1.
User interface
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The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. Examples of this concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to or involve such disciplines as ergonomics and psychology. Generally, the goal of user interface design is to produce a user interface makes it easy, efficient. This generally means that the needs to provide minimal input to achieve the desired output. Other terms for user interface are man–machine interface and when the machine in question is a computer human–computer interface, the user interface or human–machine interface is the part of the machine that handles the human–machine interaction. Membrane switches, rubber keypads and touchscreens are examples of the part of the Human Machine Interface which we can see. In complex systems, the interface is typically computerized. The term human–computer interface refers to this kind of system, in the context of computing the term typically extends as well to the software dedicated to control the physical elements used for human-computer interaction. The engineering of the interfaces is enhanced by considering ergonomics. The corresponding disciplines are human factors engineering and usability engineering, which is part of systems engineering, tools used for incorporating human factors in the interface design are developed based on knowledge of computer science, such as computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages. Nowadays, we use the graphical user interface for human–machine interface on computers. There is a difference between a user interface and an interface or a human–machine interface. A human-machine interface is typically local to one machine or piece of equipment, an operator interface is the interface method by which multiple equipment that are linked by a host control system is accessed or controlled. The system may expose several user interfaces to serve different kinds of users, for example, a computerized library database might provide two user interfaces, one for library patrons and the other for library personnel. The user interface of a system, a vehicle or an industrial installation is sometimes referred to as the human–machine interface. HMI is a modification of the original term MMI, in practice, the abbreviation MMI is still frequently used although some may claim that MMI stands for something different now. Another abbreviation is HCI, but is commonly used for human–computer interaction
2.
User (computing)
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A user is a person who uses a computer or network service. Users generally use a system or a product without the technical expertise required to fully understand it. Power users use advanced features of programs, though they are not necessarily capable of computer programming, a user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username. Other terms for username include login name, screenname, nickname and handle, some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end users. End users are the ultimate users of a software product. The term is used to abstract and distinguish those who use the software from the developers of the system. This abstraction is primarily useful in designing the user interface, in user-centered design, personas are created to represent the types of users. It is sometimes specified for each persona which types of user interfaces it is comfortable with, in this context, graphical user interfaces are usually preferred to command-line interfaces for the sake of usability. The end-user development discipline blurs the distinction between users and developers. It designates activities or techniques in which people who are not professional developers create automated behavior, systems whose actor is another system or a software agent have no direct end users. To log in to an account, a user is required to authenticate oneself with a password or other credentials for the purposes of accounting, security, logging. Once the user has logged on, the system will often use an identifier such as an integer to refer to them, rather than their username. In Unix systems, the username is correlated with an identifier or user id. Computer systems operate in one of two based on what kind of users they have, Single-user systems do not have a concept of several user accounts. Multi-user systems have such a concept, and require users to identify themselves using the system. Each user account on a system typically has a home directory, in which to store files pertaining exclusively to that users activities. User accounts often contain a public profile, which contains basic information provided by the accounts owner. Various computer operating-systems and applications expect/enforce different rules for the formats of user names, in some cases, a user may be better known by their username than by their real name, such as CmdrTaco, founder of the website Slashdot
3.
Icon (computing)
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In computing, an icon is a pictogram or ideogram displayed on a computer screen in order to help the user navigate a computer system or mobile device. It can serve as an electronic hyperlink or file shortcut to access the program or data, the user can activate an icon using a mouse, pointer, finger, or recently voice commands. Their placement on the screen, also in relation to other icons, in activating an icon, the user can move directly into and out of the identified function without knowing anything further about the location or requirements of the file or code. Graphically, the icon is a picture of objects that users are familiar with from office environment or from other professional arenas. One group of icons was taken from the symbols found across all devices, such as the power on/off symbol. Another group is metaphorically representing desktop objects from the 1980s office environment, a third group of icons are the brand icons used to identify commercial software programs. These commercial icons serve as links on the system to the program or data files created by a specific software provider. Although icons are depicted in graphical user interfaces, icons are sometimes rendered in a TUI using special characters such as MouseText or PETSCII. The design of all computer icons is constricted by the limitations of the device display and they are limited in size, with the standard size about a thumbnail for both desktop computer systems and mobile devices. They are frequently scalable, as they are displayed in different positions in the software, the colors used, of both the image and the icon background, should stand out on different system backgrounds. The detailing of the image needs to be simple, remaining recognizable in varying graphical resolutions. Computer icons are by definition language-independent, they do not rely on letters or words to convey their meaning and these visual parameters place rigid limits on the design of icons, frequently requiring the skills of a graphic artist in their development. Because of their size and versatility, computer icons have become a mainstay of user interaction with electronic media. Icons also provide rapid entry into the system functionality, on most systems, users can create and delete, replicate, select, click or double-click standard computer icons and drag them to new positions on the screen to create a customized user environment. Some common computer icons are taken from the field of standardized icons used across a wide range of electrical equipment. Examples of these are the symbol and the USB icon. The standardization of electronic icons is an important safety-feature on all types of electronics, as a subset of electronic devices, computer systems and mobile devices use many of the same icons, they are incorporated into the design of both the computer hardware and on the software. On the hardware, these identify the functionality of specific buttons
4.
Text-based user interface
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Text-based user interface, also called textual user interface or terminal user interface, is a retronym coined sometime after the invention of graphical user interfaces. TUIs display computer graphics in text mode, an advanced TUI may, like GUIs, use the entire screen area and accept mouse and other inputs. From text applications point of view, a screen can belong to one of three types, A genuine text mode display, controlled by a video adapter or the central processor itself. This is a condition for a locally running application on various types of personal computers. If not deterred by the system, a smart program may exploit the full power of a hardware text mode. Examples are xterm for X Window System and win32 console for Microsoft Windows and this usually supports programs which expect a real text mode display, but may run considerably slower. Certain functions of a text mode, such as an own font uploading. The communication capabilities usually become reduced to a line or its emulation, possibly with few ioctls as an out-of-band channel in such cases as Telnet. This is the worst case, because software restrictions hinder the use of capabilities of a display device. Under Linux and other Unix-like systems, a program easily accommodates to any of the three cases because the same interface controls the display and keyboard, also, specialized programming libraries help to output the text in a way appropriate to the given display device and interface to it. See below for a comparison to Windows, american National Standards Institute standard ANSI X3.64 defines a standard set of escape sequences that can be used to drive terminals to create TUIs. Escape sequences may be supported for all three mentioned in the above section, allowing random cursor movements and color changes. However, not all follow this standard, and many non-compatible. However, programmers soon learned that writing data directly to the buffer was far faster and simpler to program. This change in programming resulted in many DOS TUI programs. The win32 console environment is notorious for its emulation of certain EGA/VGA text mode features, particularly a random access to the text buffer, even if the application runs in a window. On the other hand, programs running under Windows have much control of the display and keyboard than Linux and DOS programs can have. Most often those used a blue background for the main screen, with white or yellow characters
5.
Learning curve
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A learning curve is a graphical representation of the increase of learning with experience. The term learning curve is used in two ways, where the same task is repeated in a series of trials, or where a body of knowledge is learned over time. The first person to describe the curve was Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885, in the field of the psychology of learning. In 1936, Theodore Paul Wright described the effect of learning on production costs in the aircraft industry and this form, in which unit cost is plotted against total production, is sometimes called an experience curve. The familiar expression a steep learning curve is intended to mean that the activity is difficult to learn, the first person to describe the learning curve was Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885. His tests involved memorizing series of syllables, and recording the success over a number of trials. The translation does not use the term learning curve—but he presents diagrams of learning against trial number and he also notes that the score can decrease, or even oscillate. Psychologist Arthur Bills gave a detailed description of learning curves in 1934. He also discussed the properties of different types of learning curves, such as acceleration, positive acceleration, plateaus. In 1936, Theodore Paul Wright described the effect of learning on production costs in the aircraft industry, in 1968 Bruce Henderson of the Boston Consulting Group generalized the Unit Cost model pioneered by Wright, and specifically used a Power Law, which is sometimes called Hendersons Law. He named this version the experience curve. Research by BCG in the 1970s observed experience curve effects for various industries that ranged from 10 to 25 percent, the economic learning of productivity and efficiency generally follows the same kinds of experience curves and have interesting secondary effects. Efficiency and productivity improvement can be considered as whole organization or industry or economy learning processes, the general pattern is of first speeding up and then slowing down, as the practically achievable level of methodology improvement is reached. A learning curve is a plot of the increase of learning with experience, the Horizontal Axis represents experience either directly as time, or can be related to time. The Vertical Axis represents learning or proficiency and it can either be increasing, or decreasing. For the performance of one person in a series of trials the curve can be erratic, when the results of a large number of individual trials are averaged then a smooth curve results, which can often be described with a mathematical function. Power law This is similar in appearance to an Exponential decay function and it also has the property that if you plot the logarithm of proficiency against the logarithm of experience the result is a straight line, and it is often presented that way. The specific case of a plot of Unit Cost versus Total Production with a Power Law was named the Experience Curve and this form of learning curve is used extensively in industry for cost projections
6.
