least one pair
of X,Y coordinates designated in units of pixel elements.
When the bordered areas are rectangular in shape, each
bordered area is defined by two pairs of coordinates; one
of the pairs of coordinates identifies the location of
the top left corner of the bordered area and the other
pair of coordinates identifies the location of the bottom
right corner of the bordered area. In this way only two
pairs of coordinate values need to be stored in memory in
order to identify the location of the bordered area.
This representation of the bordered area is considered an
encoded version of the bordered area. Alternatively, the
rectangular area could also be identified by two pairs of
coordinates which indicate the locations of the opposite
corners of the bordered area. The record also indicates
ordinal values of children bordered areas within the
-32- 1 3~97S~
parent bordered area. For example, child bordered areas
54, 56 and 58 are included in the parent bordered area 52
and child bordered area 54 can be designated to be in the
first ordinal position, child bordered area 56 in the
second ordinal position, and bordered area 58 in the last
ordinal position. The record may only contain a subset
of this information. The ordinal positions of the child
bordered areas enables the present invention to point to
the children bordered areas one at a time for processing
purposes.
Each bordered area within the generic form has
a certain boundary defined by a border line (visible or
invisible). The boundary defines the exterior limit of
each bordered area of a particular form regardless of the
shape of the bordered area. In the example shown in
Figure 8A, the borders for the bordered areas are shown
as dotted lines. The border can have unlimited variety
attributes which define its thickness, color, roundness,
pattern (solid, dotted, dashed etc.), etc. The
attributes associated with the border are also stored in
the record associated with the bordered area.
In the preferred embodiment, each bordered area
record is pointed to by another data structure called a
record pointer. The record pointer contains the address
to the data structure which contains the record data. If
a bordered area does not contain child bordered areas,
the record for the bordered area will contain a data'
structure called a text pointer, The text pointer
contains the address of another data structure or text
record which includes record information describing the
characteristics of the text included within the bordered
area.
To edit text in a bordered area the text
editing capability of a computer needs to know where and
1 33~754
how to display the text, where to store the text, etc.
The display, storage and editing information is contained
in the text record, which defines the complete editing
environment. For example, in the Apple Macintosh
environment, one prepares to edit text by specifying a
"destination rectangle" in which to draw the text and a
"view rectangle" in which the text will be visible. The
text record contains both the destination rectangle and
the view rectangle areas. Information in the text record
also indicates the height of each line of characters
which make up the text, the total number of characters
which form the text, the number of lines of text within
the bordered area, the character style, font type and
font size. Each character can have a font independent of
any other character. The font includes the font family
(Helvetica, Courier etc.), stylistic variations (such as
boldness and slant) and event special effects (such as
shadows). This information is critical for determining
the vertical length a particular bordered area must have
in order to accommodate the wrapping of the text within
the horizontal width and the accumulated height of each
line of text. Those skilled in art are familiar with
various procedures for determining the wrapping
requirements of text in a particular area.
In order to determine where the characters
begin in each line of text, the position of the first
character is stored in the text record. The record ,also
contains an indicator indicating whether the text is
justified to the right, left, top, bottom or center of
the bordered area. For example, the words "General
Business Credit" are justified to the center (vertically
and horizontally) of the bordered area 66. Whereas the
words "Tentative Credit" are justified to the left of the
bordered area 80 (horizontally).
-34-
3) RESIZE/REFORM Routine (Fiq. 9) 1 3 3 9 7 5 4
Figure 9 is a flow diagram of the RESIZE/REFORM
Routine for recomputing and drawing forms. Essentially
this routine is the highest level program for calling
other programs for sizing and drawing a particular form.
Specifically, at block 84, the FITFORM Routine ("Fig.
10") is called for sizing the bordered areas within a
form which may have just undergone modifications. Then
at block 86, the DRAWFORM Routine ("Fig. 11") is called
to display the newly sized form on the display screen 5
(nFig. 1"). Then during block 88 the routine completes
its operation.
4) FITFORM Routine (Fiq. 10)
Referring now to Figure 10, a more detailed
discussion of the FITFORM Routine is now presented. At
block 92 the FITCELL Routine Set (Figs. 13A-E) is called
for computing the size (i.e., width and height) of all of
the bordered areas and their descendants (children)
within a form which is modified. Widths are computed
first and then heights according to the operation of the
FITCELL Routine Set. The FITFORM Routine (Fig. 9) passes
the width of the bordered area to be sized, typically
window display width of the largest bordered area of the
forms called the root bordered area. It should be
carefully noted that the FITCELL Routine Set (Fig. 13A-E)
is a "recursive" return which sizes the entire tree ~all
descendants of the called bordered area). During block
94 the PLACEFORM Routine (Fig. 12) is called for
computing the placement or location of the generic form
and all of its descendant bordered areas on the bit map
of the CRT. During block 96 processing returns to the
RESIZE/REFORM Routine (Fig. 9) at Block 86.
1 33~754
5) DRAWFORM Routine tFiq. 11)
Referring to Figure 11, a flow chart depicting
the DRAWFORM Routine is shown. The purpose of the
DRAWFORM Routine is for displaying the resized form and
all of its descendant bordered areas on display screen 5
according to the placement determined by the PLACEFORM
Routine (Fig. 10). At block 100 a determination is made
on whether the border of the form (root bordered area)
are visible or invisible (not shown on the display). If
the borders of the form are invisible, processing
continues at block 104 during which the routine DRAWCELL
(Figs. 18A) is called. The DRAWCELL Routine displays the
boundaries and contents for each of bordered areas of the
form. If the border of the form is determined to be
visible then processing continues at block 102 during
which the border surrounding the form is drawn. Then
during block 104 the DRAWCELL Routine (Fig. 15A-E) is
called for displaying the borders and contents of each of
the bordered areas of the form. Then during block 106
processing returns to the RESIZE/REFORM Routine (FIG 9)
at block 88.
6) PLACEFORM Routine (Fiq. 12)
Figure 12 is a flow diagram of the PLACE FORM
Routine which determines the location or placement of the
border surrounding the form (root bordered area). The
root bordered area is typically the largest bordered~area
of a form and it has initial coordinate values of 0, 0 at
the upper left corner of the display window. At block
110, the PLACECELL Routine Set (Figs. 16A-F) is called
for locating all of the descendant bordered area
contained within the root bordered area. Then during
block 112 processing returns to the FITFORM Routine (Fig.
10) at block 96.
-36-
~ 339754
7) FITCELL Routine Set (Fiqs. 13A-F)
Figures 13A, 13B, 13C, 13D and 13E are flow
diagrams which depict the FITCELL Routine Set. The
following discussion provides a summary of the operation
and philosophy of the FITCELL Routine Set. For a
detailed example of how the FITCELL Routine operates
refer to section B(8). The purpose of the FITCELL
Routine Set, as stated above, is for computing the size
(i.e., width and height) of each bordered area of a form.
The FITCELL Routine Set is the most important set of
routines of the preferred embodiment because it
determines the space requirements for each bordered area
relative to one another in order to accommodate for
changes in the form. The width of the root bordered
area, which is typically constrained in the horizontal
direction by the available horizontal window on the
display screen, is initially passed to the FITCELL
Routine Set (Figs. 13A-13E) from the FITFORM Routine
(Fig. 10). If the next level of child bordered areas
within the root bordered area do not contain text, then
the FITCELL Routine determines whether these children
bordered areas are arranged horizontally or vertically.
The actual determination of the height for the root
border area will depend on the orientation of children
bordered areas. However, regardless of the orientation
of the children, the first child bordered area within the
root bordered area will be pointed to and the width ,of
this child will be determined. Then the FITCELL Routine
(Fig. 13A) calls itself "recursively", with the pointer
to the first child, and computes width, determining the
widths of the descendant bordered areas on the way down
the structure to the bottom nodes.
When a bottom node (i.e., a bordered area
containing text) is encountered, the height of the
bordered area containing text is determined as a function
-37- ~
of the number of lines of text and the height of each
text line. Once the height of the bottom node bordered
area is calculated, it is stored along with the width
previously calculated in an associated record for the
bordered area. The size for each of its siblings and
their descendants, if any, associated with the bordered
area are similarly computed and stored. When all of the
children of a particular parent bordered area have been
sized, the height of that parent bordered area can be
computed. Both the height and width of the parent
bordered area are then stored in a record associated with
the parent bordered area. This recursive process
continues down, back and across etc., until all bordered
areas of the root or descendant bordered area have been
computed. The last step is computing the height of the
original root or descendant bordered area.
The height of a parent bordered area containing
children is determined differently for children
vertically arranged than for children horizontally
arranged. For bordered areas containing vertically
arranged children, the height of each child is
accumulated, and the space between the children, and
margins (interior blank space of the bordered area), and
border are added as well. If the children are arranged
horizontally, then the child having the maximum height
(plus the margin and border) is determined to be the
height of the parent. In this way, the parent border,ed
area is guaranteed to be able to fit around the children.
The maximum height is also used for alignment purposes by
the PLACECELL Routine to be discussed.
In the preferred embodiment, the width of a
child which is vertically arranged with respect to its
siblings is determined to be equal to the width of its
parent less the boundary. On the other hand, the width
of horizontally arranged children are determined by
1 339754
-38-
reapportioning (increasing or decreasing) the width of
each child in the same proportion as its parent's
bordered area's total width increased or decreased. In
sum, the width of each bordered area in any branch of the
tree representation of the form is computed when the
child bordered area is encountered on the way down the
branch (i.e., before the bottom nodes of the branch are
reached). The height of each bordered area, however, is
computed on the way back up the branch (i.e., after the
bottom nodes of the branch have been reached). Both
height and width are stored in the record associated with
the bordered area) when the height is computed.
a) FITCELL Routine (Fiq. 13A)
Referring to Figures 13A, 13L, 13C, 13D, and
13E, a detailed discussion of the FITCELL Routine is now
presented. Specifically Figure 13A depicts the top level
routine for processing the FITCELL Routine. Initially, a
pointer to the root bordered area is passed to the
FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). At block 116 (Fig. 13A) the
total space remaining for the children in this root
bordered area (or currently processed bordered area) is
determined by subtracting two boundaries (2x (border +
margins)) (top and bottom boundaries for vertically
arranged bordered areas or left and right boundaries for
horizontally arranged bordered areas inside the currently
processed bordered area from the total ~idth. Then
during block 118 the total space between the childre~ is
determined by calculating the number of children less
one, multiplied by a space constant between the children.
As an example, the space constant is defined to be
one-pixel wide. Then, during block 120 a determination
is made on whether the contents of the bordered area
include text or a plurality of child bordered areas.
