Main Page
From Help RedHat
Help Red Hat
Please send me a mail if you want sth. to be added here. (Sorry, I had to protect this site because of *** spammers.. )
US Patent No. 5,072,412
Priority
25th March 1987
So we need to find anything that is similar to this stupid patent before 25th March 1987.
Links
Patent on USPTO: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5,072,412
Patent on espacenet: http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US5072412&F=0
Patent family: http://v3.espacenet.com/family?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US5072412&F=8&OREQ=0&textdoc=TRUE
Abstract
Workspaces provided by an object-based user interface appear to share windows and other display objects. Each workspace's data structure includes, for each window in that workspace, a linking data structure called a placement which links to the display system object which provides that window, which may be a display system object in a preexisting window system. The placement also contains display characteristics of the window when displayed in that workspace, such as position and size. Therefore, a display system object can be linked to several workspaces by a placement in each of the workspaces' data structures, and the window it provides to each of those workspaces can have unique display characteristics, yet appear to the user to be the same window or versions of the same window. As a result, the workspaces appear to be sharing a window. Workspaces can also appear to share a window if each workspace's data structure includes data linking to another workspace with a placement to the shared window. The user can invoke a switch between workspaces by selecting a display object called a door, and a back door to the previous workspace is created automatically so that the user is not trapped in a workspace. A display system object providing a window to a workspace being left remains active so that when that workspace is reentered, the window will have the same contents as when it disappeared. Also, the placements of a workspace are updated so that when the workspace is reentered its windows are organized the same as when the user left that workspace. The user can enter an overview display which shows a representation of each workspace and the windows it contains so that the user can navigate to any workspace from the overview.
The patent in human language
A graphical user interface element to preview and select different desktops.
Example:
Wikipedia explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workspace
Associated Prior Art
Software released before patent priority date
- There was some software called 'dashboard' for windows 3.1. I remember that this program had different workspaces too. Maybe someone knows an URL where some information (like publication date) can be found, or even has some old cd (or disk) with a copy of that.
- X Windows ?
- The Amiga computer was launched by Commodore in 1985 with a GUI called Workbench. Workbench presented directories as "drawers" because the idea was to present them as drawers of a virtual desktop just called Work... bench. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(Amiga)
- DOS based Window-Environments like Word for DOS had?
- Mac OS, released 1984, supported a complete GUI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_history
Patents filed before patent priority date
Books in print before patent priority date
Articles and other dated works widely published before patent priority date
1987 sounds like a year late and a dollar short. A. Henderson and S. K. Card, `Rooms: The use of multiple virtual workspaces to reduce space contention in a window-based graphical user interface', ACM Transactions on Graphics, 5(3), 211-243 (1986).
Possible Prior Art and Background References
This is the place to note on-going projects or products that appear to relate to the patent, but which appear only in materials published after March, 1987.
General related docs
Sourceforge Projects
Books published after priority date (but which may refer to prior art)
News / Blogs / Discussions
- http://www.heise.de/open/news/foren/go.shtml?list=1&forum_id=125458 (DE)
- http://www.pro-linux.de/cgi-bin/NB2/nb2.cgi?show.11849.3010. (DE)