Command-line interface
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A program which handles the interface is called a command language interpreter or shell. The interface is implemented with a command line shell, which is a program that accepts commands as text input. Command-line interfaces to computer operating systems are widely used by casual computer users. Alternatives to the line include, but are not limited to text user interface menus, keyboard shortcuts. Examples of this include the Windows versions 1,2,3,3.1, and 3.11, DosShell, and Mouse Systems PowerPanel. Command-line interfaces are preferred by more advanced computer users, as they often provide a more concise. Programs with command-line interfaces are generally easier to automate via scripting, a program that implements such a text interface is often called a command-line interpreter, command processor or shell. Under most operating systems, it is possible to replace the shell program with alternatives, examples include 4DOS for DOS, 4OS2 for OS/2. For example, the default Windows GUI is a program named EXPLORER. EXE. These programs are shells, but not CLIs, application programs may also have command line interfaces. When a program is launched from an OS command line shell, interactive command line sessions, After launch, a program may provide an operator with an independent means to enter commands in the form of text. OS inter-process communication, Most operating systems support means of inter-process communication, Command lines from client processes may be redirected to a CLI program by one of these methods. Some applications support only a CLI, presenting a CLI prompt to the user, Some examples of CLI-only applications are, DEBUG Diskpart Ed Edlin Fdisk Ping Some computer programs support both a CLI and a GUI. In some cases, a GUI is simply a wrapper around a separate CLI executable file, in other cases, a program may provide a CLI as an optional alternative to its GUI. CLIs and GUIs often support different functionality, for example, all features of MATLAB, a numerical analysis computer program, are available via the CLI, whereas the MATLAB GUI exposes only a subset of features. The early Sierra games, like the first three Kings Quest games, used commands from a command line to move the character around in the graphic window. Early computer systems often used teleprinter machines as the means of interaction with a human operator, the computer became one end of the human-to-human teleprinter model. So instead of a human communicating with another human over a teleprinter, in time, the actual mechanical teleprinter was replaced by a glass tty, and then by a smart terminal
7.
Computer keyboard
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In computing, a computer keyboard is a typewriter-style device which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as a mechanical lever or electronic switch. Following the decline of punch cards and paper tape, interaction via teleprinter-style keyboards became the input device for computers. A keyboard typically has characters engraved or printed on the keys, however, to produce some symbols requires pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence. While most keyboard keys produce letters, numbers or signs, other keys or simultaneous key presses can produce actions or execute computer commands. In normal usage, the keyboard is used as a text entry interface to type text and numbers into a word processor, in a modern computer, the interpretation of key presses is generally left to the software. A computer keyboard distinguishes each physical key from every other and reports all key presses to the controlling software, Keyboards are also used for computer gaming, either with regular keyboards or by using keyboards with special gaming features, which can expedite frequently used keystroke combinations. A keyboard is used to give commands to the operating system of a computer, such as Windows Control-Alt-Delete combination. A command-line interface is a type of user interface operated entirely through a keyboard and it was through such devices that modern computer keyboards inherited their layouts. Earlier models were developed separately by individuals such as Royal Earl House, earlier, Herman Hollerith developed the first keypunch devices, which soon evolved to include keys for text and number entry akin to normal typewriters by the 1930s. From the 1940s until the late 1960s, typewriters were the means of data entry. The keyboard remained the primary, most integrated computer peripheral well into the era of personal computing until the introduction of the mouse as a device in 1984. By this time, text-only user interfaces with sparse graphics gave way to comparatively graphics-rich icons on screen, One factor determining the size of a keyboard is the presence of duplicate keys, such as a separate numeric keyboard, for convenience. A keyboard with few keys is called a keypad, another factor determining the size of a keyboard is the size and spacing of the keys. Reduction is limited by the consideration that the keys must be large enough to be easily pressed by fingers. Alternatively a tool is used for pressing small keys, standard alphanumeric keyboards have keys that are on three-quarter inch centers, and have a key travel of at least 0.150 inches. Desktop computer keyboards, such as the 101-key US traditional keyboards or the 104-key Windows keyboards, include characters, punctuation symbols, numbers. The internationally common 102/104 key keyboards have a left shift key. Also the enter key is usually shaped differently, computer keyboards are similar to electric-typewriter keyboards but contain additional keys, such as the command or Windows keys
8.
MP3
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Compared to CD quality digital audio, MP3 compression commonly achieves 75 to 95% reduction in size. MP3 files are thus 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the digital audio stream. This is important for both transmission and storage concerns, the basis for such comparison is the CD digital audio format which requires 1411200 bit/s. A commonly used MP3 encoding setting is CBR128 kbit/s resulting in file size 1/11 of the original CD-quality file, the MP3 lossy compression works by reducing the accuracy of certain parts of a continuous sound that are considered to be beyond the auditory resolution ability of most people. This method is referred to as perceptual coding or psychoacoustics. It uses psychoacoustic models to discard or reduce the precision of less audible to human hearing. MP3 was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group as part of its MPEG-1 standard, the first subgroup for audio was formed by several teams of engineers at Fraunhofer IIS, University of Hanover, AT&T-Bell Labs, Thomson-Brandt, CCETT, and others. MPEG-1 Audio, which included MPEG-1 Audio Layer I, II and III was approved as a draft of ISO/IEC standard in 1991, finalised in 1992. A backwards compatible MPEG-2 Audio extension with lower sample and bit rates was published in 1995, MP3 is a streaming or broadcast format meaning that individual frames can be lost without affecting the ability to decode successfully delivered frames. Storing an MP3 stream in a file enables time-shifted playback, the MP3 lossy audio data compression algorithm takes advantage of a perceptual limitation of human hearing called auditory masking. In 1894, the American physicist Alfred M. Mayer reported that a tone could be rendered inaudible by another tone of lower frequency, in 1959, Richard Ehmer described a complete set of auditory curves regarding this phenomenon. Ernst Terhardt et al. created an algorithm describing auditory masking with high accuracy and this work added to a variety of reports from authors dating back to Fletcher, and to the work that initially determined critical ratios and critical bandwidths. A wide variety of compression algorithms were reported in IEEEs refereed Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. The genesis of the MP3 technology is described in a paper from Professor Hans Musmann who chaired the ISO MPEG Audio group for several years. The immediate predecessors of MP3 were Optimum Coding in the Frequency Domain, the first practical implementation of an audio perceptual coder in hardware, was an implementation of a psychoacoustic transform coder based on Motorola 56000 DSP chips. Another predecessor of the MP3 format and technology is to be found in the perceptual codec MUSICAM based on an integer arithmetics 32 sub-bands filterbank, driven by a psychoacoustic model. It was primarily designed for Digital Audio Broadcasting and digital TV and this codec incorporated into a broadcasting system using COFDM modulation was demonstrated on air and on the field together with Radio Canada and CRC Canada during the NAB show in 1991. F. As a doctoral student at Germanys University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Karlheinz Brandenburg began working on music compression in the early 1980s
9.