Assuming that the bordered area contains text, then
during block 122 the routine COMPUTE SIZE OF TEXT CELL
13397S4
-39-
(Fig. 13B) is called. The size of the child containing
text is determined by the COMPUTE SIZE OF TEXT CELL
ROUTINE (Fig. 13B), and processing returns at block 128
to the FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10) at block 94 or
processing returns to the location of the last recursive
call to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A) at either block
150 of the COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig.
13C) or at block 190 of the REAPPORTION CHILDREN'S WIDTH
Routine (Fig. 13C).
Returning to block 120, if the determination of the
contents of the bordered area results in a plurality of
smaller included bordered areas, then a further
determination is made on whether the children are
arranged horizontally or vertically. If the children are
arranged vertically, then processing continues at block
126. During block 126, the routine COMPUTE SIZE OF
VERTICAL CELL (Fig. 13C) is called. The COMPUTE SIZE OF
VERTICAL CELL (Fig. 13C) determines the height of the
currently processed bordered area and processing
continues at block 128 and returns to the FITFORM Routine
(Fig. 10) at block 96 or processing returns to the
location of the last recursive call to the FITCELL
Routine (Fig. 13A) at either block 150 of the COMPUTE
SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13C) or at block 190
of the REAPPORTION CHILDREN'S WIDTH Routine (Fig. 13E).
However, if the included children are determined to be
horizontally arranged, then during block 124 the COM~UTE
SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL (Fig. 13D) is called. When the
size of the bordered area is determined, processing
returns at block 128 to the FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10) at
block 96 or processing returns to the location of the
recursive call to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A) at
either block 150 of the COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL
Routine (Fig. 13C) or at block 190 of the REAPPORTION
CHILDREN'S WIDTH Routine (Fig. 13E).
~ 1339754
-40-
b) COMPUTE SIZE FOR TEXT CELL Routine
(Fiq. 13B)
Referring to Figure 13B, the COMPUTE SIZE FOR
TEXT CELL Routine is depicted. At block 132 a routine is
called for calculating the layout parameters for the
text. Such parameters include the location for wrapping
of text, justification of text, the number of lines, and
the height of each line, etc. An example of the wrapping
of text is shown in connection with Figures 6A and 6B.
"Wrapping" is considered to be a word processing
capability typically provided with the operating system
of standard computers or it could be specially designed
by those skilled in the art. Recall that when the
horizontal length of a text line decreased, the text was
forced to wrap onto the next text line. The wrapping
routine is designed such that the routine knows the
beginning and end of each word of the text and the length
of the text line. In the example shown, wrapping did not
occur to split words in half; however, it could be
designed such that hyphens could be added at the wrapping
point. After the text parameters have been determined
processing continues to block 133 ("TEXHITE" function) to
determine the height of the text cell. During block 134
a determination is made on whether there are any lines of
characters within the bordered area containing text. If
there are no text lines in the bordered area, then
processing continues at block 136 during which a height
accumulator is set equal to the height of one line as a
default. This procedure guarantees that the height of
the empty bordered area will be at least one line tall.
Assuming that there are lines of text within
the bordered area, processing continues at block 138,
during which the height accumulator is set equal to the
number of lines times the height of each line of text.
In the preferred embodiment each line of text has the
~4 d ~3~3 4
-41-
same constant height, however, in an alternate embodiment
of the invention each line of text has a variable height
and the heights are accumulated to determine the total
height. Regardless of whether there is text or no text
within a cell, processing continues at block 140. During
block 140 the width of the bordered area is stored in the
record associated with the bordered area, and then during
block 142 the height of the bordered area is also stored.
In the preferred embodiment the included margins of the
bordered area are also added to the computed height.
Processing continues at block 143 during which processing
returns to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A) at block 128.
c) COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine
(Fiq. 13C)
Figure 13C depicts a flow diagram of the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine. The purpose of
this routine is for determining the total height of a
bordered area which contains vertically arranged
children. Specifically, at block 146 the height
accumulator is set equal to the space used between the
children cells. Then during block 148 a pointer is set
to the first child bordered area of the parent cell.
Recall that the record associated with the parent
bordered area contains a pointer of the ordinal positions
of the children included within the parent bordered area.
Then during block 150 a recursive call is made to the
FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). The purpose of this
recursive call is to determine the size of the first
child bordered area. In the preferred embodiment a stack
arrangement is maintained for temporarily storing a
pointer to the currently processed bordered area for
which the size is being determined. In addition, a
pointer to the last call, before the FITCELL Routine is
performed is stored on a LIFO (Last In First Out) stack.
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Assuming that the size of the child bordered
area (and all of its descendants, if any) has been
determined by the FITCELL Routine called, processing
continues at block 152. When processing returns to block
152, from the recursive call, the pointer to the
currently processed bordered area is "popped off" the
stack. During block 152, the child's height calculated
in block 150 is added to the height accumulator for the
vertical bordered area. Then during block 154 the
pointer is moved to the next ordinal position within the
parent bordered area. During block 156, a determination
s made as to whether all of the children of the parent
bordered area have had their size determined. Assuming
that not all of the children have had their size
determined, processing continues during blocks 150, 152,
154 and 156 until the size for each of the children are
determined. Assuming that the size of all the children
have been determined, processing continues at block 158.
During block 158 the width of the parent bordered area is
stored in its associated record, and then during block
160 the newly calculated height of the parent bordered
area is also stored in the associated record. In the
preferred embodiment the margins included within the
parent bordered area are added to the accumulated
children's height and spacing between the children.
Process returns during block 162 to the FITCELL Routine
(Fig. 13A) at block 128.
d) COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Rout;ne
(Fiq. 13D)
Figure 13D depicts the COMPUTE SIZE FOR
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine. The purpose of this routine is
for determining the size of a parent bordered area which
includes children arranged horizontally. Specifically,
during block 166 the maximum height is set equal to zero.
Then during block 168 the old widths for each of the
f 1 3391~4
-~3-
children (before they have been resized) are accumulated
and the accumulated (total) old width is stored. Then
during block 170 the space between the children
(calculated in Fig. 13A at block 118) is deducted from
the total new space left for the children. Then, during
block 172 a pointer is set equal to the first child
bordered area within the parent bordered area and during
block 174 the routine REAPPORTION CHILDREN'S WIDTHS (Fig.
13E) is called. The purpose of this routine is for
apportioning the total new width among each of the
individual children. Additionally, the routine
determines the size of all descendants of the currently
processed child, and also determines which child has the
greatest height. Processing continues to block 176,
during which the pointer is moved to the next child
bordered area, and then during block 178 a determination
is made as to whether there are any other children within
the parent bordered area to be reapportioned. Assuming
that there are still more children to reapportion,
processing continues at blocks 174, 176 and 178 until all
of the children have been reapportioned. Assuming that
all of the children are reapportioned, processing
continues at blocks 180 and 182. During block 180 the
width of the parent bordered area is stored in the record
corresponding to that bordered area, and in block 182,
the height for the parent is also stored in the record
for that bordered area. As stated earlier the height of
the bordered area is calculated during the REAPPORTION
CHILDREN'S WIDTH Routine (Fig. 13E) to be discussed. In
the preferred embodiment the height is also adjusted to
include the margins within the parent bordered area.
Processing returns during block 184 to the FITCELL
Routine (Fig. 13A) at block 128.
-44-
1 339754
e) REAPPORTIONED CHILDREN WIDTH Routine (Fiq.
13E)
Figure 13E depicts a flow chart for the
REAPPORTIONED CHILDREN WIDTH Routine. As stated above,
the purpose of this routine is for apportioning the total
width available to all of the children (parent width less
margins) among each of the individual children bordered
areas. During block 188 the new width of the currently
pointed to child bordered area is determined by
multiplying the old width of the child bordered area by
the ratio of the new total width of the parent bordered
area, (as previously calculated at block 170 (Fig. 13D)),
to the old total width of the parent bordered area (as
previously calculated at block 168 (Fig. 13D). Then
during block 190 the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A) is called
to calculate size of all descendant children, and the
height of the currently processed child bordered area.
Then the call returns to the currently processed bordered
area along with the location of the last instruction and
this same information is "popped off" the stack.
Processing continues at block 192, during which a
determination is made as to whether the currently
processed child contains a larger height then all of the
previous children within the parent bordered area which
were processed at this time. Assuming that the currently
processed child has a larger height, processing continues
at block 194 during which the child's height (maximum
height) is stored in place of previously determined
maximum height. Processing continues to block 196,
during which processing returns to the COMPUTE SIZE OF
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D) at block 176.
Returning to block 192 of the REAPPORTION CHILDRENS WIDTH
Routine, if the new processed child does not have a
larger height than the previous maximum, processing
continues to block 196, during which processing returns
-45- ~ 339754
to the COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig.
13D) at block 176.
8) Detailed Example of the FITCELL Routine Set
(Fiqs. 13A-E)
Referring to Figures 13A, 13B, 13C, 13D, 13E,
14A, 14B, 15A, lSB, and 15C a detailed example of the
FITCELL Routine operation is now disclosed. Figure 14A
depicts a "blown-up" version of the upper left hand
corner of the form shown in Figure 8A. The form of
Fig. 8A is "blown up" in order to emphasize the picture
elements shown in dotted lines which are representative
of the borders of the bordered areas. Additionally, for
purposes of this example, it is assumed that the form
(Fig. 14A) has just increased slightly. Many of the
included bordered areas have also increased in size.
This example will demonstrate the procedure for
determining the sizes of the bordered areas according to
the present invention. Figure 14B is a tabular
representation of the form (Fig. 14A) along with old and
new widths for each bordered area and the contents of
each bordered area. All information is represented in
units of picture elements or pixels. Boundaries for each
bordered area contain a one pixel border plus a two pixel
margin. The margin consists of a white space interior
immediately adjacent to the border of each bordered area.
Figs. 15A, 15B and 15C depict a results table for
tabulating the contents of the stack and the current~y
processed bordered area. Each row of the table
represents a change in the currently processed bordered
area and/or the contents of the stack. For this example,
only, the size determinations for the bordered areas
within bordered area 52 will be calculated. It is
assumed the sizing for the rest of form 50 will be
performed in the same fashion as discussed for bordered
area 52.
