Methods, systems and computer program products for multidimensional movement in a display window

1. A method of scrolling data in a display window having peripheral controls on a user interface of a data processing system, comprising:

providing a two-dimensional scrolling control icon integrated as part of the peripheral controls, the two-dimensional scrolling control icon comprising at least three directional components, each directional component associated with a direction on the display window, at least one of the directions corresponding to a change in both of the two dimensions;

accepting user input from a user, the user input comprising a selected directional component; and

scrolling the data in the display window in the direction associated with the selected directional component.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon is in a fixed location with respect to the peripheral controls.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the peripheral controls comprise a first control portion extending along a horizontal periphery of the display window and a second control portion extending along a vertical periphery of the display window, and wherein providing a two-dimensional scrolling control icon further comprises providing a two-dimensional scrolling control icon at a common intersection between the first control portion and the second control portion.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first control portion comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second control portion comprises a vertical scroll bar.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon is a rectangular icon and the at least three directional components are confined within the rectangular icon.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon excludes the horizontal scroll bar and the vertical scroll bar.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon further comprises a centering icon, the method further comprising scrolling the data in the display window to a center of the display window if the user input comprises selection of the centering icon.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: providing feedback to the user interface indicating that a vertical and/or horizontal limit of the data in the display window has been reached.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the feedback comprises audio feedback.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the feedback comprises display feedback.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon comprises at least eight directional components.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon comprises a first and a second directional component for a single direction, the first directional component and the second directional component corresponding to different scrolling distances.

13. A computer program product for scrolling data in a display window having peripheral controls on a user interface of a data processing system, comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code which provides a two-dimensional scrolling control icon integrated as part of the peripheral controls, the two-dimensional scrolling control icon comprising at least three directional components, each directional component associated with a direction on the display window, at least one of the directions corresponding to a change in both of the two dimensions;

computer readable program code which accepts user input from a user, the user input comprising a selected directional component; and

computer readable program code which scrolls the data in the display window in the direction associated with the selected directional component.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the peripheral controls comprise a first control portion extending along a horizontal periphery of the display window and a second control portion extending along a vertical periphery of the display window, the two-dimensional scrolling control icon being at a common intersection between the first control portion and the second control portion.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the first control portion comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second control portion comprises a vertical scroll bar.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon is a rectangular icon and the at least three directional components are confined within the rectangular icon.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon excludes the horizontal scroll bar and the vertical scroll bar.

18. A system for scrolling data in a display window having peripheral controls on a user interface of a data processing system, comprising:

a display window control module implemented in a memory device, the display window control module configured to provide a two-dimensional scrolling control icon integrated as part of the peripheral controls, the two-dimensional scrolling control icon comprising at least three directional components, each directional component associated with a direction on the display window, at least one of the directions corresponding to a change in both of the two dimensions;

an I/O device driver implemented in the memory device, the I/O device driver configured to accept user input from a user, the user input comprising a selected directional component; and

a processor coupled to the memory device and to a display device, the processor configured to facilitate scrolling the data in the display window in the direction associated with the selected directional component.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the peripheral controls comprise a first control portion extending along a horizontal periphery of the display window and a second control portion extending along a vertical periphery of the display window, the two-dimensional scrolling control icon being at a common intersection between the first control portion and the second control portion.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the first control portion comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second control portion comprises a vertical scroll bar.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon is a rectangular icon and the at least three directional components are confined within the rectangular icon.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon excludes the horizontal scroll bar and the vertical scroll bar.

23. A display device to display a two-dimensional scrolling control icon for controlling a display window having peripheral controls that displays data on a data processing system, the scrolling control icon comprising:

at least three directional components, each directional component associated with a direction on the display window, at least one of the directions corresponding to a change in both of the two dimensions;

wherein the directional components are configured such that user input from a user to select a directional component causes scrolling of the data in the display window in the direction associated with the selected directional component; and

wherein the two-dimensional scrolling control icon is integrated as part of the peripheral controls.

24. The two-dimensional scrolling control icon of claim 23 , wherein the peripheral controls comprise a first control portion extending along a horizontal periphery of the display window and a second control portion extending along a vertical periphery of the display window, the two-dimensional scrolling control icon being at a common intersection between the first control portion and the second control portion.

25. The two-dimensional scrolling control icon of claim 24 , wherein the first control portion comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second control portion comprises a vertical scroll bar.

26. The two-dimensional scrolling control icon of claim 23 , wherein the directional components are configured to indicate potential directions of movement of data in the display window.