Smartphone
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A smartphone is a mobile phone with an advanced mobile operating system that combines features of a personal computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use. Smartphones can access the Internet and can run a variety of third-party software components and they typically have a color display with a graphical user interface that covers more than 76% of the front surface. In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country, smartphones became widespread in the late 2000s. Most of those produced from 2012 onward have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion sensors, in the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for regular cell phones in early 2013, devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and Theodore Paraskevakos in 1971 and patented in 1974, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993. Paraskevakos was the first to introduce the concepts of intelligence, data processing and they were installed at Peoples Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and were demonstrated to several telephone companies. The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos, the first mobile phone to incorporate PDA features was a prototype developed by Frank Canova in 1992 while at IBM and demonstrated that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show. It included PDA features and other mobile applications such as maps, stock reports. A refined version was marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator, the Simon was the first commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a smartphone, although it was not called that in 1994. The term smart phone appeared in print as early as 1995, in the mid-late 1990s, many mobile phone users carried a separate dedicated PDA device, running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS, BlackBerry OS or Windows CE/Pocket PC. These operating systems would later evolve into mobile operating systems, in March 1996, Hewlett-Packard released the OmniGo 700LX, a modified HP 200LX palmtop PC that supported a Nokia 2110 phone with ROM-based software to support it. It had a 640×200 resolution CGA compatible four-shade gray-scale LCD screen and could be used to place and receive calls and it was also 100% DOS5.0 compatible, allowing it to run thousands of existing software titles, including early versions of Windows. In August 1996, Nokia released the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a cellular phone based on the Nokia 2110 with an integrated PDA based on the PEN/GEOS3.0 operating system from Geoworks. The two components were attached by a hinge in what known as a clamshell design, with the display above. The PDA provided e-mail, calendar, address book, calculator and notebook applications, text-based Web browsing, when closed, the device could be used as a digital cellular phone. In June 1999 Qualcomm released the pdQ Smartphone, a CDMA digital PCS Smartphone with an integrated Palm PDA, subsequent landmark devices included, The Ericsson R380 by Ericsson Mobile Communications. The first device marketed as a smartphone, it combined the functions of a phone and PDA. The Kyocera 6035 introduced by Palm, Inc, combining a PDA with a mobile phone, it operated on the Verizon network, and supported limited Web browsing
10.
Distributed control system
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This is in contrast to non-distributed control systems that use centralised controllers, either discrete controllers located at a central control room or within a central computer. The DCS concept increases reliability and reduces costs by localising control functions near the process plant. The key attribute of a DCS is its reliability due to the distribution of the control processing around nodes in the system and this mitigates a single processor failure. If a processor fails, it will affect one section of the plant process. This distribution of computing power local to the field Input/Output field connection racks also ensures fast controller processing times by removing possible network, the accompanying diagram is a general model which shows functional manufacturing levels using computerised control. Level 2 contains the supervisory computers, which information from processor nodes on the system. Level 3 is the control level, which does not directly control the process. Levels 1 and 2 are the levels of a traditional DCS. Levels 3 and 4 are not strictly process control in the traditional sense, the processor nodes and operator graphical displays are connected over proprietary or industry standard networks, and network reliability is increased by dual redundancy cabling over diverse routes. This distributed topology also reduces the amount of field cabling by siting the I/O modules, the processors receive information from input modules, process the information and decide control actions to be signalled by the output modules. The field inputs and outputs can be analog signals e. g. 4~ 20mA dc current loop or 2 state signals that switch either on or off, DCSs are connected to sensors and actuators and use setpoint control to control the flow of material through the plant. A typical application is a PID controller fed by a flow meter, the DCS sends the setpoint required by the process to the controller which instructs a valve to operate so that the process reaches and stays at the desired setpoint. Large oil refineries and chemical plants have several thousand I/O points, DCSs in very high reliability applications can have dual redundant processors with hot switch over on fault, to enhance the reliability of the control system. Modern DCSs also support neural networks and Fuzzy logic applications, recent research focuses on the synthesis of optimal distributed controllers, which optimizes a certain H-infinity or the H2 control criterion. Distributed control systems are dedicated systems used in manufacturing processes that are continuous or batch-oriented, initially, control would be from panels local to the process plant. However this required a large manpower resource to attend to these dispersed panels, the next logical development was the transmission of all plant measurements to a permanently-manned central control room. Effectively this was the centralisation of all the panels, with the advantages of lower manning levels. Often the controllers were behind the control panels, and all automatic
11.
Display resolution
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The display resolution or display modes of a digital television, computer monitor or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It is usually quoted as width × height, with the units in pixels, for example,1024 ×768 means the width is 1024 pixels and this example would normally be spoken as ten twenty-four by seven sixty-eight or ten twenty-four by seven six eight. A consequence of having a display is that, for multi-format video inputs. Note that for broadcast television standards the use of the word here is a misnomer. In digital measurement, the resolution would be given in pixels per inch. In analog measurement, if the screen is 10 inches high, in the case of television inputs, many manufacturers will take the input and zoom it out to overscan the display by as much as 5% so input resolution is not necessarily display resolution. The eyes perception of display resolution can be affected by a number of factors – see image resolution, one factor is the display screens rectangular shape, which is expressed as the ratio of the physical picture width to the physical picture height. This is known as the aspect ratio, a screens physical aspect ratio and the individual pixels aspect ratio may not necessarily be the same. An array of 1280 ×720 on a 16,9 display has square pixels, an example of pixel shape affecting resolution or perceived sharpness, displaying more information in a smaller area using a higher resolution makes the image much clearer or sharper. Most television display manufacturers overscan the pictures on their displays, so that the effective on-screen picture may be reduced from 720 ×576 to 680 ×550, the size of the invisible area somewhat depends on the display device. HD televisions do this as well, to a similar extent, Computer displays including projectors generally do not overscan although many models allow it. CRT displays tend to be underscanned in stock configurations, to compensate for the distortions at the corners. As of July 2002,1024 ×768 eXtended Graphics Array was the most common display resolution, many web sites and multimedia products were re-designed from the previous 800 ×600 format to the layouts optimized for 1024 ×768. The availability of inexpensive LCD monitors has made the 5,4 aspect ratio resolution of 1280 ×1024 more popular for desktop usage during the first decade of the 21st century. Many computer users including CAD users, graphic artists and video game players ran their computers at 1600 ×1200 resolution or higher such as 2048 ×1536 QXGA if they had the necessary equipment. A new more-than-HD resolution of 2560 ×1600 WQXGA was released in 30-inch LCD monitors in 2007, as of March 2012,1366 ×768 was the most common display resolution. In 2010, 27-inch LCD monitors with the 2560 × 1440-pixel resolution were released by manufacturers including Apple. Panels for professional environments, such as use and air traffic control
12.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
13.
HUD (video gaming)
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In video gaming, the HUD or Status Bar is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a games user interface. It takes its name from the head-up displays used in modern aircraft, the HUD is frequently used to simultaneously display several pieces of information including the main characters health, items, and an indication of game progression. While the information that is displayed on the HUD depends greatly on the game, Most of them are static onscreen so that they stay visible during gameplay. Common features include, Health / lives – this might include the character and possibly other important characters. Real-time strategy games show the health of every unit visible on screen. Time – This may be a timer counting down the time limit or the left until a specific event. It may also be a timer counting up to such as lap times in racing games. Many HUDS also use time displays to show the in-game time, some games may also display the real time. Weapons/ammunition – Most action games show what weapon is being used, can show other available weapons, and objects like health packs, radios, etc. Capabilities – gameplay options that are accessible by the player during gameplay, such as available weapons, items. This can include when the ability will become usable again, such as ammunition, magic points, Menus – Menus to exit, change options, delete files, change settings, etc. Game progression – the players current score, money, lap and this might also include the characters current task or quest. Mini-map – a small map of the area that can act like a radar, showing the terrain, allies and/or enemies, locations like safe houses and shops, streets, speedometer/Tachometer – used in most games which feature drivable vehicles. Usually shown only when driving one of these, context-sensitive information – shown only as it becomes important, such as tutorial messages, special one-off abilities, and speech subtitles. Reticle / cursor / crosshair – an indication of where the character is aiming or where the mouse pointer is. Pressing a key while pointing at an object or character with the cursor can issue actions like shooting, talking, picking up objects, manipulating switches, using computers, stealthometer – displays the awareness level of enemies to the players presence. Compass / Quest Arrow - sometimes found in RPGs, first person shooters and driving games, an example is in the first-person shooter BioShock, which displays an arrow pointing the direction of the next objective on the top of the players HUD. Sometimes the compass itself might not be a real compass, rather one that points toward the location or goal
14.
