Changeable live icon with visual state indicator option

A uniquely programmed computer system, computer-implemented method, and computer readable memory embodying computer-readable detail logic direct a computer system to provide viewing and adjustment of the default state (i.e., operation) of a desktop icon. The default state is performed when the desktop icon is dropped on a target icon. Therefore, if the default state is "copy", then the selected object icon is automatically copied to the target object icon when the selected icon is dropped on the target icon. The computer-implemented method includes the steps of determining if a visual state indicator option is "ON" and, if so, drawing the desktop icon(s) on the display in such a manner as to indicate to the user/viewer the default state of the icon.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to improvements in desktop computing 
environments, and more particularly, but without limitation, to a system, 
method, and memory for viewing and adjusting the default state of a 
desktop icon. 
2. Background Information and Description of the Related Art 
A user easily communicates to a computer system's operating system via a 
"graphical user interface" (GUI). A desktop is a GUI that utilizes a 
desktop metaphor to view and manipulate system objects. The desktop 
includes at least one workspace (i.e., work surface) to store, manipulate 
and view system objects, such as data files, controls, applications (e.g., 
text editors, databases, file manages, and games) and devices. The desktop 
represents those system objects as icons in the workspace. An icon is a 
visual representation of an entity that can be manipulated (e.g., 
selected, dragged, dropped). The desktop ensures that the icons are 
redrawn when the desktop or part of the desktop is refreshed. The desktop 
also detects and delivers system objects, icon selections, drags, and 
drops to the correct application. 
Users interact with desktop icons by dragging and dropping a selected icon 
onto a target icon. In a large percentage of these operations, the 
selected icon is either copied, moved or linked to the target icon. 
Therefore, conventional desktops often have a default operation, such as 
copy. Occasionally, the user can determine what the default operation is 
by examining the context. For example, the context of dragging an icon 
over a trash can icon obviously indicates a "move". Most often, however, 
the operation associated with dragging a selected icon to a target icon is 
ambiguous. Therefore, a user may not know what operation will be performed 
if he/she drags a document icon over a folder icon. Therefore, there is a 
great demand for a desktop that visually indicates which operation will be 
performed if the user initiates a drag/drop operation. It would also be 
advantageous for the desktop to easily allow the user to change the 
default operation of all and/or specific icons. 
SUMMARY 
Accordingly, a uniquely programmed computer system, computer-implemented 
method, and computer readable memory embodying computer-readable detail 
logic direct a computer system to provide viewing and adjustment of the 
default state (i.e., operation) of a desktop icon. The default state is 
performed when the desktop icon is dropped on a target icon. Therefore, if 
the default state is "copy", then the selected object icon is 
automatically copied to the target object icon when the selected icon is 
dropped on the target icon. 
The computer-implemented method includes the steps of determining if a 
visual state indicator option is "ON" and, if so, drawing the desktop 
icon(s) on the display in such a manner as to indicate to the user/viewer 
the default state of the icon. 
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a desktop 
that allows a user to view and change the default state of a desktop icon. 
It is a further object to provide a desktop that draws all icons having a 
visual representation of the icon's state. 
These and other objects, advantages, and features will become even more 
apparent in light of the following drawings and detailed description.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The preferred embodiment includes a computer-implemented method, a uniquely 
programmed computer system, and a memory embodying detailed logic for 
directing a computer system to display and provide adjustment of the 
default state of a desktop icon. 
The present invention is practice in a laptop computer or, alternatively, 
in the computer system illustrated in FIG. 1. Computer system 100 includes 
central processing unit (CPU) 10, such as an IBM's.TM. PowerPC.TM. 601 or 
Intel's.TM. 486 microprocessor for processing cache 15, random access 
memory (RAM) 14, read only memory 16, and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) 32. One 
or more disks 20, controlled by I/O adapter 18, provide long term storage. 
A variety of other storage media may be employed, including tapes, CD-ROM, 
and WORM drives. Removable storage media may also be provided to store 
data or computer process instructions. 
Instructions and data from the desktop of any suitable operating system, 
such as Sun Solaris.TM., Microsoft's Windows NT.TM., or Apple's System 
7.TM. control CPU 10 from RAM 14. Accordingly, the desktop executes from 
RAM 14. However, in the preferred embodiment, an IBM RISC System/6000.TM. 
runs the AIX.TM. operating system. As previously described, however, one 
skilled in the art readily recognizes that other hardware platforms and 
operating systems may be utilized to implement the present invention. 
Users communicate with computer system 100 through I/O devices (i.e., user 
controls) controlled by user interface adapter 22. Display 38 displays 
information to the user, while keyboard 24, pointing device 26, and 
speaker 28 allow the user to direct the computer system. Communications 
adapter 34 controls communications between this computer system and other 
processing units connected to a network by network interface 40. Display 
adapter 36 controls communications between this computer system and 
display 38. 
Referring to FIG. 2, the preferred embodiment includes a desktop 
enhancement (DT) for displaying front panel container 200 on display 38. 
For ease and explanation, the following description describes the DT as 
performing unique functions and features. In actuality, the DT merely 
directs CPU 10 to perform those functions and features. 