-~6- 1 339754
Before discussing the detailed example of the
FITCELL Routine, a brief summary describing the overall
operation for calculating the size of each bordered area
within the top portion of the form depicted in Fig. 14A
is now discussed. Processing begins with determining the
new width of the root bordered area 50 by the FITFORM
Routine (Fig. 10). The width of bordered area 52 is then
determined by the COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine
(Fig. 13C). Then the width of boraered area 54 is
determined by the COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL
Routine (Fig. 13D). Processing continues down the
hierarchical tree structure shown in Fig. 8B to bordered
area 60, whose width is determined by the COMPUTE SIZE
FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13C). Processing
continues to the next level down the tree where the width
of bordered area 61 is determined by the COMPUTE SIZE FOR
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D) and then the height of
bordered area 61 is determined and stored by the COMPUTE
SIZE FOR TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 13B). Processing
continues for bordered area 63, for which the COMPUTE
SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13C) determines
the width, and the height of bordered area 63 is
determined by the COMPUTE SIZE FOR TEXT CELL Routine
(Fig. 13B). Processing returns back to bordered area 60,
for which the height is determined and stored by the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D).
Maximum heights among the bordered areas 61 and 63 is
assigned as the height of the bordered area 60. The'
width of bordered area 62 is then determined by the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D) and
the height of bordered area 62 is determined by the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 13B). Likewise,
the width of bordered area 64 is determined by the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine and the height
for bordered area 64 is determined by the COMPUTE SIZE
FOR TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 13B). The height of bordered
~47~ 1 339754
area 54 is determined by the COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL
CELL Routine (Fig. 13C) which accumulates the heights for
bordered areas 60, 62 and 64. Assuming the widths and
heights of bordered areas 56 and 58 have been determined,
the height of bordered area 52 is determined by the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D) which
determines which bordered area 54, 56 or 58 has the
maximum height-bordered area 52 is assigned the maximum
height. Lastly, assuming that the bordered areas 51, 52,
53, 55, 57, etc., height and width have been determined,
the height of root bordered area 50 is determined by the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13C) which
accumulated the heights for all of the bordered areas 51,
52, 53, 55, 57 etc. At this point, the entire format has
been resized -- each of the bordered areas within the
form have had their widths and heights recalculated. The
following is a more detailed description of this process.
Referring to the FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10), at
block 92, the new width of the root bordered area (i.e.,
largest bordered area) of the form is determined. The
width of the root bordered area is determined to be
520-pixels, the size of the window (199, Fig. 14B).
Processing continues to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A) at
block 116. At block 116, the total width remaining for
the children bordered areas 52, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61,
etc., within bordered area 50 is determined to be
514-pixels (200, Fig. 14B). During block 118, the space
between each of the children bordered areas 54, 56 and 58
is calculated to be ll-pixels, which is the number of
children (12), less one, multiplied by the space constant
of l-pixel. During block 120, it is determined that the
contents of the bordered area 50 are arranged vertically.
Thus, processing continues at block 126. During block
126, the COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig.
13C) is called.
-48-
' 1~39754
During block 146 (Fig. 13C), the height
accumulator is set equal to the space between the
children (ll-pixels) as determined above. During block
148, the pointer is set equal to the first child bordered
area of bordered area 50, namely bordered area 52 (220,
Fig. 15A). Then during block 150, a recursive call is
made to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). During this
recursive call, the pointer to bordered area 52 and a
pointer to the location of the recursive call (block 150
(Fig. 13C)) are pushed onto the stack (220, Fig. 15A).
At this point, there is only one entry on the stack:
(1) bordered area 52 (228, Fig. 15A).
Processing continues at the FITCELL Routine
(Fig. 13A) at Block 116, during which the total width
remaining for the children bordered areas within parent
bordered area 52 is determined to be 508-pixels. Above,
the new width for bordered area 52 was determined to be
514-pixels less the boundary on either side of the width
which is 6-pixels (2 x 1 (border) + 2 x 2 (margin))
picture elements (202, Fig. 14A). During block 118, the
space between each of the children bordered areas 52, 56
and 58 is calculated to be 2-pixel, which is the number
of children, less one, multiplied by the space constant
which is l-pixel. During block 120, it is determined
that the contents of the bordered area 52 are arranged
horizontally. Thus, processing continues at block 124,
during which the COMPUTE SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine
(Figure 13D) is called.
At block 166 (Fig. 13D), the maximum height
accumulator is set equal to zero. Durinq block 168, the
old widths for each of the children of bordered area 52
are accumulated. Specifically, the old width for
bordered area 54 (99-pixels), the old width for bordered
ar~ 56 (280-pixel), and the old width for bordered area
58 (99-pixel) are added together. A total accumulated
~49~ I 3 3 9 7S4
old width for the children 54, 56 and 58 is 486-pixels.
The old total width is stored in a variable called
WIDTHLEFT. Processing continues at block 170 during
which the space between the children is subtracted from
the total new width remaining for the children 54, 56 and
50. The space between the children is 2-pixels and thus
the remaining total space left is 506-pixels. The total
new width is stored in a variable called FITLEFT. During
block 172 a pointer is set to the first child within the
parent bordered area 52 (222, Fig. 15A). The first child
is bordered area 54. Processing continues at block 174
during which the REAPPORTION CHILDRENS' WIDTHS Routine
(Fig. 13E) is called.
Processing continues at block 188 (Fig. 13E)
during which the new width for child 54 is calculated by
the formula Old Width x (FITLEFT/WIDTHLEFT). As
determined above, Old Width for bordered area 54 is
99-pixels, FITLEFT is 506-pixels, and WIDTHLEFT is
486-pixels. The new width for bordered area 54 is
103-pixels (202, Fig. 14B). Processing continues at
block 190 during which a recursive call to the FITCELL
Routine (Fig. 13A) is made. The recursive call requires
that a pointer directed to bordered area 54 be placed on
the stack and a pointer to the recursive call for FITCELL
Routine block 190 (Fig. 13C) (224, Fig. 15A).
Referring to Fig. 13A at block 116, the new
total space remaining for the children cells within
bordered area 54 is calculated by subtracting the
boundary from the new width of bordered area 54. The new
width of bordered area 54 is 103-pixels and the boundary
is six picture elements. Thus, the remaining width for
the children is 97-pixels (204, Fig. 14B). Processing
continues at block 118 during which the space between the
children is calculated to be 2-pixels.
~ 13397~4
-50-
During block 120 the contents of bordered area
54 are determined to be vertically arranged; thus
processing continues at block 126. During block 126 the
COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13C) is
called. At block 146 (Fig. 13C) the height accumulator
is set equal to the space between the children as
determined above. During block 148 the pointer is set
equal to the first child bordered area of bordered area
54 or bordered area 60 (226, Fig. 15A). Then, during
block 150 a recursive call is made to the FITCELL Routine
(Fig. 13A). During this recursive call the pointer to
the bordered area 60 and a pointer to block 150 (Fig.
13C) are pushed onto the stack (228, Fig. 15A). At this
point, there are three entries on the stack: 1) Bordered
area 60, 2) Bordered area 54 and 3) Bordered area 52
(202, Fig. 15A).
Processing continues at block 116 (Fig. 13A)
during which the total width remaining for the children
of bordered area 60 is calculated by subtracting the
boundary from the new total width. The new total width
of bordered area 60 is 97-pixels and the boundary is
6-pixels, thus the remaining width available is 91-pixels
wide. Then, during block 118, the space used up between
the children is determined to be l-pixel wide. The
contents of the bordered area 60 are determined to be
horizontally arranged during block 120. Processing
continues at block 124, during which the routine COMPUTE
SIZE FOR HORIZONTAL CELL (Fig. 13D) is called.
Processing continues at block 166 (Fig. 13D)
during which the maximum height is set equal to zero.
During block 168, the total old width for the children 61
and is determined 63. The old width for child 61 was
21-pixels (210, Fig. 14A) and the old width for child 63
was 49-pixels, thus, total old width is set equal to
70-pixels. Processing continues during block 170 during
'' 1 339754
-51-
which the space between the children bordered areas 61
and 62 is subtracted from the total width available. The
space used was calculated during block 118 of Figure 13A
to be l-pixel and, thus, the total width remaining is
90-pixels, During block 172, the pointer is set equal to
the child bordered area 61 (230, Fig. 15A). Then during
block 174, the REAPPORTIONED CHILDREN'S WIDTHS Routine
(Fig. 13E) is called.
During block 188 (Fig. 13E), the new width for
bordered area 61 is determined to 27-pixels. Processing
continues to block 190, during which a recursive call is
made to the FITCELL Routine (Figure 13A). At this time,
the stack now has a fourth pointer placed on it which is
the pointer to bordered area 61 and the recursive call
location at block 190 (Fig. 13E) (232, Fig. 15A).
Processing continues to block 116 (Fig. 13A) of
the FITCELL Routine. During block 116, the total space
remaining for the contents of bordered area 61 is
determined to be 22-pixels. Processing continues at
block 118, however for bordered areas having text the
space used calculation is meaningless and the number
calculated is never used. During block 122, the contents
are determined to be text and the routine COMPUTE SIZE
FOR TEXT CELL (Fig. 13B) is called.
Processing continues to block 132 (Fig. 13B)
during which layout parameters for the text within t~e
bordered area are calculated. During block 134, it is
determined that text does exist within the bordered area
61; "For -". Processing continues at block 138, during
which the height of each line multiplied by the number of
lines. The height of each line is 13-pixels and the
number of lines is 2. The total height for bordered area
61 is calculated to be 26-pixels. Processing continues
to block 140, during which the new width (passed in)
1 33~754
-52-
27-pixels for the bordered area 61 is stored in the
record associated with bordered area 61. At block 142,
the boundary of bordered area 61 is added to the height
calculated during block 138. The boundary includes
6-pixels and, thus, the total height is set equal to
32-pixels. The value for the height is stored in the
record associated with bordered area 61. During block
143, processing returns to block 128 of the FITCELL
routine (Fig. 13A). Recall that the FITCELL routine was
called during a recursive call, so the last pointer
pushed onto the stack must be popped off to determine
where processing ended when the recursive call was made
(232, Fig. 15A). The last pointer pushed onto the stack
was the FITCELL recursive call at block 190 of the
REAPPORTIONED CHILDRENS WIDTH routine (Fig. 13E) (234,
Fig. 15B). Processing returns to the REAPPORTION
CHILDREN WIDTH Routine and continues at block 192, during
which a determination is made that the height calculated
for bordered area 61 is now the maximum height
determined. Thus, processing continues at block 194,
during which the maximum height variable is set equal to
32-pixels. Processing continues at block 196, during
which processing returns to block 176 of a COMPUTE SIZE
FOR HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D).
During block 176, the pointer is moved to the
next child bordered area 63 within the bordered area 60
(236, Fig. 15B). At block 178, it is determined that not
all of the children of bordered area 60 have been
reapportioned and, thus, processing continues at block
174. During block 174, the REAPPORTIONED CHILDRENS WIDTH
routine (Fig. 13E) is called.
