Abstract: A view system is provided for each application program in a computer system in order to display application-generated information on a display. To increase graphic speed, the view system transfers graphic information directly into the screen buffer into a screen buffer area defined by a visible area definition. In order to handle concurrently-operating view systems, each of which modifies the displayed contents of one of the multiple views, a concurrency control controls access to the visible area definitions. The concurrency control is also used to control access to update requests which are generated when a change to one view affects other views. This mechanism supports animation, tracking feedback and updating invalid areas of the display by multiple threads of execution. This mechanism also provides a framework to support unrelated threads drawing in separate views within a single window.

Abstract: A distributed program configuration database system is designed for use on a client-server network. The system consists of a plurality of program servers which maintain version information for various program components. A program developer, upon logging into a client terminal on the network, establishes a workspace or project and connects with one of the servers. After connection to the server has been made, a draft of the program configuration is retrieved from the server. The configuration draft may include information for constructing some of the program components and "bridge" information identifying other program servers where additional program components are located. The workspace uses the component information to assemble components and the bridge information to connect to other servers and retrieve the remaining components in order to assemble the complete source code for a program in the workspace.

Abstract: A view system is provided for each application program in a computer system in order to display application-generated information on a display. To increase graphic speed, the view system transfers graphic information directly into the screen buffer into a screen buffer area defined by a visible area definition. The view system provides support for spatially laying out views. The support includes a class of objects that contain specific layout information. The layout information automatically provides horizontal or vertical orientation, size and constraints. The views are arranged in a hierarchy and the layout objects are inserted into the hierarchy at a level directly above the levels of the views to which the layout objects relate.

Abstract: An object-oriented framework is used to create container objects which are, in turn, used to hold both other objects and information in order to organize the information in a variety of ways. The framework contains a set of pre-defined class information which allows container objects to be constructed or instantiated. An instantiated container object can be accessed by a multitude of users and may contain other objects which can hold information defining other containers, such as shelves and trash cans, or which can hold information representing physical "things" such as locations, maps and people. The pre-defined class information includes member functions which provide default editing operations such as cut, copy, paste, drag, drop, selection, move, undo and redo, which editing operations are applicable to all objects in the container. Member functions are also provided to generate one or more presentations on a display which represent the container.

Abstract: An object-oriented compound document architecture provides system level support for document processing features. The object-oriented compound document framework supports a variety of document processing functions. The framework provides system level support of collaboration, linking, eternal undo, and content based retrieval, among other things. System level support is provided for document changes, annotation through model and linking, anchors, model hierarchies, enhanced copy and pasting, command objects, and a generic retrieval framework.

Abstract: A method and system for caching graphic information for display in a graphics processing system to avoid repeated rendering each time a graphic is required to be re drawn. A developer of an application program can specify which graphic objects should be cached, and request that caching be carried out for those graphics. Devices may also specify whether caching is desired, and this preference may be overridden by the caching system. The caching system may create a single cache object for several devices, or may create several cache objects for corresponding devices, depending on the characteristics of the devices. The objects are cached in a device-dependent manner. The cached graphic may be sent to methods and devices in the same mariner that any other graphic is sent.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for a command system is disclosed. Commands include variables that reflect the command's current appearance. This includes status information determinative of the command's state (enabled/disabled), its name, its associated graphic, and whether its appearance is currently valid. Each of these were initialized when the command was created. The invention creates a command including an object's data structure containing a command sequence. The command is added to a list of commands, and initialized as an invalid appearance. Later when the command is selected, the appearance state is recomputed based on the system state.

Abstract: A method and system for providing synchronization of the timing of various multimedia events, including MIDI data events. Clock objects are defined in the storage and associated with an internal or external source of current time. The clock objects are able to be displayed on the display, but can be hidden once their linkages are defined. One or more multimedia objects representative of audio, visual or other multimedia events, including a MIDI data object, are defined and linked to a particular clock object or clock objects. Then, a processor synchronizes the multimedia objects, including a MIDI data object, with the associated clock object or objects. Finally, the various multimedia events are performed in synchronization with their associated clocks. The multimedia objects, including the MIDI data, may include external multimedia sources managed by the computer system.

Abstract: A view system is provided for each application program in a computer system in order to display application-generated information on a display. To increase graphic speed, the view system transfers graphic information directly into the screen buffer into a screen buffer area defined by a visible area definition. Since the view system creates a view defined by the visible area definition, the view can be made non-rectilinear by providing a suitable definition. The visible area definition may define a visible area of any arbitrary two-dimensional shape, including, but not limited to, rectilinear, disjoint, elliptical, etc. This mechanism makes it possible to provide a single drawing canvas comprised of non-contiguous areas and enhances traditionally rectangular window systems because it allows windows to have any arbitrary two-dimensional shape.