Volumetric display
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One definition offered by pioneers in the field is that volumetric displays create 3D imagery via the emission, scattering, or relaying of illumination from well-defined regions in space. Most, if not all, volumetric 3D displays are either autostereoscopic or automultiscopic, note that some display technologists reserve the term autostereoscopic for flat-panel spatially multiplexed parallax displays, such as lenticular-sheet displays. However, nearly all 3D displays other than those requiring headwear, e. g. stereo goggles, therefore, a very broad group of display architectures are properly deemed autostereoscopic. Volumetric 3D displays embody just one family of 3D displays in general, although first postulated in 1912, and a staple of science fiction, volumetric displays are still under development, and have yet to reach the general population. With a variety of proposed and in use in small quantities—mostly in academia and various research labs—volumetric displays remain accessible only to academics, corporations. Many different attempts have been made to produce volumetric imaging devices, there is no officially accepted taxonomy of the variety of volumetric displays, an issue which is complicated by the many permutations of their characteristics. One categorization is as follows, Swept-surface volumetric 3D displays rely on the persistence of vision to fuse a series of slices of the 3D object into a single 3D image. A variety of swept-volume displays have been created, the image on the 2D surface changes as the surface moves or rotates. Due to the persistence of vision humans perceive a volume of light. The display surface can be reflective, transmissive, or a combination of both, another type of 3D display which is a candidate member of the class of swept-volume 3D displays is the varifocal mirror architecture. So-called static volume volumetric 3D displays create imagery without any moving parts in the image volume. It is unclear if the rest of the system must remain stationary for membership in this class to be viable. This is probably the most direct form of volumetric display, in the simplest case, an addressable volume of space is created out of active elements that are transparent in the off state but are either opaque or luminous in the on state. When the elements are activated, they show a pattern within the space of the display. Several static-volume volumetric 3D displays use laser light to encourage visible radiation in a solid, liquid, for example, some researchers have relied on two-step upconversion within a rare earth-doped material when illuminated by intersecting infrared laser beams of the appropriate frequencies. Recent advances have focused on implementations of the static-volume category. For instance, a fog display using multiple projectors can render a 3D image in a volume of space, resulting in a static-volume volumetric display. A technique presented in 2006 does away with the display medium altogether, the focal point is directed by two moving mirrors and a sliding lens, allowing it to draw shapes in the air
15.
Computer science
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Computer science is the study of the theory, experimentation, and engineering that form the basis for the design and use of computers. An alternate, more succinct definition of science is the study of automating algorithmic processes that scale. A computer scientist specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computational systems and its fields can be divided into a variety of theoretical and practical disciplines. Some fields, such as computational complexity theory, are highly abstract, other fields still focus on challenges in implementing computation. Human–computer interaction considers the challenges in making computers and computations useful, usable, the earliest foundations of what would become computer science predate the invention of the modern digital computer. Machines for calculating fixed numerical tasks such as the abacus have existed since antiquity, further, algorithms for performing computations have existed since antiquity, even before the development of sophisticated computing equipment. Wilhelm Schickard designed and constructed the first working mechanical calculator in 1623, in 1673, Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated a digital mechanical calculator, called the Stepped Reckoner. He may be considered the first computer scientist and information theorist, for, among other reasons and he started developing this machine in 1834, and in less than two years, he had sketched out many of the salient features of the modern computer. A crucial step was the adoption of a card system derived from the Jacquard loom making it infinitely programmable. Around 1885, Herman Hollerith invented the tabulator, which used punched cards to process statistical information, when the machine was finished, some hailed it as Babbages dream come true. During the 1940s, as new and more powerful computing machines were developed, as it became clear that computers could be used for more than just mathematical calculations, the field of computer science broadened to study computation in general. Computer science began to be established as an academic discipline in the 1950s. The worlds first computer science program, the Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science. The first computer science program in the United States was formed at Purdue University in 1962. Since practical computers became available, many applications of computing have become distinct areas of study in their own rights and it is the now well-known IBM brand that formed part of the computer science revolution during this time. IBM released the IBM704 and later the IBM709 computers, still, working with the IBM was frustrating if you had misplaced as much as one letter in one instruction, the program would crash, and you would have to start the whole process over again. During the late 1950s, the science discipline was very much in its developmental stages. Time has seen significant improvements in the usability and effectiveness of computing technology, modern society has seen a significant shift in the users of computer technology, from usage only by experts and professionals, to a near-ubiquitous user base
16.
Application software
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An application program is a computer program designed to perform a group of coordinated functions, tasks, or activities for the benefit of the user. Examples of an application include a processor, a spreadsheet, an accounting application, a web browser, a media player, an aeronautical flight simulator. The collective noun application software refers to all applications collectively and this contrasts with system software, which is mainly involved with running the computer. Applications may be bundled with the computer and its software or published separately. Apps built for mobile platforms are called mobile apps, in information technology, an application is a computer program designed to help people perform an activity. An application thus differs from a system, a utility. Depending on the activity for which it was designed, an application can manipulate text, numbers, graphics, some application packages focus on a single task, such as word processing, others, called integrated software include several applications. User-written software tailors systems to meet the specific needs. User-written software includes templates, word processor macros, scientific simulations, graphics. Even email filters are a kind of user software, users create this software themselves and often overlook how important it is. The delineation between system software such as operating systems and application software is not exact, however, and is occasionally the object of controversy. As another example, the GNU/Linux naming controversy is, in part, the above definitions may exclude some applications that may exist on some computers in large organizations. For an alternative definition of an app, see Application Portfolio Management, the word application, once used as an adjective, is not restricted to the of or pertaining to application software meaning. Sometimes a new and popular application arises which only runs on one platform and this is called a killer application or killer app. There are many different ways to divide up different types of application software, web apps have indeed greatly increased in popularity for some uses, but the advantages of applications make them unlikely to disappear soon, if ever. Furthermore, the two can be complementary, and even integrated, Application software can also be seen as being either horizontal or vertical. Horizontal applications are more popular and widespread, because they are general purpose, vertical applications are niche products, designed for a particular type of industry or business, or department within an organization. Integrated suites of software will try to handle every aspect possible of, for example, manufacturing or banking systems, or accounting
17.
Computer program
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A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when executed by a computer. A computer requires programs to function, and typically executes the programs instructions in a processing unit. A computer program is written by a computer programmer in a programming language. From the program in its form of source code, a compiler can derive machine code—a form consisting of instructions that the computer can directly execute. Alternatively, a program may be executed with the aid of an interpreter. A part of a program that performs a well-defined task is known as an algorithm. A collection of programs, libraries and related data are referred to as software. Computer programs may be categorized along functional lines, such as software or system software. The earliest programmable machines preceded the invention of the digital computer, in 1801, Joseph-Marie Jacquard devised a loom that would weave a pattern by following a series of perforated cards. Patterns could be weaved and repeated by arranging the cards, in 1837, Charles Babbage was inspired by Jacquards loom to attempt to build the Analytical Engine. The names of the components of the device were borrowed from the textile industry. In the textile industry, yarn was brought from the store to be milled, the device would have had a store—memory to hold 1,000 numbers of 40 decimal digits each. Numbers from the store would then have then transferred to the mill. It was programmed using two sets of perforated cards—one to direct the operation and the other for the input variables, however, after more than 17,000 pounds of the British governments money, the thousands of cogged wheels and gears never fully worked together. During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Ada Lovelace translated the memoir of Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea, the memoir covered the Analytical Engine. The translation contained Note G which completely detailed a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the Analytical Engine and this note is recognized by some historians as the worlds first written computer program. In 1936, Alan Turing introduced the Universal Turing machine—a theoretical device that can model every computation that can be performed on a Turing complete computing machine and it is a finite-state machine that has an infinitely long read/write tape. The machine can move the back and forth, changing its contents as it performs an algorithm
18.
Usability
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Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object such as a tool or device. The object of use can be an application, website, book, tool, machine, process, vehicle. A usability study may be conducted as a job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job function by designers, technical writers, marketing personnel. It is widely used in electronics, communication, and knowledge transfer objects. Usability includes methods of measuring usability, such as needs analysis, in human-computer interaction and computer science, usability studies the elegance and clarity with which the interaction with a computer program or a web site is designed. Usability differs from user satisfaction and user experience because usability does not directly consider usefulness or utility, by understanding and researching the interaction between product and user, the usability expert can also provide insight that is unattainable by traditional company-oriented market research. For example, after observing and interviewing users, the usability expert may identify needed functionality or design flaws that were not anticipated, a method called contextual inquiry does this in the naturally occurring context of the users own environment. In the user-centered design paradigm, the product is designed with its users in mind at all times. In the user-driven or participatory design paradigm, some of the users become actual or de facto members of the design team, the term user friendly is often used as a synonym for usable, though it may also refer to accessibility. Usability describes the quality of experience across websites, software, products. There is no consensus about the relation of the terms ergonomics, some think of usability as the software specialization of the larger topic of ergonomics. Others view these topics as tangential, with focusing on physiological matters. Usability is also important in website development, according to Jakob Nielsen, Studies of user behavior on the Web find a low tolerance for difficult designs or slow sites. And they dont want to learn how to use a home page, theres no such thing as a training class or a manual for a Web site. People have to be able to grasp the functioning of the immediately after scanning the home page—for a few seconds at most. Otherwise, most casual users simply leave the site and browse or shop elsewhere, ISO defines usability as The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. The word usability also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process, efficiency, Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks. Memorability, When users return to the design after a period of not using it, errors, How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors
19.