During block 188, the new width for bordered
area 63 is determined by calculating the old width
multiplied by the ratio of the total new to old widths
remaining for the children. Recall that the new total
~'~ 1 339754
width remaining is 90-pixels and the old width remaining
70-pixels. Thus, the old width for bordered area 63
(49-pixels) is multiplied by the ratio of the total new
width to the total old width (90/70) for bordered area 63
resulting in 64-pixels (212, Fig, 14B). Processing
continues to block 190, during which the FITCELL routine
is recursively called. A pointer to bordered area 63 and
the location of the FITCELL Routine call at block 190
(Fig. 13E) are pushed onto the stack (238, Fig. 15B).
Processing continues at block 116 of the FITCELL routine
(Fig. 13A). During block 116, the space remaining for
the contents of bordered area 63 is calculated to be
63-pixels less the 6-pixels for the bordered area. Then,
during block 118, it is determined that there are no
children in bordered areas 63. The contents of the
bordered area 63 is determined to be text during block
120. At block 122, the COMPUTE SIZE FOR TEXT CELL
routine (Fig. 13B) is called.
Processing continues at block 132 (Fig. 13B),
during which the layout parameters for the text in
bordered area 63 are determined. Then, during block 134,
it is determined that there is one line of text within
the bordered area 63. Processing continues at block 138,
during which the height of the one line of text,
26-pixels, is multiplied by the number of lines, one.
Thus, the height is determined to be 26-pixels. Then,
during block 140, the new width of 63-pixels calculated
for bordered area 63 is stored in the record associated
with bordered area 63. At block 142, the boundary of six
picture elements is added to the height determined in
block 138 and, thus, the height is 32 picture elements
(212, Fig. 14B). Processing returns during block 143 to
block 128 of the FITCELL routine (Fig. 13A). The FITCELL
routine (Fig. 13A) was called recursively and, thus, the
most recent pointer pushed on the stack is popped off
(240, Fig. 150). The last pointer on the stack was for
~ 1339754
the bordered area 63 and the recursive call was made at
block 190 of the REAPPORTIONED CHILDRENS WIDTHS routine
(Fig. 13E) (238, Fig. 15B).
Processing continues in the REAPPORTION
CHILDRENS WIDTHS Routine (Fig. 13E), at block 192.
During block 192, the height of bordered area 63 is
compared with the maximum height stored to determine
whether the height for bordered area 63 is larger than
the maximum height. The maximum height 32-pixels is
equal to the height of bordered area 63 and thus
processing continues at block 196. Processing returns
during block 196 to block 176 of the COMPUTE SIZE OF
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D). During block 176 the
pointer is moved to the next child within the bordered
area 60. At block 178 it is determined that there are no
more children within bordered area 60 to perform
processing, and thus processing continues at block 180.
During block 180 the new width 97-pixels calculated for
bordered area 60 is stored in the record associated with
bordered area 60 (206, Fig. 14B). At block 182, 6-pixels
are added to the height in order to account for the
boundary of the bordered area 60. Thus, the total height
for bordered area 60 is 38-pixels. The height for
bordered area 60 is stored in the record associated with
bordered area 60. Processing returns during block 180 to
the FITCELL Routine of block 128. Once again, the
FITCELL Routine was called by a recursive call and thus
the return is a recursive one. The next pointer lef~ on
the stack is popped and this pointer is a pointer to
bordered area 60 and the FITCELL Routine call at block
150 in the COMPUTE SIZE FOR VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig.
13C) (240, Fig. 15B).
Processing returns to the COMPUTE SIZE FOR
VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13C) and continues at block
152 during which the height of bordered area 60 is added
1 339754
to the height accumulator (which was set to space used;
i.e. 2-pixels). Then during block 154 the pointer within
bordered area 54 is moved to the next child bordered area
within bordered area 54. The next child bordered area is
bordered area 62 (242, Fig. 15C). During block 156 a
determination is made that there are still children
bordered areas left for processing and thus processing
continues at block 150. During block 150 a recursive
call is made to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). At this
time, the pointer to bordered area 62 is placed upon the
stack along with a pointer to the location of the
recursive call (244, Fig. 15C). Processing continues at
block 116 (Fig. 13A) during which the total space
remaining for the contents of bordered area 62 is
determined by subtracting from the total width of
98-pixels a boundary of 6-pixels. During block 118 it is
determined that there are no included children in
bordered areas 62. The contents of the bordered area 62
is determined to be text at block 120. Processing
continues at block 122 during which the COMPUTE SIZE FOR
TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 13B) is called.
During block 132 (Fig. 13B) the parameters for
the text are recalculated and during block 134, it is
determined that there is at least one line of text in the
bordered area 62. Processing continues at block 138
during which the height of the text is determined to be
26-pixels; each line of text is 13-pixels, and there are
two lines of text (206, Fig. 14B). Processing continues
at block 140 during which the newly calculated width for
bordered area 62 is stored in the record associated with
bordered area 62 and at block 142, 6-pixels accounting
for the boundary for bordered area 62 are added to the
26-pixels for the height. The total height for bordered
area 62 is 32-pixels (206, Fig. 14B). Processing returns
during block 143 to block 128 of the FITCELL Routine
(Fig. 13A). The FITCELL Routine (Figure 13A) was called
1 339754
during a recursive call and the last pointer on stack
indicates that the FITCELL recursive call was at block
150 of Fig. 13C made for bordered area 62 (244, Fig.
15C). This entry is popped off the stack (246, Fig.
15C). Processing continues at block 152 during which the
height of bordered area 62 is added to the height
accumulator. The height accumulator now has 72-pixels
(space used = 2-pixels, bordered area 60 = 38-pixels, and
bordered area 62 = 32-pixels). At block 154 the pointer
moves to the next vertical child bordered area within
bordered area 54 (248, Fig. 15C). During block 156 it is
determined that there is still one bordered area left for
processing, namely bordered area 64. Processing
continues at block 150 during which a recursive call is
made to the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). The pointer to
the bordered area 64 and the pointer to this recursive
call are pushed into the stack (250, Fig. 15C).
Processing continues at block 116 during which the
remaining width available for the contents of bordered
area 64 is determined to be 97-pixels. At block 118 the
amount of space used between further included children
bordered areas is determined to be zero and at block 120
the contents of bordered area 64 is determined to be
text. Processing continues at block 122 during which a
call is made to the COMPUTE SIZE FOR TEXT CELL Routine
(Fig. 13B).
At block 132 (Fig. 13B) the layout parameters
for the text within bordered area 64 are recalculated.
At block 134 it is determined that there is at least one
line of text and at block 138 the height of the text is
determined to be 26-pixels. There are two lines of text,
and the height of each line is 13-pixels. At block 140
the new width of 97-pixels is stored in the record for
bordered area 64, (208, Fig. 14A). At block 142 the
boundary of 6-pixels is added to the height of 26-pixels
for a total of 32-pixels (208, Fig. 14A) and stored.
1 339754
-57-
Processing returns during block 143 to block 128 of the
FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). This Routine was called
during a recursive call and thus the last pointer on the
stack is popped (250, Fig. 15C). The last pointer on the
stack points to the FITCELL recursive call at block 150
of the COMPUTE SIZE OF VERTICAL CELL Routine and at
bordered area 64 (248, Fig. 15C). Processing continues
at block 152 of the COMPUTE SIZE OF VERTICAL CELL Routine
(Fig. 13C), during which the height of bordered area 64
is added to the accumulated height. The total
accumulated height is 104-pixels (spaced used = 2-pixels,
bordered area 60 = 38-pixels, bordered area 62 =
32-pixels and bordered area 64 = 32-pixels). At block
154 the pointer is moved to the next vertical child and
at block 156 it is determined that there are no more
children within the bordered area 54.
Processing continues at block 154 during which
the new width of 103-pixels for bordered area 54 is
stored in the record associated with bordered area 54
(202, Fig. 14B). At block 160 the accumulated height
which includes the space between the children bordered
areas is added to the six pixel boundary within the
bordered area. The total height for bordered area 154 is
110-pixels. Processing returns during block 162 to block
128 of the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A). The FITCELL
Routine was recursively called and thus the next pointer
on the stack is popped (252, Fig. 15C). The pointer on
the stack is for the bordered area 54 and the last
instruction referenced was the recursive call at block
190 during the REAPPORTIONED CHILDRENS' WIDTH Routine
(Fig. 13E) (250, Fig, 15C). Processing continues to
block 192 during which the maximum height is set equal to
110-pixels for the bordered area 54. At block 196
processing returns to block 176 of the COMPUTE SIZE OF
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 13D). During block 176 the
pointer moves to the next child bordered area within
1 335754
-58-
bordered area 52 (254, Fig. 15C). The next child
bordered area is bordered area 56. Essentially, this
process continues until the widths and heights of both
bordered areas 56 and 58 have been determined. To
summarize, the width of bordered area 56 will be
calculated to be 300-pixels and the width of bordered
area 58 will be 103-pixels. The maximum height for the
bordered areas 54, 56 and 58 is 140-pixels calculated for
bordered area 58. Thus, the new width of bordered area
52 is 514-pixels and the height is 146-pixels (140-pixels
plus the 6-pixel boundary) (200, Fig. 148).
9) PLACECELL Routine Set (Fiqs. 16A-F)
Referring to Figs. 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E and
16F, the PLACECELL Routine Set is now discussed. The
following is a summary of the theory and the philosophy
behind the PLACECELL Routine Set. The purpose of the
PLACECELL Routine Set is for determining the location (in
X,Y coordinates) of each bordered area of a form being
resized and redrawn by the present invention. Recall
that the size of the bordered areas were determined
during the FITFORM Routine (Fig. 10) and the FITCELL
Routine Set (Fig. 13A-E). The PLACEFORM Routine (Fig.
12) points to the root bordered area (largest bordered
area of the form) and its boundary locations are
determined and passes them to the PLACECELL Routine Set
(Figs. 16A-F). The PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) stores
the boundary locations for the root bordered area and
then computes the boundary locations for all of the
descendants within the root bordered area. This process
occurs in a depth first search all the way down the
hierarchical tree structure of the form. At each level,
a determination is made on whether the contents of the
bordered area contain text or children. If the bordered
area contains children, a further determination is made
~ 1 339754
-59-
on whether the children are arranged vertically or
horizontally.
If the children are arranged horizontally, then
the locations for the top and bottom borders of each of
the horizontally arranged children are set equal within
the parent, at a location just within the parents'
boundaries. Top border location for each of the children
are set equal to the location of the parent's top border
the border width and inside margin. The location of the
bottom border for each of children is equal to the
location of the parent's bottom border less the width of
the border less the margin. The border locations of the
horizontally arranged children are purposely aligned with
one another, just inside the top and bottom parent
borders so that the bordered areas of the children give
the appearance of stretching down and up just inside the
bottom and top borders of the parent. Referring to Fig.
