Method and apparatus for scaling a cursor on local computer to have the same size relative to a window on the local computer as another cursor has to another window on a remote computer

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Accordingly, the invention provides a method of operating a local computer workstation, linked to a remote computer workstation, wherein an image which is displayed at the remote workstation is also displayed at the local workstation, the remote workstation supporting a cursor which is movable across the image, the method comprising the steps, performed by the local workstation, of: receiving information from the remote workstation indicating the cursor position relative to the image at the remote workstation; scaling a cursor representation at the local workstation in accordance with the ratio of the sizes of the image as displayed at the local and remote workstations; and applying the scaled cursor representation to its indicated position in the image at the local workstation.
Scaling the cursor so that it has the same size relative to the image at both the local and remote workstations has been found to provide a more natural and effective interface for users cooperating at different machines.
In particular, problems are avoided if one of the users attempts to indicate a position with a cursor in a slightly unorthodox manner (eg with the tail rather than the head of a cursor arrow), since the compatible scaling helps to ensure that these positions will match across the two images.
In order to maintain this correct scaling, it is preferred that in response to detecting that the image at the local workstation has been resized, the method further comprises the steps of: re-scaling the cursor representation at the local workstation in accordance with re-sized image; and applying the re-scaled cursor representation to the image at the local workstation.
Typically the cursor representation at the local workstation will not be the true cursor at the local workstation, but rather an image or simple representation of a cursor.
It would in theory be possible to call the relevant operating system functions to scale the true cursor (subject to operating system restrictions on the size of the true cursor)