Patent ID: 6172683
Filing Date: 2001-01-09
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A method for the lossless decompression of compressed graphical line data received over a low bandwidth communication transport mechanism by a graphical user interface of a workstation in a distributed computer system, the compressed graphical line data representative of a graphical line to be displayed on a display screen of the workstation, the method comprising the steps of:a) receiving a compressed graphical line data packet having a plurality of fields with at least one of the plurality of fields being of variable length, the graphical line data packet comprising compressed coordinate location data, compressed attribute data, and a flag indicator;b) determining, from the compressed coordinate location data, coordinate locations for the endpoints of each sub-path of the graphical line without any data loss of the coordinate locations; andc) determining, from the compressed attribute data and the flag indicator, attributes of each sub-path of the graphical line without any data loss of the attributes, the flag indicator containing information applicable to at least one sub-path of the graphical line and identifying a state of at least one attribute, wherein the at least one attribute is decoded in accordance with the flag indicator.