US 7,380,218 B2
Method and apparatus for managing windows
David Neal Rundell, Leander, Tex. (US)
Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US)
Filed on Mar. 27, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/401,412.
Prior Publication US 2004/0189712 A1, Sep. 30, 2004
Int. Cl. G06F 3/048 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 715—808  [715/774; 715/794; 715/796; 715/809] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
16. A data processing system for managing windows in a foreground and a background, the data processing system comprising:
a bus system;
a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes a set of instructions;
a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes instructions to determine whether user input is present in a buffer in response to receiving a request to move a pop-up window from the background to the foreground;
instructions to ignore the request to move the pop-up window from the background to the foreground if the user input is present in the buffer;
instructions to identify an application executing in the foreground to form an identified application, if the user input is absent;
instructions to determine whether the identified application is an uninterruptible application, wherein the instructions to determine whether the identified application is the uninterruptible application comprise:
instructions to compare the identified application with a list of uninterruptible applications, wherein the list is user generated, wherein the list comprises a plurality of application titles, each application title in the plurality of application titles being capable of a setting and an unsetting, wherein the setting of a first application title acts as a filter to identify a particular application associated with the first application title that should not be disturbed when running, wherein the instructions to compare the identified application with the list comprise:
instructions to perform an application activity check, wherein the instructions to perform the application activity check comprise:
instructions to check the list to determine whether the identified application matches a corresponding application in the list; and
instructions to determine if the identified application is a triggered application, if the identified application does not match the corresponding application in the list, wherein if the identified application is the triggered application a request is sent to the identified application and a response is received, wherein the response indicates one of the identified application is busy and the identified application is not busy;
instructions to identify the identified application as the uninterruptible application if the identified application matches the corresponding application on the list;
if the identified application is identified as the uninterruptible application, instructions to compare the identified application with the list again after a period of time;
instructions to prevent moving of the pop-up window from the background to the foreground if the identified application is the uninterruptible application; and
instructions to move the pop-up window from the background to the foreground if user input is absent in the buffer for a second period of time based on a user selected activity timer, wherein the user selected activity timer indicates how long the user input must be absent within the buffer before the user input is considered absent from the buffer.