Abstract: A view system is provided for each application program in a computer system in order to display application-generated information on a display. To increase graphic speed, the view system transfers graphic information directly into the screen buffer into a screen buffer area defined by a visible area definition. The view system provides support for minimal recomputation required for a correct display of data in several views when one view is changed. First, the view system generates an update request each time a change is made to one view, but the update request is only forwarded to those views which are affected by the change. Second, update requests are collected over a period of time and used to determine an invalid area caused by all of the requests and this latter invalid area is used to update each affected view.

Abstract: An object-oriented window manager provides coordination between window displays generated by separate application programs by computing and storing the visible area of each application window each time displayed windows are changed. Each application program directly communicates with the screen buffer memory in order to redraw portions of the screen corresponding to its display area using the visible area computed by the window manager. Each application program communicates with the object-oriented window manager by creating a window object which provides flexible display capabilities that are transparent to the application program. Several techniques are used to decrease the visible area computation time. First, as mentioned above a copy of the visible area is stored or "cached" in each window object. This copy can be used if the application program needs to redraw the window area and the visible area has not been changed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for defining customizable pick, hit or find detection criteria for geometric types including curves and using the results of the search as a basis for determining whether to perform an action. According to the inventive method, a search protocol is defined for geometric types. The search criteria is compared with graphic objects to determine whether the object matches the criteria. Based on the results of the comparison, an output is produced. In addition to allowing customized hit criteria for primitive geometric types, the hit object framework allows hit criteria to be specified for geometric types created by the application developer.

Abstract: A system and method for electronically developing an image recorded on film by applying a developer to and then scanning the film during the development at a number of spaced timed intervals. Images are captured during each of the spaced scans and are stored as digital representations of that scan. The stored digital representations are combined on a pixel-by-pixel basis to produce an output image that differs from any one of the stored representations. This combination of digital images allows for optimal image development without actually forming or storing the image on the film itself.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for an innovative object oriented framework system is disclosed. The system uses an innovative load architecture for a framework application by multiple users. The load architecture implements functions, static data and classes in a more flexible manner than prior operating systems.

Abstract: A human oriented object programming system provides an interactive and dynamic process for the incremental building of computer programs which facilitates the development of complex computer programs such as operating systems and large applications with graphic user interfaces (GUIs). The program is modeled as a collection of units called components. A component represents a single compilable language element such as a class or a function. The major functionalities are the database, the compiler, build and link mechanism. The database stores the components and properties. The compiler, along with compiling the source code of a property, and generating object code is responsible for calculating the dependencies associated with a component. The build mechanism uses properties of components along with the compiler generated dependencies to correctly and efficiently sequence the compilation of components during a build process.

Abstract: An apparatus for enabling an object-oriented application to access in an object-oriented manner a procedural operating system having a native procedural interface is disclosed. The apparatus includes a computer and a memory component in the computer. A code library is stored in the memory component. The code library includes computer program logic implementing an object-oriented class library. The object-oriented class library comprises related object-oriented classes for enabling the application to access in an object-oriented manner services provided by the operating system. The object-oriented classes include methods for accessing the operating system services using procedural function calls compatible with the native procedural interface of the operating system. The computer processes object-oriented statements contained in the application and defined by the class library by executing methods from the class library corresponding to the object-oriented statements.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for an object based notification system. The notification system is designed in a flexible manner to support change notification in an object based operating system.

Abstract: Novel object-oriented client-server facility (CSF) and networking service facility (NSF) interfaces implement communication between application programs residing in client and server nodes of a distributed services network. The CSF interface includes remote procedure call (RPC) objects for invoking and responding to service requests at the nodes, and application programming interface (API) objects for transporting those requests between the nodes. However, the API objects only provide communication transports within a node. Accordingly, the API and RPC objects interact with dynamically-configurable protocol stacks within the NSF interfaces to complete the transport mechanism needed by an application program on the client node when accessing services on a remote server node.

Abstract: A technique for providing routing of various multimedia events throughout the course of a multimedia presentation using a computer with a storage and a display. A processor with an attached display, storage and multimedia device builds a component object in the storage of the processor for managing the multimedia device including at least one port for exchanging multimedia information. The processor includes a connection object for connecting the at least one port to the multimedia device to facilitate the exchange of multimedia information and the processor routes information between the multimedia device and the component object port.

Abstract: An object-oriented file system in an object-oriented operating system includes a file system entity class that is subclassed into a volume, directory and file subclass. These classes encapsulate standard file system properties such as name, creation date, and size, as well as standard operations such as create, open, close, and property accessors. Using object-oriented programming, the class properties and operations can easily be modified and extended. Also provided is a convenient and efficient means for searching through the entities, and collecting heterogeneous sets. Further, a category of notification classes is provided for notifying clients when an entity has changed. Still further, user authentication and protection domains are used to protect against unauthorized access. Finally, a means for working with foreign file systems running under different operating systems is provided.