Widget (GUI)
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A control element in a graphical user interface is an element of interaction, such as a button or a scroll bar. Controls are software components that a user interacts with through direct manipulation to read or edit information about an application. User interface libraries such as Windows Presentation Foundation, GTK+, and Cocoa, contain a collection of controls, each widget facilitates a specific type of user-computer interaction, and appears as a visible part of the applications GUI as defined by the theme and rendered by the rendering engine. The theme makes all widgets adhere to an aesthetic design. Some widgets support interaction with the user, for labels, buttons. Others act as containers that group the widgets added to them, for windows, panels. Graphical user interface builders facilitate the authoring of GUIs in a WYSIWYG manner employing a user interface markup language and they automatically generate all the source code for a widget from general descriptions provided by the developer, usually through direct manipulation. Any widget displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box, the defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given kind of data. In other words, widgets are basic visual building blocks which, combined in an application, hold all the data processed by the application, GUI widgets are graphical elements used to build the human-machine-interface of a program. GUI widgets are implemented like software components, widget toolkits and software frameworks, like e. g. GTK+ or Qt, contain them in software libraries so that programmers can use them to build GUIs for their programs. A family of common reusable widgets has evolved for holding general information based on the Palo Alto Research Center Inc. research for the Xerox Alto User Interface, various implementations of these generic widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits, which programmers use to build graphical user interfaces. Most operating systems include a set of widgets that a programmer can incorporate in an application. Each type of widget generally is defined as a class by object-oriented programming, therefore, many widgets are derived from class inheritance. In the context of an application, a widget may be enabled or disabled at a point in time. An enabled widget has the capacity to respond to events, such as keystrokes or mouse actions, a widget that cannot respond to such events is considered disabled. The appearance of a widget typically differs depending on whether it is enabled or disabled, when disabled, see the adjacent image for an example. These kinds of widgets are hosted by a widget engine, “Widget” entered American English around 1920, as a generic term for any useful device, particularly a product manufactured for sale. In computer use it has been borrowed as a form of “window gadget
20.
Skin (computing)
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As such, a skin can completely change the look and feel and navigation interface of a piece of application software or operating system. Software that is capable of having a skin applied is referred to as being skinnable, and the process of writing or applying such a skin is known as skinning. The most popular skins are for instant messaging clients, media center, some platforms support changing the standard interface, including most using the X Window System. For those that do not, programs can add the functionality, like WindowBlinds for Microsoft Windows and this allows the user to select or design a different skin at will, and also allows for more deep changes in the position and function of the interface elements. The benefit of skinning in user interfaces is disputed, while some find it useful or pleasant to be able to change the appearance of software, a changed appearance can complicate technical support and training. A user interface that has been customized by one person may appear completely unfamiliar to another who knows the software under a different appearance. Some usability practitioners feel that this flexibility requires interaction design expertise that users might not have, many websites are skinnable, particularly those that provide social capabilities. Some sites provide skins that make primarily cosmetic changes, while some—such as H2G2—offer skins that make changes to page layout. Theme Computer wallpaper Look and feel User interface engineering Industrial design Windows Aero Windows XP visual styles
21.
Window (computing)
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In computing, a window is a graphical control element. It consists of an area containing some of the graphical user interface of the program it belongs to and is framed by a window decoration. It usually has a shape that can overlap with the area of other windows. It displays the output of and may allow input to one or more processes, Windows are primarily associated with graphical displays, where they can be manipulated with a pointer by employing some kind of pointing device. Text-only displays can also support windowing, as a way to multiple independent display areas. Text windows are controlled by keyboard, though some also respond to the mouse. A graphical user interface using windows as one of its main metaphors is called a system, whose main components are the display server. The idea was developed at the Stanford Research Institute and their earliest systems supported multiple windows, but there was no obvious way to indicate boundaries between them. Research continued at Xerox Corporations Palo Alto Research Center / PARC, during the 1980s the term WIMP, which stands for window, icon, menu, pointer, was coined at PARC. Apple had worked with PARC briefly at that time, apple developed an interface based on PARCs interface. It was first used on Apples Lisa and later Macintosh computers, Microsoft was developing office applications for the Mac at that time. Some speculate that this gave access to Apples OS before it was released. Windows are two dimensional objects arranged on a called the desktop. In a modern full-featured windowing system they can be resized, moved, hidden, Windows usually include other graphical objects, possibly including a menu-bar, toolbars, controls, icons and often a working area. In the working area, the document, image, folder contents or other object is displayed. Around the working area, within the window, there may be other smaller window areas, sometimes called panes or panels. The working area of a single document interface holds only one main object, child windows in multiple document interfaces, and tabs for example in many web browsers, can make several similar documents or main objects available within a single main application window. Some windows in Mac OS X have a feature called a drawer, applications that can run either under a graphical user interface or in a text user interface may use different terminology
22.
Automated teller machine
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According to the ATM Industry Association, there are now close to 3 million ATMs installed worldwide. Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number which must match the PIN stored in the chip on the card or in the financial institutions database. Using an ATM, customers can access their deposit or credit accounts in order to make a variety of transactions such as cash withdrawals, check balances. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that in which the account is denominated the money will be converted at an official exchange rate. Thus, ATMs often provide the best possible exchange rates for foreign travellers, the idea of out-of-hours cash distribution developed from bankers needs in Asia, Europe and North America. Little is known of the Japanese device other than it was called Computer Loan Machine, the device was operational in 1966. In the US patent record, Luther George Simjian has been credited with developing a prior art device, specifically his 132nd patent, which was first filed on 30 June 1960. The roll-out of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed by a couple of years, an experimental Bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance. The Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine and did not have cash dispensing features and it is widely accepted that the first ATM was put into use by Barclays Bank in its Enfield Town branch in north London, United Kingdom, on 27 June 1967. This machine was inaugurated by English comedy actor Reg Varney and this instance of the invention is credited to the engineering team led by John Shepherd-Barron of printing firm De La Rue, who was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. Shepherd-Barron stated, It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash. The Barclays-De La Rue machine beat the Swedish saving banks and a company called Metiors machine by a nine days. The online version of the Swedish machine is listed to have been operational on 6 May 1968, the collaboration of a small start-up called Speytec and Midland Bank developed a fourth machine which was marketed after 1969 in Europe and the US by the Burroughs Corporation. The patent for this device was filed on September 1969 by John David Edwards, Leonard Perkins, John Henry Donald, Peter Lee Chappell, Sean Benjamin Newcombe & Malcom David Roe. Both the DACS and MD2 accepted only a token or voucher which was retained by the machine while the Speytec worked with a card with a magnetic stripe at the back. They used principles including Carbon-14 and low-coercivity magnetism in order to make more difficult. The idea of a PIN stored on the card was developed by a British engineer working on the MD2 named James Goodfellow in 1965, the essence of this system was that it enabled the verification of the customer with the debited account without human intervention. This patent is also the earliest instance of a complete currency dispenser system in the patent record and this patent was filed on 5 March 1968 in the US and granted on 1 December 1970
23.
