What is Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
The term User Interface was originated in reference to an engineering environment. Prior to this programmers interacted with computers but a category of no programming users came into existence and a different form of interaction was needed for this class. This user interface was referred to as a Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Common features and components of a good GUI are:
• Pointing Devices: These allow users to point at different parts of the screen as well as can used to initiate a command. Besides that it can also be used to manipulate objects on the screen by
a. Selecting objects on the screen
b. Moving objects around the screen
c. Merging several objects into another objects
• Windows: it graphically displays the progress of the action initiated
• Switching Capability: Windows system offers the switching capability from one application to another
• Resizing and Movement: Windows system also support resizing as well as moving around feature of windows.
• Graphical Bit mapped Display: Functionality to support graphics along with height parameters, color attributes, video attributes etc
• Icon: They provide a symbolic representation of any system entity or user defined object
• Dialog Box: It is used to capture user information or to present information to the user
• Check Box: Such a box is used to capture the information intending confirmation pertaining to any kind of actions desired by the end user
• Desktop Metaphors: Sliders These are used to shoe the relative position of the contents or to move to a different position
• Menus: The functionality of a GUI system must be arranged in the form of structured menus such as horizontal menus, pull down menus etc.
Evolution
Following PARC the first GUI-centric computer operating model was the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981,[3] followed by the Apple Lisa (which presented the concept of menu bar as well as window controls) in 1983, the Apple Macintosh 128K in 1984, and the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga in 1985.
The GUIs familiar to most people today are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and X Window System interfaces. Apple, IBM and Microsoft used many of Xerox’s ideas to develop products, and IBM’s Common User Access specifications formed the basis of the user interface found in Microsoft Windows, IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager, and the Unix Motif toolkit and window manager. These ideas evolved to create the interface found in current versions of Microsoft Windows, as well as in Mac OS X and various desktop environments for Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux. Thus most current GUIs have largely common idioms.
Components of a GUI are
• Windowing System: It allows to display multiple applications at the same time and it includes programming tools for designing movable and resizable windows, menus, dialog boxes, check boxes and other items on the display
• Imaging Model: It describes how fonts and graphics are designed on the screen and such a models capable of handling typeface, color, shading, dimension and size.
• API: API is a set of programming language functions that allow the programmer to specify how the actual application will control the menus, scroll bars and icons that appear on the screen
• Set of Interface Development Tools: GUI development environments may incorporate toolkits and frameworks.
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