Front panel container 200 is a two-dimensional workspace for displaying 
icons 212, 214, 218 and 216. The diagonal hatching marks on icons 212, 
210, 214, and 216 indicate that the default state/operation for these 
icons is "move." Therefore, if the user drags and drops file.app icon 218 
on word processor icon 216, that file will be moved into the word 
processor object. In the preferred embodiment, hatching marks in the 
opposite direction (not shown) indicate a link state/operation. 
Furthermore, double hatching marks (not shown) indicate a copy state. 
Alternatively, any type of visual indicators could be employed to 
distinguish between states, such as color or sound. 
To change the default state of all icons, the user uses pointing device 26 
to select T control button 202. Selecting icons using a pointing device is 
well known in the computer art and need not be further described. In 
response, the desktop displays drop-down menu 206. As illustrated, the 
"move" state/operation is the current state for all icons. The user may 
change the default state by clicking on either the copy or link option in 
menu 206. However, the user may desire to completely turn off (or on) the 
visual state indicator (e.g. hatching marks). To do this, the user selects 
the "turn off/on" toggle option in menu 206 to turn off (or on) the visual 
state indicator. 
The user may desire to individually change the state of specific icons, 
while leaving other icons in the default state. To do this, in the 
preferred embodiment, the user double-clicks over the desired icon. In 
this example, the user has double-clicked over icon 218, resulting in the 
DT displaying horizontal bar 210. The user may then select "C" for copy or 
"L" for link by clicking over the respective visual letter indicator. 
Alternatively, one skilled in the art readily recognizes that various 
other operations and states could be employed. 
If the user selects "L" for link, then the default state for icon 218 would 
change from "move" to "link" and the hatching marks would be redrawn in 
the opposite direction. Therefore, if the user drags and drops icon 218 on 
OS/2 programs icon 214, the DT links those two object icons. Accordingly, 
the user may change the state of all icons or, alternatively, may 
selectively change the state of one or more particular icons. 
The flow of execution of the preferred embodiment is as follows: 
FIG. 3 illustrates detailed logic for implementing the preferred 
embodiment. At 302, the initialization process of the desktop workspace 
begins. To do this, the DT loads from one drive of disk drives 20 a 
container resource file (not shown) into RAM 14. The container resource 
file contains the default arrangement and descriptive information of the 
objects present in container 200. Descriptive information includes the 
image (e.g., icon) representing the object, the location of the image 
within container 200, the command(s) necessary to open the object when 
selected, and the command(s) executed when a user drops an object on 
another object. Several conventional desktops utilize container resource 
files and, therefore, they are well known in the computer arts. The DT 
parses the container resource file into system-recognizable data. 
At 303, the DT allocates space in RAM 14, creates a lookup table in that 
allocated space for retaining data structures, and populates that lookup 
table with the parsed data from the container resource file. The lookup 
table dynamically maintains the screen coordinates for both the objects 
contained within container 200 and container 200 itself. Accordingly, the 
DT retrieves from hard disk 20 any settings saved from the previous 
session and populates the lookup table with those settings. The DT also 
creates any front panel widgets and controls for container 200 using the 
newly populated lookup table. 
At 304, the DT examines a binary "visual state indicator" field within the 
lookup table to determine if the visible state indicator is enabled (i.e. 
ON). If not enabled, at 306, the DT draws all icons in container 200 
without showing the state of the object icons. If the visual state 
indicator is enabled, at 308, the DT examines a state field for each icon 
within the lookup table, determines the default state of each icon from 
the state field, and draws all icons within container 200 with the visual 
state indicator enabled. As previously described, the DT draws the icons 
with left, right, or dual hatching marks, where appropriate. At 309, the 
DT waits for an event (e.g., a click from user controls over an icon) from 
an event queue (not shown) in RAM 14. The DT determines and dispatches the 
coordinates of the event to an event loop executing in RAM 14. The DT then 
examines the screen coordinates of the event to determine if the event 
occurred on a particular icon. 
At 310, the DT determines if a single or double click occurred over an 
object icon in container 200 using a conventional software timer. If the 
event was a double click over an icon, at 312, the DT displays slider bar 
210. At 314, the DT waits for a click by the user over one of the options 
in slider bar 210, makes changes (if any) in state (e.g., move, link, 
copy) to the selected icon in the lookup table, and redraws the selected 
icon to show the new state, if any. 
Returning to 310, if the event was not a double click over an object icon, 
at 316, the DT determines if a single click occurred over T control button 
202 in container 200. If so, at 318, the DT displays drop-down menu 206 
showing the current state for all icons (if any) in hatching marks (see 
207 in FIG. 2) and alternative icon states. Also, drop-down menu 206 
provides the user with turn off option 208 to completely turn off the 
visual state indicator. At 320, the DT makes any changes to the state of 
the icons and redraws all icons showing the new state, if any. 
Returning to 316, if the event was not a single click over T control button 
202, at 322, the DT determines if the user hah dropped a selected icon 
over a target icon in container 200. If so, at 324, the DT performs the 
default state operation on the selected and target object icons. 
At 326, the DT determines if the user desires to quit. If so, control is 
directed to 340. If not, control returns to 309. 
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to 
particular embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in 
the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and detail may be 
made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, 
which is defined only by the following claims.