Point of sale
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The point of sale or point of purchase is the time and place where a retail transaction is completed. It is also the point at which a customer makes a payment to the merchant in exchange for goods or after provision of a service. After receiving payment, the merchant may issue a receipt for the transaction, which is usually printed, to calculate the amount owed by a customer, the merchant may use any of a variety of aids available, such as weighing scales, barcode scanners, and cash registers. To make a payment, payment terminals, touch screens, the point of sale is often referred to as the point of service because it is not just a point of sale but also a point of return or customer order. Additionally, current POS terminal software may include features to cater for different functionality, such as inventory management, CRM, financials. Businesses are increasingly adopting POS systems and one of the most obvious, selling prices are linked to the product code of an item when adding stock, so the cashier merely needs to scan this code to process a sale. If there is a change, this can also be easily done through the inventory window. Other advantages include ability to implement various types of discounts, a loyalty scheme for customers, retailers and marketers will often refer to the area around the checkout instead as the point of purchase when they are discussing it from the retailers perspective. This is particularly the case when planning and designing the area as well as considering a marketing strategy. Nevertheless, it is the term POS system rather than retail management system that is in vogue among both end-users and vendors, early electronic cash registers were controlled with proprietary software and were limited in function and communication capability. This system was the first commercial use of technology, peer-to-peer communications, local area network simultaneous backup. By mid-1974, it was installed in Pathmark stores in New Jersey, one of the first microprocessor-controlled cash register systems was built by William Brobeck and Associates in 1974, for McDonalds Restaurants. It used the Intel 8008, an early microprocessor. By pressing the button, a second or third order could be worked on while the first transaction was in progress, when the customer was ready to pay, the button would calculate the bill, including sales tax for almost any jurisdiction in the United States. This made it accurate for McDonalds and very convenient for the servers, up to eight devices were connected to one of two interconnected computers so that printed reports, prices, and taxes could be handled from any desired device by putting it into Manager Mode. In addition to the memory, accuracy was enhanced by having three copies of all important data with many numbers stored only as multiples of 3. Should one computer fail, the other could handle the entire store, in 1986, Gene Mosher introduced the first graphical point of sale software featuring a touchscreen interface under the ViewTouch trademark on the 16-bit Atari 520ST color computer. It featured a color touchscreen widget-driven interface that allowed configuration of widgets representing menu items without low level programming, the ViewTouch point of sale software was first demonstrated in public at Fall Comdex,1986, in Las Vegas Nevada to large crowds visiting the Atari Computer booth
24.
Self-checkout
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Self-checkout machines provide a mechanism for customers to process their own purchases from a retailer. They are an alternative to the traditional cashier-staffed checkout, in practice, the customer assumes the job of the cashier by scanning and applying payment for the items themselves. As of 2013, there were 191,000 self-checkout units worldwide and it was invented by David R. Humble. Most coupons also have barcodes and can be scanned the same way that items are scanned, although some require entry by a member of staff. The size of a machine is also smaller than a traditional checkout manned by a cashier, thus. Customers who do not want to interact with the cashier can use the self checkout to avoid those situations, self-checkout can also sometimes be faster than using a cashier lane. This can reduce the length of lines and wait times. In a survey by NCR, 42% of customers said they like the convenience of self-checkout, 90% of those surveyed responded as being users of self-checkout, with 7% of respondents saying they will always use self-checkout regardless of store lines and number of items. Survey respondents in Italy and Australia stated they always use self-checkout at a rate of 13%, self-checkout is vulnerable to some shoplifting techniques. In some cases the machine pick up the attempt to steal or cause the shopper to alter behavior. For example, in 2007, a man was charged with replacing the tag of a plasma TV with a $4.88 DVD, studies suggest that a large proportion of shoppers are tempted to shoplift due to the relative ease of fooling self checkouts. For example, a person who does not scan an item, may remember this was easy and fail to scan other items deliberately. A2012 survey with 4,952 respondents in the UK found that a third of shoppers had stolen this way, non-barcode items such as produce, and store staff overriding checkout alerts were singled out as vulnerabilities, and poverty was not seen as a major factor. Self-checkouts are also criticized for reducing the possibilities for customers and store staff to interact, however, one advantage is self-checkouts can allow for multilingual service. Self-checkout lanes may lack some rather basic customer interactions, like informing the customer that a coupon was not accepted, being more complex, they are more subject to failure. For example, they employ scales used to measure if an item is in the bagging area, and if that scale fails the register no longer operates. Also, in a manned checkout lane, any simple problems like lack of paper would be immediately fixed by the operator. This lack of reliability can be compensated for by having excess lanes available or enough staff on hand to perform immediate maintenance, an alternative system consists of a portable barcode scanner that is used by the customer to scan and bag items while shopping
25.
GNOME Shell
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GNOME Shell is the graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment starting with version 3, which was released on April 6,2011. It provides basic functions like launching applications, switching between windows and is also a widget engine, GNOME Shell replaced GNOME Panel and some ancillary components in GNOME2. GNOME Shell is written in C and JavaScript as a plugin for Mutter, as graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment, its design is guided by the GNOME UX Design Team. Changes to the user include, but are not limited to. Minimization has been removed due to the lack of a panel to minimize to, maximization can be accomplished using the afore-mentioned window snapping, or by double-clicking the window title bar. A fallback mode is offered in versions 3. 0–3.6 for those without hardware acceleration which offers the GNOME Panel desktop and this mode can also be toggled through the System Settings menu. GNOME3.8 removed the fallback mode and replaced it with GNOME Shell extensions that offer a traditional look. The functionality of GNOME Shell can be changed with extensions, which can be written in JavaScript, users can find and install extensions using the GNOME extensions website. Some of these extensions are hosted in GNOMEs git repository, though they are not official, the Linux distribution Fedora uses GNOME Shell by default since release 15. Ubuntu doesnt use GNOME Shell by default, but users are able to install it from the Ubuntu repositories since version 11.10, in addition, an unofficial flavor named Ubuntu GNOME Remix was released alongside Ubuntu 12.10. It gained official status by Ubuntu 13.04 release cycle and was renamed Ubuntu GNOME. The GNOME version of openSUSE12.1 uses GNOME Shell by default, in 2011, Arch Linux dropped support of GNOME2 in favor of GNOME3 in its repositories. Mageia 2 and later include GNOME Shell, Debian Jessie makes GNOME3.14 available. More recent versions of GNOME Shell are also available in Debian testing, sabayon Linux uses the latest version of GNOME Shell. GNOME Shell has received mixed reviews, It has been criticized for a variety of reasons, mostly related to design decisions and reduced user control over the environment. In particular, users might not be able to use Compiz with GNOME Shell while retaining access to the types of features that older versions of GNOME allowed. Reviews have generally more positive over time, with upcoming releases addressing many of the annoyances reported by users. The first concepts for GNOME Shell were created during GNOME’s User Experience Hackfest 2008 in Boston, after criticism of the traditional GNOME desktop and accusations of stagnation and lacking vision, the resulting discussion led to the announcement of GNOME3.0 in April 2009
26.
KDE Plasma 5
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KDE Plasma 5 is the fifth and current generation of the desktop environment created by KDE primarily for Linux systems. KDE Plasma 5 is the successor of KDE Plasma 4 and was released on 15 July 2014. It includes a new theme, known as Breeze, as well as increased convergence across different devices. The graphical interface was fully migrated to QML, which uses OpenGL for hardware acceleration resulting in better performance, KDE Plasma 5 is built using Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5, predominantly plasma-framework. Plasma 5.0 improves support for HiDPI displays and ships a converged graphical shell and it also includes a new default theme, dubbed Breeze. Changes under the hood include the migration to a new, fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack centered on an OpenGL-based scene graph, Plasma 5 completes the migration of KDE Plasma 4 to QtQuick. KDE Plasma 5 uses the X Window System, but support for Wayland is under development, initial support for Wayland was made available in the 5.4 release. Stable support for a basic Wayland session was provided in the 5.5 release, since the split of the KDE Software Compilation into KDE Frameworks 5, KDE Plasma 5 and KDE Applications, each subproject can develop at its own pace. KDE Plasma 5 is on its own schedule, with feature releases every three months, and bugfix releases in the intervening months. Plasma Mobile is a Plasma variant for smartphones, the official announcement of the new formfactor interface was on 25 July 2015 at Akademy, accompanied by a working prototype running on a Nexus 5. Plasma Mobile runs on Wayland and it is compatible with Ubuntu Touch applications, a build based on Kubuntu is available for the Nexus 5. The first Technology Preview of Plasma 5 was released on 13 December 2013, on 15 July 2014 the first release version – Plasma 5.0 – saw the light of day. In spring 2015, Plasma 5 replaced Plasma 4 in many distributions, such as Fedora 22, Kubuntu 15.04. Feature releases are released four months and bugfix releases in the intervening months. Official website Plasma user wiki Plasma developer wiki
27.
