JPS62164122A - Key stroke apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A. INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION The present invention relates generally to apparatus for processing keystroke data in a display terminal system, and more particularly to an apparatus for processing keystroke data in a display terminal system. Allows the user to define keystroke events that initiate the transfer of transmitted keystroke data. 6 B. Prior Art Relating to an Improved Keystroke Device That Transfers Keystroke Data to a System Processor The prior art transfers keystroke data to a display device and to an application program being executed by a data processing system. Various apparatuses for data processing systems are disclosed. In many systems, the data generated by each keystroke is immediately transferred to a display device and then to an application program. In some prior art devices, data from a series of keystrokes is buffered until a particular key, such as a transmit key, is activated.

The problem that the C0 invention seeks to solve: Each transfer transaction incurs significant overhead in the form of system processor instruction cycles required to recognize and verify the presence of keystroke data. Always included. What is the overall system performance?

This can be increased by keeping the number of transactions required for keystroke processing to a minimum. The transaction overhead is quite large when the data is sent after each keystroke, but in many systems, including single-user/single-tasking operating environments, it is acceptable because the processor load is typically quite light. can.

When a processor operates in a multi-user/multi-task virtual machine/virtual storage type environment, the processor load is extremely heavy and each keystroke requires a processor cycle simply to establish a data transfer relationship with the keyboard. If you do, the time involved in keystroke processing will have a detrimental effect on overall system performance.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that reduces the overhead involved in keystroke processing in an environment including five display terminal systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an improved keystroke device for processing keystroke data for use in a data processing system. 0 to reduce the transaction overhead involved in establishing a data transfer relationship between
In the apparatus of the present invention, buffered keystroke data is transferred to a data processing system. Keystroke data is buffered until a user-defined keystroke event is detected.

The present invention provides an apparatus that reduces the number of transactions required to enter keystroke data into a data processing system. In the present invention, an "interrupt" event can be generated from the keyboard.
A sequence of character or control codes is defined.

Keystrokes are displayed on the display as they are generated, but the actual keystroke data is buffered. When a keystroke defined as an interrupt event occurs and is translated, a character is displayed on the display as usual, and the buffered data, accompanied by the interrupt event's keystroke data, is transferred from the buffer to the application program. Sent.

After the keystroke processor is empty, it is stopped and does not process any keystroke data. Keystrokes are queued for later processing. Keystroke processing.

It is restarted by an application program or system that sends a start control code to the keystroke processor. The period between the stop and start is such that the application program processes the keystroke data, including the interrupting event keystroke, and processes the keystroke data until a subsequent keystroke affects the display. This makes it possible to change the display device accordingly.

E. Embodiment The display terminal system shown in FIG.
It includes a keystroke processor 12 connected to a processor 13.

The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 represents a simple example of a data processing functional block with which the present invention may be used. Keystroke processor 12 interconnects stop buffer 16 and suspend buffer 14 . Stop buffer 16 serves to store keystroke data received from keyboard 10 before being converted to character code data. Interrupt buffer 14 contains keystroke data before it is processed and sent to system processor 13. Display device 11 receives data that has been processed and transformed, but not buffered.

Keystroke processing includes two major functions.

First, the keystroke code that identifies the particular key that was pressed is generally 8 throughout the system.
It must be converted to a character code expressed in bit bytes. Second, the translated character code is examined to determine whether a user-defined interrupt event keystroke occurred. The determination causes the data processing system to halt keystroke processing and establish a data communication relationship with the system processor to empty the buffer.

Regarding the logic involved in the conversion function and the recognition of interruption events, since these are functions realized by the prior art,
Not detailed.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the processing steps used in the apparatus of the present invention. Block 2o represents the step in which the user defines a character code as an interruption event. This may be a menu-based query that is part of the initial setup program for the data processing system. The character code for the interrupt event is stored in block 17 of FIG.

It can therefore be used as an argument for each input keystroke to determine whether the keystroke is an abort event.

The next block 21 is the keystroke processor 13
puts it into run mode, makes it ready to receive keystrokes, and converts them to character code data. Block 22 stops the keystroke code from buffer 1
6 represents the step of buffering. Block 23 represents the step of converting the keystroke code into a corresponding character code.

Block 24 uses the immediately converted character code to check whether the keystroke is an interrupt event.
Test against predefined character codes. If it is not an interrupt event, the single character code is buffered in interrupt buffer 14 and the process returns to block 21 to process the next keystroke.

If block 24 indicates that an interrupt event has occurred, then in block 27 a signal is sent to system processor 1.
3, and the system processor 13 provides a data transfer path to the display terminal system. Keystroke processor 12 then enters stop mode. The keystrokes are buffered in a stop buffer and the data in the break buffer is sent to the data processing system along with the last character code representing the break event. The data processing system then generates a start signal at block 30 to place the keystroke processor in run mode.

Selective suspension allows the application program to have improved ability to buffer data at a low level until it is needed, and also allows the application program to locate character and control codes that require special handling. Eliminate the need to scan the data. By automatically entering stop mode in an interrupt event, the application program reliably controls the sequence of updates of one display without losing any keystroke data.

Stop mode is “DCI and DC3” ANS I 3°0
Regular ASCII controlled by standard control codes
It is a terminal function. The use of those control codes keeps the display device synchronized with the application program, and their use does not interfere with the normal use of the operator to stop and start updates to the display device. The application program automatically restarts the display device when the display terminal system 11 overflows.
The data processing system is protected from forgetting to restart the system. Two levels of buffer operation are described in data processing systems. The stop buffer contains keystroke data as it is received and before it is converted to character codes. When keystroke processing is not stopped, the keystroke data is examined, transformed, and if the transformation indicates that the data is not an interruption event, the transformed data goes to the interruption buffer. Thus, the stop buffer contains unprocessed keystrokes, and the suspend buffer contains data resulting from processed keystrokes.

E0 Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, an apparatus is provided that reduces the overhead involved in keystroke processing in an environment including a display terminal system.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the main functional blocks and their interrelationships in a keystroke device or display terminal system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows processing steps that can be used in the device of FIG. FIG. 10...Keyboard, 11...Display device, 12
... Keystroke processor, 13 ... System processor, 14 ... Interrupt buffer, 15
...Data communication link, 16...Stop buffer. 17... Interruption event. Chest 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A keystroke device having a keyboard, a display device for displaying characters corresponding to keystrokes on the keyboard, and means for transmitting keystroke information regarding the keystrokes to a data processing system, Each keystroke is converted into character code data and buffered, and when a specific keystroke event predefined by the user occurs, the buffered character code data is
A keystroke device comprising logic means for transmitting data to said data processing system and means for connecting said display device to said logic means for displaying said converted keystrokes.