Graphical user interface: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:39, 3 January 2004

Revision as of 19:41, 5 January 2004

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The graphical user interface was invented at [[Xerox PARC]] for the [[Xerox Alto]] [[computer]] and most modern general purpose GUIs are derived from it. (Some say GUIs were conceptualized by [[Douglas Engelbart|Doug Engelbart]] and first created by Xerox.) For this reason some people call this class of interface a PARC User Interface (PUI). The PUI consists of graphical [[widget]]s such as [[window (computing)|windows]], [[menu (computing)|menu]]s, [[radio button (computing)|radio button]]s, [[check box]]es, and [[icon (computing)|icon]]s, and employs a [[pointing device]] (such as mouse, trackball, or touchscreen) in addition to a keyboard. For this reason, many people refer to PUIs as WIMPs (Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer). Widgets are often provided in the form of [[widget toolkit]] libraries.

Examples of systems that support PUIs are [[Mac OS]], [[Microsoft Windows]], [[NextStepNEXTSTEP]] and the [[X Window System]]. The latter is extended with toolkits such as [[Motif (widget toolkit)|Motif]] ([[CDE]]), [[Qt]] ([[KDE]]), [[GTK]]+ and ([[GNOME]]).

GUIs that are not PUIs are most notable in [[computer game]]s. Advanced GUIs based on [[virtual reality]] are frequent in research. A certain amount of insight can be obtained by comparing noun-verb to verb-noun metaphors. Noun-verb interaction begins by picking an object then telling the system what to do to it. Verb-noun systems tell the system what to do, then pick the object to do it to.