Arbitrary graphical entities are used for reactor-based viewport clipping. Graphics program provide two dimensional views of three-dimensional objects through ports. A user obtains a non-rectangular shape (referred to as a clipping entity) to be utilized as a view or viewport of a model. Any arbitrary shape such as a circle, ellipse, polygon, or other non-rectangular shape may be utilized as a clipping entity. The user obtains a clipping entity by creating a new clipping entity or modifying an existing entity. Multiple options are available to the user to create and modify a clipping entity. A reactor mechanism detects changes in the clipping entity and notifies the current viewport of the modifications. In response thereto, the viewport adjusts its boundaries and any graphics outside of the clipping entity are clipped/not displayed to the user. Thus, a non-rectangular viewport may be displayed by a graphics program and utilized by the user.

A data processor controlled display system is provided having on-screen graphic control objects which are a composite of portions formed by vector graphics and portions formed by raster graphics. The peripheral regions of the individual objects are formed by vector graphics and preferably have curvilinear portions while the non-peripheral portions of objects formed by raster graphics have higher visual resolutions.

Controlling the size of sides defining the area of a window presenting an enclosed area for displaying information on a display screen of a computer system. A transformation control can be presented on the display screen. This transformation control can be used to transform a window having a first geometrical shape to a window having a second geometrical shape. The window is transformed to the second geometrical shape in response to selection of the first transformation control. This transformation of the window is completed by adjusting the window sides, which define the presentation area for displaying information.

Methods and apparatuses to accelerate scrolling for buffered windows. In one aspect of the invention, a method to scroll a buffered window on a data processing system includes: determining a second region of a second pixel image of a window in a frame buffer, which corresponds to a first region of a first pixel image of the window buffered in a window buffer that is scrolled from a first position to a second position in the first pixel image of the window in the window buffer; and scrolling the second region in the frame buffer to synchronize the second pixel image in the frame buffer with the first pixel image in the window buffer. In one example according to this aspect, the second region in the frame buffer is scrolled using graphics hardware; the frame buffer is located inside a video memory under control of the graphics hardware.

An interprise computing manager in which an application is composed of a client (front end) program which communicates utilizing a network with a server (back end) program. The client and server programs are loosely coupled and exchange information using the network. The client program is composed of a User Interface (UI) and an object-oriented framework (Presentation Engine (PE) framework). The UI exchanges data messages with the framework. The framework is designed to handle two types of messages: (1) from the UI, and (2) from the server (back end) program via the network. The framework includes a component, the mediator which manages messages coming into and going out of the framework. The system includes software for a client computer, a server computer and a network for connecting the client computer to the server computer which utilize an execution framework code segment configured to couple the server computer and the client computer via the network, by a plurality of client computer code segments resident on the server, each for transmission over the network to a client computer to initiate coupling; and a plurality of server computer code segments resident on the server which execute on the server in response to initiation of coupling via the network with a particular client utilizing the transmitted client computer code segment for communicating via a particular communication protocol. A mediator state machine is utilized to parse various message types and route the messages to appropriate parts of the execution framework for further processing.