8A, note that the top and bottom borders of horizontally
arranged children 54, 56 and 58 are aligned with one
another to create continuous top and bottom borders.
Note that the vertical length (length in pixels
from the top and bottom borders) of the bordered areas
54, 56 and 58 (as shown in Fig. 8A) is different than the
heights of these bordered areas. Recall that the height
determined for bordered area 54 is llO-pixels (202, Fig.
14B), the height for bordered areas 56 is 44-pixels (214,
Fig. 14B) and the height for bordered area 58 is
140-pixels (216, Fig. 14B). To ensure that the top and
bottom borders are continuously aligned with one another,
the locations of these borders must be chosen so that
they can include the sibling bordered area with the
greatest height. Bordered area 58 has the greatest
height (140-pixels) and thus, the vertical length for the
bordered areas 54, 56 and 58 must be at least 140-pixels.
This causes empty space to appear in bordered areas 54
~ 1 33975~
-60-
and 56 because the heights of their contents are less
than 140-pixels vertical length. For example, bordered
area 54 contains vertically arranged children 60, 62 and
64 which together have an accumulated height of
llO-pixels. A total of 30-pixels of extra space is
apportioned in a given manner above and below the
children (Fig. 8A) based on whether the contents are
aligned with the top, bottom or middle of the bordered
area.
The determination of the placement of bordered
areas arranged vertically starts by determining the
alignment of the children within the parent. The
children may be aligned to the top, bottom or middle of
the parent. The alignment will effect whether the extra
free space (if any) within the bordered area is allocated
above, below, or in between the bordered areas.
As stated earlier, the boundary locations of
the bordered areas of the form are determined in a top
down approach. At the bottom nodes (boundary areas
containing text) the displayable area and text drawing
area are computed and stored. The drawing area is a
rectangular area in which the text is drawn. The
displayable area is a rectangle within which the text is
actually visible. The sides of the drawing area
determine the beginning and end of each line of text, and
its top determines the position of the first line of
text. Typically, at the right border of the drawing~
area, the text wraps around to the next line. In the
preferred embodiment, the wrap around only occurs at each
word which ensures that no word is every split between
lines unless it's too long to fit entirely on one line.
The determination of the displayable area and text
drawing area are dependent on how the text within the
bordered area is aligned to the top, bottom or middle of
the bordered area.
~ 1339754
-61-
a) PLACECELL Routine (Fiq. 16A)
A more detailed discussion of the placement
routines (Figs. 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E and 16F) is now
presented. Referring to Fig. 16A, the flow diagram of
the PLACECELL Routine is shown. At block 262, the
boundary locations for the bordered area currently being
processed are passed in and stored in the record
associated with the bordered area. Then, during block
264 the boundaries of the currently processed bordered
area are removed and the coordinates for the resulting
area are determined. More particularly, the boundary
portion of the bordered area, (i.e. the border itself and
the empty space margins) which cannot be written into, is
stripped from the bordered area, resulting in an "inside
rectangle " within which children or text may be written
into. Processing continues at block 266 during which the
contents of the bordered area are determined. If the
contents of the bordered area include text, then
processing continues at block 268 during which the PLACE
TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 16B) is called to determine the
drawing area and the displayable area for the text as
described above. Processing returns during block 274 to
the calling routine (i.e. the PLACEFORM Routine or the
location of a recursive call to PLACECELL from either
block 294 of the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C)
or block 310 of the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig.
16D)). However, if the contents of the bordered area
include vertically arranged children, then processing
continues at block 270, during which the PLACE VERTICAL
CELL Routine (Fig. 16D) is called. The PLACE VERTICAL
CELL Routine (Fig. 16D) determines the location of each
vertical child associated within the vertical parent.
Processing continues at block 274 during which processing
returns to the calling routine (i.e. PLACEFORM Routine or
returns to either block 294 of the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL
Routine (Fig. 16C) or block 310 of the PLACE VERTICAL
-62- ~ 1 33q 754
CELL Routine (Fig. 16D)) Returning to block 266, if the
contents of the bordered area include horizontally
arranged children, then processing continues at block 272
during which the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C)
is called. The PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C)
uses the "inside rectangle" for the top and bottom
boundaries for each of the children, and then determines
the left and right boundaries for each of the children
associated within the parent. Processing continues at
block 274 during which processing returns to the calling
program (i.e. PLACEFORM Routine or returns to either
block 294 of the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C)
or block 310 of the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig.
16D).
b) PLACE TEXT CELL Routine (Fiq. 16B)
Referring now to Fig. 16B, a flow diagram of
the PLACE TEXT CELL Routine is shown. At block 278 the
displayable area is set equal to the inside rectangle
determined earlier at block 264 of the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A). Then during block 280, the accumulated
height for the text within the bordered area is
determined by the TEXTHITE Routine as shown at block 133
of the COMPUTE SIZE FOR TEXT CELL Routine (Fig, 13B).
The number of lines is multiplied by a height constant in
order to determine the accumulated height of text within
the bordered area. Then, during block 282, the JUSTIFIED
Routine (Fig. 16F) is called to check whether the text is
aligned with the top, middle or bottom of the parent
bordered area and returns the location of the top-most
line of text (i.e. where to start drawing the first line
of text in the drawin~ area. The location of the
top-most line of text within the parent bordered area is
stored as the new top inside border of the rectangle
during block 284. Then, at block 286, the drawing area
of the bordered area is determined to be equal to the
-63- '- 1 339754
inside rectangle of the parent bordered area. Processing
returns during block 288 to block 274 of the PLACECELL
Routine (Fig. 16A).
c) PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fiq. 16C)
Referring now to Fig. 16C, a flow diagram of
the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine is shown. As stated
above, the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL RQutine (Fig. 16C)
determines the locations of the left and right boundaries
for each of the horizontally arranged sibling bordered
areas within the currently processed bordered area. At
block 291, a pointer is set to the first child within the
bordered area. At block 292, the left boundary for the
first child within the currently processed bordered area
is set equal to the left boundary of the inside
rectangle. Then, during block 293, the right boundary of
the first child is determined by adding the width of the
child (determined during FITCELL Routine Set (Fig.
16A-E)) to the location of the left boundary of the
bordered area. At block 294, a recursive call is made to
the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) in order to determine
the placement of the contents within the first child.
The pointer to the first child and the location of the
recursive call to the PLACECELL Routine (294, Fig. 16C)
are placed on a LIFO stack identical to the stack
introduced for the FITCELL Routine Set (FIGS. 13A-E).
The recursive call passes to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig.
16A), the locations of the left, right, top, and bottom
boundaries for the currently processed child. The left,
top and bottom boundaries of the child are set equal to
the inside rectangle of the parent which were determined
earlier at block 264 of the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A)
and the right boundary was calculated during block 293.
Assuming that the contents (i.e. all descendant bordered
areas and text) of the child have all been placed,
processing continues to block 296 during which the left
-64- ~ 1 3397S4
boundary for the next sibling within the currently
processed parent is determined. The left boundary of the
next child is determined by adding the location of the
right boundary (right boundary = left boundary + width)
of the previously processed child, plus the spacing
constant between the children. Then, during block 298,
the pointer is moved to the next child whose left border
was just determined. Then, during block 300, a
determination as to whether all of the children have been
placed is made. Assuming that not all of the children
have been placed, processing continues at blocks 293,
29~, 296, 298 and 300 until the locations for all of the
sibling children and all of their descendants are
determined. Assuming that the boundary locations for all
of the children and their descendants have been
determined, processing continues at block 302. During
block 302, processing returns to the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A) at block 274.
d) PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fiq. 16D)
Referring to Fig. 16D, a detailed flow diagram
of the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine is shown. At block
306, the DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine (Fig. 16E)
is called to check on whether the top child within the
currently processed bordered area is aligned with the
top, bottom or middle, of the currently processed
bordered area. Assuming that the child is aligned wi,th
either the top, bottom or middle of the bordered area,
the location of the top border is returned and processing
continues at block 308 during which a pointer is reset to
the first child of the parent. Then during block 309,
the bottom border of the child is determined by adding
the height of the child (as determined by the FITCELL
Routine Set (Fig. 13A-E)) to the location of the top
boundary location of the child at block 310 and a
recursive call is made to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig.
1 33975~
-65-
16A) to determine the location of the contents (i.e. all
descendants and text) of the currently processed child.
The pointer to the currently processed child is placed on
the stack along with the location of the recursive call
(310, Fig. 13D). The left, right, top and bottom
boundary locations for the child are passed to the
PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The left and right
boundary locations for the child are determined to be
equal to the inside rectangle calculated at block 264
during the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The top border
location was determined by the VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine
(Fig. 16E) at block 328 and the bottom border location
was determined at block 309.
Assuming that all of the contents (i.e.
bordered areas and text) of the child have been placed
and the locations have been stored the PLACECELL Routine,
processing returns to block 312 (Fig. 16D). During block
312, the top border for the next child within the
vertical bordered area is determined by adding the
spacing constant to the location of the bottom border of
the previously processed child. Then during block 314
the pointer is set to the next child for which the top
border was just calculated. At block 316, a
determination of whether any more children need to be
placed is determined. Assuming that there are still more
children and their descendants to be processed, then
processing continues at blocks 209, 310, 312, 314 and~316
until the boundary locations for all of the children and
their descendants have been determined. Assuming that
all of the boundary locations have been determined for
each of the children and all of their descendants, then
processing continues at block 318 during which processing
returns to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) at block 274.
Assuming that the processed bordered area contains
children, the top borders of each child will be computed
-66- i~ 1339754
as a function of the height of each child and the spacing
in between the children.
e) DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine
(Fiq. 16E)
Referring to Fig. 16E, a detailed block diagram
of the DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine (called
during the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D)) is
shown. As stated above, the purpose for this routine is
for determining the location of the top most border of
all of the vertically arranged children within the
currently processed bordered area. At block 322, a
pointer is set to the first child within the bordered
area. Then during block 324 a verification is made as to
whether the top border of the first child is aligned to
the top border of the parent. Assuming that the child
are to be aligned with the top border of the parent,
processing continues at block 328. During block 328, the
JUSTIFIED Routine (Fig. 16F) is called to determine the
location of the top border. Returning to block 324, if
the top border is not aligned to the top border of the
parent, then processing continues at block 326, during
which the height of each child and the spacing between
the children are accumulated ("used space"). Processing
continues at block 328 during which the JUSTIFIED Routine
(Fig. 16F) is called for determining the location of the
top most border. Processing returns at block 330 to ~he
PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D) at block 308.
f) JUSTIFIED Routine (Fiq. 16F)
Referring to Fig. 16F, a detailed block diagram
of the JUSTIFIED Routine (called during the DETERMINE
VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine (Fig. 16E)) is shown. The
purpose of this routine is for determining the location
of the top of the contents (i.e. vertical children
(DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine (Fig. 16E)) or text
-67- ~ 1 3391~
(PLACE TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 16B)) within a parent
bordered area. The routine first determines whether the
top location of the contents are aligned to the top,
bottom or middle of the parent. In the preferred
embodiment, only the bordered areas having vertically
arranged children or text require the JUSTIFIED Routine
(Fig. 16F) for determining the location of the top border
(of vertical children) or the first line of text.