Unity (user interface)
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Unity is a discontinued graphical shell for the GNOME desktop environment developed by Canonical Ltd. for its Ubuntu operating system. Unity debuted in the edition of Ubuntu 10.10. Unlike GNOME, KDE Software Compilation, Xfce, or LXDE, Unity is part of the Ayatana project, an initiative with the stated intention of improving the user experience within Ubuntu. In addition to Unity, there are Application Indicators and other such as MeMenu, the notification system. On 5 April 2017 Mark Shuttleworth announced that work on Unity will end, launcher – a dock that also serves as a window switcher. Multiple instances of an application are grouped under the dock icon. The user has a choice whether or not to lock an application to the launcher, If it is not locked, an application may be started using the Dash or via a separately installed menu. Quicklist – the accessible menu of launcher items, Dash – an overlay that allows the user to search quickly for information both locally and remotely and displays previews of results. The Dash search feature was the subject of the privacy controversy, head-up display – introduced with Ubuntu 12.04. It allows hotkey searching for top menu bar items from the keyboard, without the need for using the mouse, Indicators – a notification area, containing displays for the clock, network and battery status, sound volume etc. Dash The Unity Dash is a desktop search utility in Unity, Unity Preview is a function that previews an item in the search results. Lens is a channel to throw the search query to Scope, Scope is a search engine of Dash. The search query is thrown by Lens, the following lenses and scopes are installed by default, Home lens Application lens is a lens to find applications to launch or install. The source of applications is the Ubuntu Software Center. File lens is a lens to show files from local and remote sources, Google Docs scope is a lens which searches files from Google Drive. Music lens is a lens to search the users music library, Music Stores scope is a scope to search online music stores, such as the Ubuntu One Music Store. Video lens is a lens to search videos from the video library. Social lens is a lens to find the users SNS activities such as Twitter, Facebook, shopping lens is a lens for online shopping
28.
Xfce
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Xfce is a free and open-source desktop environment for Unix and Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux, Solaris, and BSD. Xfce aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing, Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of separately packaged parts that provide all functions of the desktop environment. Another priority of Xfce is adherence to standards, specifically those defined at freedesktop. org, like GNOME, Xfce is based on the GTK+ toolkit. It uses the Xfwm window manager, described below and its configuration is entirely mouse-driven, with the configuration files hidden from the casual user. Xfce does not feature any desktop animations, but Xfwm supports compositing, olivier Fourdan started the project in 1996 as a Linux version of the Common Desktop Environment, a Unix desktop environment that was initially proprietary and later released as free software. However, after a years of development and several major versions, Xfce has diverged from CDE. The name Xfce originally stood for XForms Common Environment, but since that time Xfce has been rewritten twice, the name survived, but it is no longer capitalized as XFCE, but rather as Xfce. The developers current stance is that the no longer stands for anything specific. It has been nicknamed Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment, another possibility X Freakin Cool Environment is suggested at Xfce Wiki. As a result, Xfce is currently an acronym that doesnt stand for anything, Xfce began as a simple project created with XForms. Olivier Fourdan released the program, which was just a simple taskbar, Fourdan continued developing the project and in 1998, Xfce 2 was released with the first version of Xfces window manager, Xfwm. He requested to have the project included in Red Hat Linux, Red Hat only accepted software that was open source and released under either a GPL or BSD compatible license, whereas, at the time, XForms was closed source and free only for personal use. For the same reason, Xfce was not in Debian before version 3, in March 1999 Fourdan began a complete rewrite of the project based on GTK+, a non-proprietary toolkit rising in popularity. The result was Xfce 3.0, licensed under the GPL, along with being based completely on free software, the project gained GTK+ drag-and-drop support, native language support, and improved configurability. Xfce was uploaded to SourceForge. net in February 2001, starting with version 3.8.1, in version 4.0.0, released 25 September 2003, Xfce was upgraded to use the GTK+2 libraries. Changes in 4.2.0 included a compositing manager for Xfwm which added support for transparency and drop shadows. In January 2007, Xfce 4.4.0 was released and this included the Thunar file manager, a replacement for Xffm
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Enlightenment (software)
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Enlightenment, also known simply as E, is a compositing and stacking window manager for the X Window System. Since version 20, Enlightenment is also a Wayland compositor, Enlightenment developers have referred to it as the original eye-candy window manager. Enlightenment includes functions to provide a shell, and it can be used in conjunction with programs written for GNOME or KDE. When used together with the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries, Enlightenment can refer to a desktop environment. The first version of Enlightenment was released by Rasterman in 1997, version 0.17, also referred to as E17, was in development for 12 years starting in December 2000 until 21 December 2012 when it was officially released as stable. During the development period it was referred to as DR17. It is a rewrite on DR16 and was designed to be a full-fledged desktop shell. E16 itself is still in development that runs independently of E17. Bodhi Linux was built around the Enlightenment 17 desktop, but forked it to create the Moksha desktop, Enlightenment allows the user to have a grid of workspaces called virtual desktops. Switching between them is achieved by hurling the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen, at which the desktop appears to slide across to reveal the next. The maximum grid size is eight by eight desktops, and the user can have 32 grids, the desktop dragbar allows a desktop to be slid back to reveal the desktop underneath. The E team use the analogy of sheets of paper, stacked on top of each other, Window grouping, the ability to put windows into groups so that they can all be moved, resized, closed, etc. together. Iconification, reducing windows to an icon, stored in iconboxes that can be placed about the screen, e16keyedit is a graphical program for simplifying keybinding creation. Newer versions include compositing effects such as fading and transparency and it also includes a special effects dialog, including a desktop ripple effect. net Operating-systems distribution status
30.
Sugar (software)
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Sugar is a free and open source computer desktop environment designed for interactive learning by children. Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child project, Sugar was the interface on OLPC XO-1 laptop computers. The OLPC XO-1.5 and later provided the option of either the Gnome or Sugar interfaces, Sugar is available as a Live CD, as Live USB, a package installable through several Linux distributions. It can run in a Linux virtual machine under Windows and Mac OS, unlike most other desktop environments, Sugar does not use the desktop, folder and window metaphors. Instead, Sugars default full-screen activities require users to focus on one program at a time. Sugar implements a journal which automatically saves the users running program session and allows them to use an interface to pull up their past works by date, activity used. Sugar is a system which reinvents the use of computers for education in our society. Collaboration, reflection and discovery are incorporated straightforwardly into the user interface, Sugar encourages “studio thinking” and “reflective practice”. Through Sugar’s clarity of environment, young learners and educators have the choice to utilize PCs in all alone terms, students can reshape, reinvent, and reapply both software and content into intense learning exercises. Sugar’s concentration on sharing, criticism, and investigation is grounded in the culture of free software, information is about nouns, learning is about verbs. The Sugar interface is the first serious endeavor to make an environment that is based on both cognitive and social constructivism which is designed for children. Sugar is based on three principles,1. Everybody is an instructor and a learner,2, humans by nature are social beings and,3. These are the pillars of an experience for learning. Sugar also considers two more truisms,1, if you want to learn more and more, then for that You have to do more and more. Love is far more significant than duty-you want people to participate in things that are authentic to them, the Sugar platform is characterized by three qualities, -1. Sugar Maintains a “Journal” for each user so that task is reflected on it,3. Through its excellent design, Sugar is discoverable, it can suit a wide assortment of learners with various levels of aptitude
31.
