International Business Machines Corporation

Colin Victor Powell

Richard Lee Verburg

Kenneth Wayne Borgendale

Ian Michael Holland

Kelvin Roberick Lawrence

Barry Alan Feigenbaum

Jonathan Mark Wagner

Tatchi Placido Lay

Michael Wilfrid Brown

Allen M Gilbert

Glenn T Puchtel

Darren Mark Miclette

Ivan Lomelli

Robert Leonard Tycast

Mark Allen Fiechtner

David Andrews Kerr

Paul R King

Lester Brooks Hickerson

William Chapel Tims

Jeffrey Thomas Galea

John Monroe Blackmon

A method and system are disclosed which may be utilized to generate a simultaneous presentation within a data processing system of video data within multiple windows supported by different graphic user interfaces. Each graphic user interface is coupled to a separate display device driver. Window movements including: creation; deletion; resizing; movement; minimization; maximization; activation; enablement; or an alteration in relative background/foreground order are detected for each graphic user interface and that information and the associated display device driver for each graphic user interface are coupled to a virtual device driver which facilitates interprocess communication between two or more graphic user interfaces, wherein the portion of the video display which is managed by each graphic user interface may be ascertained. Each separate display device driver is then coupled to a single display device, wherein multiple windows supported by different graphic user interfaces may be simultaneously presented.

Method and system for simultaneous presentation of multiple windows

A graphics management system resident in a computer operating system provides a generic graphics interface which allows application programs written to operate with various specific graphical user interfaces, to operate on a non-native graphical user interface. The graphics management system includes a common graphical user interface (GUI) which receives graphics related application programming interface (API) calls from the application programs, and transforms the various types of graphics API calls native to a particular GUI, into a generic format compatible with a personality neutral graphics engine. The personality neutral calls are then passed from the CGUI to the personality neutral graphics engine which services the calls, and controls the drawing of lines, circles and other drawing tasks for each of the windows presented on the display. The present invention allows users to 'port' application programs written for one GUI, to a computer system operating a different GUI.

Personality neutral graphics subsystem

A window management system resident in a computer operating system provides a generic windowing interface for application programs written to operate with various specific graphical user interfaces. The window management system includes a common graphical user interface (GUI) which receives window related application programming interface (API) calls from the application programs, and transforms the various types of API calls native to a particular GUI, into a generic format compatible a personality neutral common windowing format. The personality neutral calls are then be passed from the CGUI to a personality neutral event/window management server which services the calls, and controls the creation, deletion and modification of the various windows on the display. The present invention allows user to 'port' application programs written for one GUI, to a computer system operating a different GUI.

Personality neutral window management subsystem

Two or more interconnected computer systems, each having a different operating system. For example, a client system may be running the OS/2 operating system and a second, server computer the AIX system. The server system that allocates display screen space for application windows running on the server system and supports window management. Further, the window management places GUI borders around the application window which allow a user to interact with the client application. The functions in these GUI borders include a menu bar, scroll bar, sizing features, pull down windows, and the like. The client application is mapped into a form which enables the application commands to be recognized by a library of functional calls associated with the server system. The server system, displays the client application in the designated window along with the server GUI. In this manner a user can interact with a client application using the server graphical user interface.

Method and system for displaying applications of different operating

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Highland Beach, FL, United States of America

Colin Victor Powell