Referring to block 334, a determination is made
as to whether the required alignment is to the top,
bottom or middle (neither top nor bottom) of the parent
bordered area. Assuming that the contents are to be
aligned to the top of the parent, then the location of
the top line or border is determined to be at the inside
rectangle top border. Recall that the inside rectangle
defines the area within the parent where the contents can
reside. Thus, the top dimension is determined to be the
location of the top border of the parent plus the margin
and border of the parent. Any extra space will appear
below the bottom border or line of the contents.
Returning to block 334, if the contents are
determined to be aligned to the bottom border of the
parent, then processing continues at block 342. During
block 342, the location of the top border or line is
determined by deducting the vertical length of the
children (height of children plus spacing as computed.in
block 326) or text (as computed in block 280) from the
inside rectangle bottom border of the parent. The inside
rectangle bottom border is determined to be the location
of the bottom border of the parent less the margin plus
border width of the parent. Any empty free space will
appear at the top of the parent, before the contents
begins.
-
-68- ~ 1 339754
Returning to block 334, if the contents are
determined to be aligned to neither top nor bottom (i.e.
the middle) of the parent, then processing continues to
block 338. During block 338, the extra space not
associated with the vertical length of the children or
text is determined. The extra space is determined by
calculating the difference between the inside bottom
border location and the inside top border location of the
parent less the vertical length of the text or children.
The resulting amount will be the unused or extra space
within the parent. Then, during block 340, the extra
space is divided in half. In the preferred embodiment,
one half of the extra space is added to the inside top
border location of the parent to obtain the top most
border or starting point of text within the parent.
Regardless of whether the alignment is determined to be
with the top, middle or bottom of the parent, processing
continues at block 344, during which processing returns
to the DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine (Fig. 16E) at
block 330.
In an alternate embodiment of the JUSTIFIED
Routine (Fig. 16F) the extra space can be divided
inbetween the children in any portion. In this way, the
spacing between the children will change depending upon
the amount of extra space calculated. The first child
could still be aligned to the top border at the inside
rectangle top border of the parent and the last child~
could also be aligned to the inside rectangle bottom
border of the parent, and the extra space would fill the
space between the children.
10. DETAILED EXAMPLE OF THE PLACECELL Routine Set
(Fiqs. 16A-F)
Referring to Figures l~A, 16A-F and Fig. 17A,
17B, 17C and 17D, a detailed example for determining the
3 3 9 7 5 4
69-
boundary locations for the bordered areas is now
discussed. Fig. 14A shows the X,Y coordinate pairs for
each of the bordered areas after they have been
calculated by the PLACECELL Routine Set (Figs. 16A-F).
The X,Y coordinate pair for a bordered area is assumed to
be the upper left corner location and the lower right
corner location (left, top and right, bottom). Figures
17A, 17B, 17C and 17D are various results tables which
maintain "snapshot views" on the contents of the stack
and the pointer to the currently processed bordered area.
The 0, 0 coordinate value is assumed to be in the upper
left hand corner of the form as shown in Fig. 14A. The
0, 0 coordinate pair is also the upper left hand corner
for the root bordered area 50 of the form. Additionally,
a "boundary" of each bordered area is assumed to consist
of a l-pixel border and a 2-pixel white space margin.
Referring to block 262 of the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A), the border locations for the root bordered
area 50, which were passed in from the PLACEFORM Routine
(Fig. 12), are stored in the record associated with
bordered area 50 (0, 0, 520,-) (199, Fig. 14B). The
PLACEFORM Routine (Fig. 12) passes these boundary
locations to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). Then
during block 284, the inside rectangle of the root
bordered area 50 are determined (3, 3, 517,-). During
block 266, a determination is made on whether the
contents of bordered area 50 includes text, verticall~
arranged children or horizontally arranged children. The
contents of bordered area 50 includes vertically arranged
children (51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 59, 51, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71,
73, etc. (Fig. 8A)). Processing continues at block 270
during which the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D)
is called.
A block 306 (Fig. 16D) the DETERMINE VERTICAL
ALIGNMENT Routine is called. At block 322 (Fig. 16E) a
_70- I 3397~4
pointer is set to the first child bordered area tbordered
area 52) of the vertically arranged children. Processing
continues to block 324 during which it is determined that
the bordered area 52) is aligned to the top border of the
root bordered area 50. Processing continues at block 328
during which the JUSTIFIED Routine (Fig. 16F) is called.
At block 334 (Fig. 16F), the contents of
bordered area 52 are determined to be aligned to the top
border of the root bordered area 50. Processing
continues at block 336, during which the location of
top-most border of bordered area 52 is determined to be
the inside rectangle top border location of bordered area
50 (3). Processing returns at block 344 to block 330 of
the DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine (Fig. 16E). At
block 330, processing returns to block 308 of PLACE
VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D).
At block 308 (Fig. 16D) the pointer is reset to
the first child, or bordered area 52 within the root
bordered area 50 (346, Fig. 17A). Then, during block
309, the bottom boundary location of child 52 is
determined by adding the height of child 52 to the
location of the top boundary of child 52. The height of
child 52 was determined to be 146-pixels (200, Fig. 14B)
by the FITCELL Routines (Fig. 13A) (3 + 146 = 149). At
block 310, a recursive call is made to the PLACECELL
Routine (Fig. 16A) to determine the boundary locations
for the contents (i.e. descendants and text) of bordered
area 52. A pointer to bordered area 52 is placed on the
stack and the location of the recursive call at block 310
of the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D) is also
placed on the stack (348, Fig. 17A). The left and right
boundary locations of child 52 are passed in and they are
equal to the inside rectangle left and right borders
which were determined for bordered area 50 at block 264
of the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) (3-, 517,-). The top
1 33~154
boundary location (3) determined during the JUSTIFIED
Routine (Fig. 16F) at block 336 is passed in and the
bottom boundary location (149) determined at block 309
(Fig. 14A) is passed in. Thus, the boundary locations
for bordered area 52 are (3, 3, 517, 149) (200, Fig.
14B).
The boundary locations for the bordered area 52
(Fig. 14A) are passed to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A)
(3, 3, 517, 149). Referring to block 262 of the
PLACEC~LL Routine (Fig. 16A) the boundary locations for
bordered area 52 are stored in the record associated with
bordered area 52. At block 264, the inside rectangle of
bordered area 52 are determined (6, 6, 514, 146) and,
during block 266, a determination is made on whether the
contents of bordered area 52 includes text, vertically
arranged children or horizontally arranged children.
Bordered area 52 includes horizontally arranged children,
namely bordered areas 54, 56 and 58. Therefore,
processing continues at block 272 during which the PLACE
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C) is called.
At block 291 (Fig. 16C), a pointer is set to
the first child (bordered area 54) within bordered area
52 (350, Fig. 17A). At block 292, the left boundary of
the first child is set equal to the inside rectangle left
border location of bordered area 52. Then, during block
293, the right boundary is determined by adding the ~
location of the left inside boundary (6) of bordered area
54 plus the width of bordered area 54 (103) determined
during the FITCELL Routine (Fig. 13A) (6 + 103 = 110).
At block 294, a recursive call is made to the PLACECELL
Routine (Fig. 16A) to determine the boundary locations
for the contents of bordered area 54. A pointer to
bordered area 54 is placed on the stack and the location
of the recursive call at block 294 of the PLACE
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C) is also placed on the
-72- 1 3397~4
stack (352, Fig. 17A). The left, top and bottom
boundaries of bordered area 54 are set equal to the
inside rectangles left, top and bottom border locations
determined at block 264 of the PLACECELL Routine (Fig.
16A). The right boundary was determined at block 293,
thus, the bordered area location is (6, 6, 109, 146)
(202, Fig. 14B). Processing continues to the PLACECELL
Routine at block 262, during which the newly calculated
borders (6, 6, 109, 146) are stored in the record
associated with the bordered area 54. Then, during block
264, the inside rectangle of bordered area 54 are
determined to be (9, 9, 106, 143). The bordered area 54
is determined to have children vertically arranged during
block 266 and processing continues at block 270, during
which the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D) is
called.
At block 306 (Fig. 16D) the DETERMINE VERTICAL
ALIGNMENT Routine is called. At block 322 (Fig. 16E),
the pointer is set to the first child 60 within bordered
area 54. Processing continues to block 324 during which
it is determined that the content of bordered area 54 are
not aligned to the top of the bordered area 54. Thus,
processing continues at block 326 during which the
vertical length is accumulated by adding the (spacing and
the accumulated height for all of the children within
bordered area 54) is determined. The accumulated height
for bordered areas 60, 62 and 64 is (38 + 32 + 32 = ~
102-pixels). The spacing between the children is equal
to 2-pixels. Thus, the accumulated height plus spacing
for the children is equal to 104-pixels. Processing
continues at block 328 during which the JUSTIFIED Routine
(Fig. 16F) is called.
The contents of parent 54 are determined to be
aligned to the middle of bordered area 54 at block 334
(Fig. 16F). During block 338, the amount of extra space
~ 1 33q7S4
not associated with the vertical length (height plus
spacing of the children) is determined. Specifically,
the extra space is determined by determining the
difference between the inside top and bottom locations of
bordered area 54 less the vertical length (accumulated
height plus spacing of the children) (143 - 9 - 104 =
30). Processing continues to block 340 during which the
extra space is divided in half (30/2 = 15). The location
of the top border of the child bordered area 60 is equal
to the location of the top of inside rectangle plus one
half of the extra space (9 + 15 = 24). Processing
continues at block 344, during which processing returns
to block 330 of the DETERMINE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT Routine
(Fig. 16E). During block 330, processing returns to
block 308 of the PLACE VERTICAL CEL~ Routine (Fig. 16D).
During block 308 (Fig. 16D), the pointer is
reset to the first child within bordered area 54 --
bordered area 60 (354, Fig. 17A). At block 309, the
bottom boundary of bordered area 60 is calculated by
adding the location of the top boundary to the height of
bordered area 60 (24 + 38 = 62). Then, during block 310,
a recursive call is made to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig.
16A). A pointer to bordered area 60 is placed on the
stack and a pointer to the location of the recursive call
(310, Fig. 16D) is also placed on the stack (356, Fig.
17A). Additionally, the boundary locations for the left
and right borders for bordered area 60 are set equal to
the inside left and right dimensions calculated for
parent bordered area 54 (9,-, 109,-). Recall that the
left inside border or location for bordered area 54 was
determined to be (9) and the right inside boundary for
bordered area 54 was determined to be (106). The top
boundary for bordered area 60 was determined during the
JUSTIFIED Routine (Fig. 16F) at block 340 to be (24) and
the bottom boundary of bordered area 60 was calculated to
be (62) at block 309. Thus, the coordinates for bordered
~74 1 339 7 54
area 60 are (9, 24, 106, 62) (204, Fig. 14B). Processing
continues at block 262 of the PLACECELL Routine (Fig.
16A) during which the boundary locations (9, 24, 106, 62)
for bordered area 60 are stored. Then, during block 264,
the inside rectangle of bordered area 60 are determined
to be (12, 27, 103, 59).
During block 266, bordered area 60 is
determined to have a plurality of children arranged in a
horizontal fashion. Processing continues to block 272
during which the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C)
is called. At block 292 the pointer is set equal to
bordered area 61, the first child within bordered area 60
(358, Fig. 17A). At block 292, the left boundary for the
first child (bordered area 61) within bordered area 60 is
set equal to the left boundary of the inside rectangle.
During block 293, the right boundary for bordered area 61
is determined to be equal to the left boundary location
plus the width of bordered area 61 (12 + 27 = 39). At
block 294, a recursive call is made to the PLACECELL
Routine (Fig. 16A). A pointer to bordered area 61 and a
pointer to the location of the recursive call at block
294 (Fig. 16C) are placed on the stack (360, Fig. 17B).
In addition, the left, top, right and bottom locations
are passed to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The
left, top and bottom boundary locations for bordered area
61 are set equal to the inside left, top and bottom
boundaries calculated for bordered area 60 (12, 27, -,
59). The right boundary was determined to be (34) at
block 309. Therefore, the boundary locations for
bordered area 61 are (12, 27, 39, 59) (210, Fig. 14B).
Processing continues at block 262 of the PLACECELL
Routine (Fig. 16A) during which the boundary locations
for bordered area 61 are stored in the record associated
with bordered area 61. Then during block 264, the inside
rectangle locations for the bordered area 61 are
determined to be (15, 30, 36, 56). At block 266, the
1339754
contents of the bordered area 61 are determined to be
text. Processing continues at block 268 during which the
PLACE TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 16B) is called.
At block 278 (FIG. 16B) the displayable area
for bordered area 61 is set equal to the inside
rectangle's left and right borders of bordered area 61.
Then, during block 280, the TEXTHITE Routine (133, FIG.
13B) is called to determine the accumulated height for
all of the lines of text inside bordered area 61. The
accumulated height for the text is determined to be
26-pixels, (2 (lines) x 13-pixels). Then, during block
262, the JUSTIF~ED Routine (Fig. 16F) is called. At
block 334 (Fig. 16F) the text is determined to be aligned
with the top border of bordered area 61. The location of
the starting point of the text is set equal to the inside
top dimension for bordered area 61 or (30).
Processing returns to block 284 of the PLACE
TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 16B) during which the start
location for the first line of text is stored (30). Then
during block 286, the text drawing area is set equal to
the inside rectangle of bordered area 61 with the top
location set equal to the new inside rectangle top border
location (30) and then~the text drawing area is stored.
At block 288, processing returns to block 274 of the
PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). Recall that the PLACECELL
Routine was called recursively at block 294 of the PLACE
HORIZONTAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16C) with reference to
determining the placement of the contents of bordered
area 61. The pointer to bordered area 61 and the
location to the recursive call - block 294 (Fig. 16Cj are
"popped" from the stack (362, Fig. 17B) and processing
continues at block 296. During block 296, the left
boundary location for the next horizontally arranged
sibling in the bordered area 60 is determined.
Specifically, the right boundary for bordered area 61 is
1 339754
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added to the spacing constant of l-pixel (39 + 1 = 40).
Thus, the left border location for bordered area 63 is
set equal to (40). At block 298, the pointer is moved to
bordered area 63 (364, Fig. 17B). Processing continues
at block 300 during which it is determined that bordered
area 63 still needs to be placed. Processing continues
at block 293 during which, the right boundary for
bordered area 63 is determined by adding the width of
bordered area 63 to the location of the left boundary of
bordered area 63 (40 + 63 = 103). The left boundary
location is (40) and the width of bordered area 63 is
63-pixels. Thus, the location of the right boundary is
equal to (103).
Then at block 294, a recursive call to the
PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) is made. A pointer to
bordered area 63 and the location of the recursive call
(294, Fig. 16C) are stored on the stack (366, Fig. 17B).
The left, top, right and bottom locations are passed to
the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The top and bottom
boundaries for bordered area 63 are the same as the top
and bottom boundaries for bordered area 61. The left and
right boundaries were calculated at block 293 and 296.
Therefore, at block 262, the location (40, 27, 103, 59)
(212, Fig. 14B) for bordered area 63 is stored in the
record associated with bordered area 63. At block 264,
the inside dimensions for bordered area 63 are determined
to be (43, 30, 100, 56). Processing continues at bl~ck
266 during which the contents of bordered area 63 are
determined to be text. At block 268 the PLACE TEXT
Routine (Fig. 16B) is called.
At block 278 ~Fig. 16B) the displayable area is
set equal to the inside dimensions of bordered area 63.
At block 280, the TEXTHITE Routine (133, Fig. 13B) is
called to determine the height of the text. There is any
one line of text within bordered area 63 ("3800", Fig.
1 339754
14A) and it is determined to be 26-pixels tall
(1 (Line) x 26-pixel (Height/Line)). Processing
continues at block 282 during which the JUSTIFIED Routine
(Fig. 16F) is called.
At block 334 (Fig. 16F), the contents of
bordered area 63 are determined to be aliqned to the top
of bordered area 63. Processing continues at block 336
during which the start location for the text is
determined to be (30); the top inside border location of
bordered area 63. At block 344, processing returns to
the PLACECELL Routine at block 284 of the PLACE TEXT CELL
Routine (Fig. 16B). Processing continues at block 284,
during which the start location for the first line of
text is stored (30). Then during block 286, the drawing
area location is set equal to the internal dimensions of
bordered area 63 with the top location set equal to the
new inside dimension (30) and then stored. At block 288,
processing returns to block 274 of the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A). Recall that the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A)
was recursively called at block 294 (Fig. 16C) while
processing the contents of bordered area 63 (366, Fig.
17B). A recursive return is made to block 294 (Fig. 16C)
and the same information within the top location of the
stack is "popped" (368, Fig. 17B).
Processing continues at block 296 (Fig. 16C) of
the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine during which the left
boundary location of the next child in bordered area 60
is determined. At block 298, the pointer is moved to
next bordered area (368, Fig. 17B). All of the children
of bordered area 60 have been placed, and thus,
processing continues to block 302, during which
processing returns to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) at
block 274. The PLACECELL Routine was recursively called
and therefore processing recursively returns to the top
location on the stack (310, Fig. 16D). The information
~ 1 339754
78-
in the top location of the stack is "popped" (pointer to
bordered area 60 and location to block 310 (Fig. 16D))
(370, Fig. 17C) and processing continues at block 312 of
the PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine. At this stage of
processing, the locations of bordered areas 52, 54, 60,
61 and 63 have been determined. The placement for the
remaining vertically arranged children 62 and 64 within
bordered area 54 needs to be determined.
At block 312, the top border of the next child
(bordered area 62) within bordered area 54 is determined.
Specifically, the top border is determined by adding the
spacing between the children to the location of the
bottom border of bordered area 60. The location of the
bottom border for bordered area 60 is (62) and the
spacing is l-pixel (62 +1 = 63). Thus, the top bordered
location for child 62 is (63). The pointer is moved to
bordered area 62 and processing continues at block 316
during which it is determined that there are still more
children to process. Processing continues at block 309,
during which the location of the bottom border for
bordered area 62 is determined by adding the height of
bordered area 62 to the location of the top border (63 +
32 = 95). At block 310, the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A)
is recursively called. A pointer to bordered area 62 and
the location of the recursive call (310, Fig. 16D) are
placed on the stack (374, Fig. 17C). The left, top,
right and bottom border locations are passed to the
PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The left and right
boundaries for bordered area 62 are set equal to the
inside left and right dimensions for bordered area 54 (9,
-, 106,-). The top boundary to bordered area 62 was
determined to be (63) at block 314 and the bottom border
location was determined at block 309 (9, 63, 106, 95)
(206, Fig. 14B). Processing continues at block 262 of
the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A) during which the
boundary locations for bordered area 62 are stored (9,
3i ~339754
-79-
63, 106, 95) (Fig. 14A). During block 264, the inside
dimensions for bordered area 62 are determined to be (12,
66, 103, 92). At block 266, the contents of bordered
area 62 are determined to be text and thus processing
continues at block 268 during which the PLACE TEXT CELL
Routine (Fig. 16B) is called.
At block 278, the displayable area within
bordered area 62 is set equal to the inside rectangle of
bordered area 62 and stored at block 280. The TEXTHITE
Routine (133, Fig. 13B) is called at block 282. The
height of each line of text is 13-pixels and there are 2
lines, thus, the total height of text is 26-pixels. At
block 282, the JUSTIFIED Routine (Fig. 16F) is called.
During block 334 (Fig. 16F), the contents are determined
to be aligned to the top border of bordered area 62 and
processing continues at block 336 during which the
starting point for the text is determined to be at the
top inside dimension for bordered area 62 or (66) (Fig.
14A). Processing returns at block 344 to block 284 of
the PLACE TEXT CELL Routine (Fig. 16B) during which the
top location (66) is stored in the record associated with
the text. At block 286, the drawing area for bordered
area 62 is set equal to the inside rectangle of bordered
area 62 with inside top location as (66). At block 288,
processing returns to block 274 of the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A). The PLACECELL Routine was originally called
recursively. The information stored at the top of the
stack includes a pointer to bordered area 62 and the
location of the recursive call was at 310, Fig. 16D. The
contents at the top of the stack are "popped" (376, Fig.
17C) and processing continues at block 312 of the PLACE
VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D).
During block 312 (Fig. 16D), the top border for
the next child (bordered area 64) is determined. The top
border of bordered area 64 is determined by adding the
-80- 1 3397~4
spacing constant to the location of the bottom border of
bordered area 62 (95 + 1 = 96). Processing continues at
block 314, during which the pointer is moved to bordered
area 64 (378, Fig. 17C). Then during block 316, a
determination is made that there is still one bordered
area to process, namely bordered area 64.
Processing continues at block 309 during which
the bottom border location is determined by adding the
height of bordered area 64 to the location of the top
border. The location of the top border is (96) and the
height of bordered area 64 is 32-pixels (96 + 32 = 128).
At the block 310, a recursive call is made to the
PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The pointer to bordered
area 64 is placed on the stack along with the location of
the recursive call (310, Fig. 16D) (280, Fig. 17C). The
left, top, right and bottom border locations are passed
to the PLACECELL Routine (Fig. 16A). The left and right
border locations for bordered areas 63 are set equal to
the inside left and right borders for bordered area 54.
The top border for bordered area 64 was calculated at
block 312. At block 262, the boundary locations for
bordered area 64 are stored (9, 96, 1~6, 128) (208,
Fig. 14B). Processing continues at block 264, during
which the inside dimensions for bordered area 64 are
determined. At block 266, the contents of bordered area
64 are determined to be text and thus processing
continues at block 268 during which the PLACE TEXT CELL
Routine (Fig. 16B) is called.
At block 278 (Fig. 16B) the displayable area
for bordered area 64 is set equal to the inside
dimensions of bordered area 64. At block 280, the
TEXTHITE Routine (133, Fig. 13B) is called. The height
of each line of text is 13-pixels and there are two lines
of text. Thus the height of the text is 26-pixels.
Processing continues at block 282 during which the
-81-
JUSTIFIED Routine (Fig. 16F) is called. At block 334
(Fig. 16F) it is determined that the contents of bordered
area 64 are aligned with the top border of bordered area
64. Therefore, during block 336, the starting point of
the text is determined to be (99), the inside rectangle
top border locatio~. Processing returns at block 344 to
the PLACE TEXT CELL Routine at block 284. During block
284, the new inside rectangle top border location is
stored and at block 286 the new inside rectangle
dimensions are set equal to the drawing area. Processing
returns from block 288 to block 274 of the PLACECELL
Routine (Fig. 16A). Recall that the PLACECELL Routine
(Fig. 16A) was called recursively. The top location of
the stack contains a pointer to bordered area 64 and the
location block 310 (Fig. 16D) which are "popped" (382,
Fig. 17D) and processing continues at block 312 of the
PLACE VERTICAL CELL Routine (Fig. 16D).
At block 312, the top border of the next child
is determined and at block 314 the pointer is moved to
the next child (384, Fig. 17D) within bordered area 54.
At this time there are no more children which need
placement and, thus, at block 316 it is determined that
processing of the contents of bordered area 54 is
complete. Processing returns at block 318 to the
PLACECELL Routine (at block 274). A recursive return is
made to block 294 of the PLACE HORIZONTAL CELL Routine
(Fig. 16C). The pointer to bordered area 54 and the
location 294, Fig. 16C are "popped" from the stack (386,
Fig. 17D) and processing continues at block 296. During
block 296, the left boundary location for the next
horizontal child within bordered area 52 is determined.
The pointer moves to bordered area 56 at block 298 (888,
Fig. 17D). A process, similar to the one described above
continues until bordered areas 56 and 58 and their
contents (i.e. descendants and text) have been placed.
Then, the remaining vertical bordered areas 51, 55, 57,
~ 1339754
-82-
59, 61, 63, etc., within root bordered area 50 are
placed.
11. DRAWCELL Routine Set (Fiqs. 18A-C)
Referring to Figs. 18A, 18B, and 18C, a
detailed description of the DRAWCELL Routine Set is now
discussed. The purpose of the DRAWCELL Routine Set is
for displaying the bordered areas of a form and their
descendants. To start, the drawing area is passed into
the DRAWCELL Routine Set from the DRAWFORM Routine (Fig.
11). The drawing area may be bigger than the bordered
area, smaller than the bordered area or, in fact, it may
not even overlap the bordered area. If it is determined
that there is no overlapping of the bordered area to the
drawing area, then there is nothing to draw. If part of
the draw area lies outside the bordered area, then only
the part which overlaps the bordered area will be drawn.
Stated differently, only the intersection of the draw
area and the bordered area will be drawn. Generally, the
operation of the DRAWCELL Routine Set is as follows, if
the bordered area to be drawn does not contain text, then
the bordered area's borders will be drawn first, then the
descendants of the bordered area will be drawn and,
lastly, text at the bottom level bordered areas will be
drawn. Stated differently, the drawing occurs on the way
down the hierarchical tree structure, drawing the borders
first and then eventually the text.
a) DRAWCELL Routine (Fiq. 18A)
Referring to Fig. 18A, a flow diagram of the
DRAWCELL Routine is shown. During block 402, for the
particular bordered area currently being drawn, a
determination is made as to whether there is an
intersection (amount in pixels) between the draw area and
the bordered area. Then during block ~04, an additional
determination is made as to whether the intersection is
1 3 3 9 7 5 4
-83-
greater than zero. Assuming that the intersection is not
greater than zero, then processing returns to the calling
program at block 410. However, assuming that the
intersection is greater than zero, processing continues
at block 406, during which the DRAW BORDERS Routine (Fig.
18B) is called. The purpose of the DRAW BORDERS Routine
is for displaying "printable" and/or "nonprintable" (to
be discussed) sides of the bordered area designated to be
visible or "on". Processing continues at block 408
during which the DRAW CONTENTS Routine (Fig. 18C) is
called. The purpose of the DRAW CONTENTS Routine is for
displaying the contents (i.e. all descendant bordered
areas, or text) of the bordered area currently being
processed. Processing returns at block 410 to the
calling program (FITFORM Routine (Fig. 11)).
b) DRAW BORDERS Routine (Fiq. 18B)
Referring to Fig. 18B, a detailed block diagram
of the DRAW BORDERS Routine is shown. At block 414, a
determination is made on whether the borders of the
currently processed bordered area are to be displayed on
the screen display 5 as nonprintable tracing lines.
Nonprintable tracing lines, if they are being displayed,
are typically shown in dotted form and they only appear
on the screen display 5 for indicating to the user where
a bordered area's outer limits extend, in order to enable
the user to locate and move these borders to affect
changes in width and/or height or bordered areas. If the
user wants a nonprintable tracing line to be printed,
then the tracing line is converted into a printable line
by user command. On the screen display 5 in the
preferred embodiment, the printable line will appear to
be a solid line. If the nonprintable tracing lines for
the bordered areas are to be displayed on the screen
display 5 (Fig. 1), then processing continues at block
416. At block 416, the tracing lines are displayed on
i~ 1 339754
-84-
the screen display 5 (Fig. 1) in the form of dotted lines
(however, the line could have any style) and processing
continues to block 420. However, assuming that the
tracing lines for the bordered areas are not to be
displayed on the screen display 5, then processing
continues at block 420. During block 420, a
determination is made on whether the top border of the
currently processed bordered area is designated as a
printable line (i.e. so that the border is displayed as a
solid line and printed visibly). Assuming that the top
border is to be printed (e.g. as a solid line), then
processing continues at block 422 during which a solid
line is drawn from the location of the top left corner of
the bordered area to the location of the top right corner
of the bordered area. Note that in alternative
embodiments the border may be of any designated width as
provided by the user and of any particular style, i.e.
dotted, black solid, etc.
Returning to block 422, regardless of whether
the top border is to be displayed solid and printed or
not, processing continues at block 424 during which a
determination is made as to whether the right border is
to be printed. Assuming that the right border is
designated to be printed, then processing continues at
block 426 during which a solid line from the top right
corner location of the bordered area to the bottom right
corner location is drawn. Returning to block 424,
regardless of whether the border is designated to be
printed or not, processing continues at block 428.
During block 428, a determination is made on whether the
bottom border of the bordered area is to be printed.
Assuming that the bottom border is designated to be
printed, processing continues at block 430 during which a
solid line is drawn from the bottom right location of the
bordered area to the bottom left location of the bordered
area. Regardless of whether the bottom border is to be
-85-
printed or not, processing continues at block 432. 4
During block 432, a determination is made as to whether
the left border is to be printed. Assuming that the left
border is designated to be printed, then processing
continues at block 430 during which a solid line is drawn
from the bottom left corner location of the bordered area
to the top left corner location of the bordered area.
Again, regardless of whether the left border is indicated
to be printed or not, processing continues at block 436.
During block 436, processing returns to the DRAWCELL
Routine (Fig. 18A) at block 408.
c) DRAW CONTENTS Routine (Fiq. 18C)
Referring now to Fig. 18C, a detailed diagram
of the DRAW CONTENTS Routine is shown. At block 440, a
determination as to whether the bordered area contains
text is made. Assuming that the bordered area contains
text, then block 442 is called to draw the text in the
intersection area between the draw area and the bordered
area. Typically the operating system provides the
capability for drawing the text in the specified region.
This is especially true for the more recent graphical
environments. Operating system routines are callable by
the application, are provided by computer manufactures
(i.e, IBM, Apple, etc.) and system developers (Microsoft
etc.) for drawing the actual text in the specified
region, Assuming that the text has been drawn,
processing returns at block 444 to the DRAWCELL RoutLne
(Fig, 18A) at block 410. Returning to block 440,
assuming that there is no text within the bordered area,
processing continues at block 446. When there is no text
within the bordered area, the bordered area must contain
descendant bordered areas. Thus, at block 446 a pointer
to the first child within the bordered area is set. Then
during block 448, a recursive call to the DRAWCELL
Routine (Fig. 18A) is made to have the first child and
397~4
-86-
its contents (i.e. descendants or text) drawn. Once the
first child bordered area and its contents have been
drawn, then processing continues at block 450 during
which the pointer is moved to the next child within the
parent currently being processed. Processing continues
at block 452, during which a determination is made as to
whether any more children (and their descendants or text)
need to be drawn. Assuming that there are still more
children within the bordered area to be drawn, processing
continues at block 448, 450 and 452 until all the
children, including their descendants and text, have been
drawn. However, if all of the children, including their
descendants and text, have been drawn, processing returns
at block 444 to the DRAWCELL Routine (Fig. 18A) to block
410.
This invention has been described in an
exemplary and preferred embodiment, but it is not limited
thereto. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a
number of additional modifications and improvements can
be made to the invention without departure from the
essential spirit and scope. For example, as mentioned
earlier, a number of different programming techniques and
any number of different programming languages will be
suitable for implementing the disclosed invention. The
scope of the invention as described herein should not be
limited by the previous disclosure but instead by the
following claims.