Twm
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Twm is a window manager for the X Window System. Started in 1987 by Tom LaStrange, it has been the window manager for the X Window System since version X11R4. The name originally stood for Toms Window Manager, but the software was renamed Tab Window Manager by the X Consortium when they adopted it in 1989, twm is a re-parenting window manager that provides title bars, shaped windows and icon management. It is highly configurable and extensible, twm was a breakthrough achievement in its time, but it has been largely superseded by other window managers which, unlike twm, use a widget toolkit rather than writing directly against Xlib. Various other window managers—such as vtwm, tvtwm, CTWM, twm is still standard with X. Org Server, and is available as part of many X implementations. Twms interface is different from modern common X window managers and desktop environments many of which tend to work similarly to the Apple Macintosh or Microsoft Windows, new users often find twm difficult without reading the manual page. Iconify button, reduces the window to an icon, there is no title bar button to close a window. A left click on the desktop brings up a menu, which includes an option to delete a window, Window close functionality for the titlebar can be configured in the. twmrc file, See Closing program windows in twm at Wikibooks. A left click on the title bar brings the window to the top of the stack, a middle click moves the window. Window focus follows the mouse pointer, rather than being on whichever window was clicked last, note that any of the above may be changed with appropriate changes to the configuration file. Twm was my first X program, about six months later, I convinced my manager to let me send a copy to the comp. windows. x newsgroup for testing. A version for X11R1 was published on the Usenet newsgroup comp. unix, subsequently, twm was released as the standard sample window manager for X11R4, replacing uwm. According to Fulton, the tab was picked because it conveniently started with T and it put the emphasis on the squeezing feature window title bars. Twm was originally written by Tom LaStrange, later contributors include Jim Fulton, Keith Packard and Dave Sternlicht, all of whom were employees of the X Consortium. Tab Window Manager An Overview of twm — Tom LaStrange, Xhibition 89 Conference Proceedings — concerning pre-ICCCM versions of twm From the Desktop, talking with a Man Named Tom
32.
X Window System
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The X Window System is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on UNIX-like computer operating systems. X provides the framework for a GUI environment, drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting with a mouse. X does not mandate the user interface – this is handled by individual programs, as such, the visual styling of X-based environments varies greatly, different programs may present radically different interfaces. X originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984, the protocol has been version 11 since September 1987. The X. Org Foundation leads the X project, with the current reference implementation, X. Org Server, available as free and open source software under the MIT License, X is an architecture-independent system for remote graphical user interfaces and input device capabilities. Each person using a terminal has the ability to interact with the display with any type of user input device. X provides the framework, or primitives, for building such GUI environments, drawing and moving windows on the display and interacting with a mouse. X does not mandate the user interface, individual client programs handle this, programs may use Xs graphical abilities with no user interface. As such, the styling of X-based environments varies greatly. Unlike most earlier display protocols, X was specifically designed to be used over network connections rather than on an integral or attached display device. X features network transparency, which means an X program running on a computer somewhere on a network can display its user interface on an X server running on other computer on the network. The fact that the server is applied to the software in front of the user is often surprising to users accustomed to their programs being clients to services on remote computers. Xs network protocol is based on X command primitives and this approach allows both 2D and 3D operations by an X client application which might be running on a different computer to still be fully accelerated on the X servers display. X provides no support for audio, several projects exist to fill this niche. X uses a model, an X server communicates with various client programs. The server accepts requests for graphical output and sends back user input, a client and server can even communicate securely over the Internet by tunneling the connection over an encrypted network session. An X client itself may emulate an X server by providing services to other clients. This is known as X nesting, open-source clients such as Xnest and Xephyr support such X nesting
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Wayland (display server protocol)
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Wayland is a computer protocol that specifies the communication between a display server and its clients, as well as a reference implementation of the protocol in the C programming language. The projects source code is published under the terms of the MIT License, as part of its efforts, the Wayland project also develops a reference implementation of a Wayland compositor called Weston. In recent years, Linux desktop graphics has moved from having a pile of rendering interfaces, all talking to the X server, which is at the center of the universe towards putting the Linux kernel and its components in the middle, with window systems like X and Wayland. This will be a much-simplified graphics system offering more flexibility and better performance, a tremendous amount of functionality that you must support to claim to speak the X protocol, yet nobody will ever use this. For many things weve been able to keep the X. org server modern by adding extension such as XRandR, XRender, with Wayland we can move the X server and all its legacy technology to an optional code path. Getting to a point where the X server is a compatibility option instead of the rendering system will take a while. Wayland consists of a protocol and a reference implementation named Weston, the project is also developing versions of GTK+ and Qt that render to Wayland instead of to X. Most applications are expected to support for Wayland through one of these libraries without modification to the application. Wayland does not currently provide network transparency, but it may in the future and it was attempted as a Google Summer of Code project in 2011, but was not successful. Adam Jackson has envisioned providing remote access to a Wayland application by either pixel-scraping or getting it to send a rendering command stream across the network, as of early 2013, Høgsberg is experimenting with network transparency using a proxy Wayland server which sends compressed images to the real compositor. Each object implements an interface which has a name, a number of methods as well as several associated events, every request and event has zero or more arguments, each one with a name and a data type. The protocol is asynchronous in the sense that requests do not have to wait for synchronized replies or ACKs, avoiding round-trip delay time, the Wayland clients can make a request on some object if the objects interface supports that request. The client must also supply the data for the arguments of such request. This is the way the clients request services from the compositor, the compositor in turn sends information back to the client by causing the object to emit events. These events can be emitted by the compositor as a response to a certain request, or asynchronously, global objects are advertised by the compositor to the clients when they are created, while non-global objects are usually created by other objects that already exist as part of their functionality. The interfaces and their requests and events are the elements that define the Wayland protocol. Each version of the protocol includes a set of interfaces, along with their requests and events and this is an XML file that lists the existing interfaces in the current version, along with their requests, events and other attributes. This set of interfaces is the required to be implemented by any Wayland compositor
34.
Dwm
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Dwm is a dynamic, minimalist tiling window manager for the X Window System that has influenced the development of several other X window managers, including xmonad and awesome. It is externally similar to wmii, but internally much simpler, dwm is written purely in C for performance and security in addition to simplicity, and lacks any configuration interface besides editing the source code. One of the guidelines is that the source code will never exceed 2000 lines. Dwm supports multiple workspaces and, unlike ratpoison, allows moving and resizing windows with the mouse, older versions of dwm displayed their stdin in a status bar, along the edge of the screen. Recent versions instead display the root name, which can be set by independent processes. Dmenu is a keyboard-driven menu utility developed as part of the dwm project, when invoked, usually by a user-configured key combination, dmenu displays a horizontal menu of its stdin stream at the top edge of the screen. This is usually used to pipe in a list of names from the users $PATH. The user can start typing a program name, and dmenu will narrow the list to show only substring matches for what the user typed, the user can also use the arrow keys to navigate the menu. When a choice is made, dmenu sends the text to stdout. Command-line options can alter the font and colors of the menu, make the search case-insensitive, by default, only X Font Server fonts are supported although a patch exists to enable TrueType fonts using Xft. In addition to dwm, dmenu is often used with other window managers like xmonad, or Openbox, dwm has been an influential project, many other window managers are based on dwms source code or inspired by it. An extensive list of forks and patches can be found at the official site, below is a list of a few notable examples, awesome extends dwm with FreeType support, reconfigurability, Lua scripting support, theming, and more layout types. Echinus extends dwm with FreeType support, subset of EWMH, click-to-focus, reconfigurability, wmii is a tiling window manager from which dwm draws inspiration. Xmonad is a dwm rewrite in Haskell with additional features
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Tiling window manager
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The first Xerox Star system tiled application windows, but allowed dialogs and property windows to overlap. Later, Xerox PARC also developed CEDAR, the first windowing system using a window manager. Next in 1983 came Andrew WM, a complete tiled windowing system later replaced by X11, microsofts Windows 1.0 also used tiling. In 1986 came Digital Researchs GEM2.0, a system for the CP/M which used tiling by default. One of the early tiling WMs was Siemens RTL, up to today an example because of its algorithms of automated window scaling, placement and arrangement. RTL ran on X11R2 and R3, mainly on the native Siemens systems and its features are described by its promotional video. The Andrew Project was a client system for X with a tiling and overlapping window manager. The built-in Microsoft Windows window manager has, since Windows 95 and it can also act as a rudimentary tiling window manager. To tile windows, the user selects them in the taskbar, however, the wording of these options is misleading. These options were changed in Windows Vista to Show Windows Side by Side and Show Windows Stacked. Windows 7 adds the ability to drag windows to either side of the screen to create a simple side-by-side tiled layout, the Windows 8 GUI introduced a new basic tiling window manager. In Windows 10, users are able to tile Windows by quarters, the first version featured a tiling window manager, partly because of litigation by Apple claiming ownership of the overlapping window desktop metaphor. But due to complaints, the version followed the desktop metaphor. All later versions of the operating system stuck to this approach as the default behaviour, in the X Window System, the window manager is a separate program. X itself enforces no specific window management approach and remains usable even without any window manager, current X protocol version X11 explicitly mentions the possibility of tiling window managers. The Siemens RTL Tiled Window Manager was the first to implement automatic placement/sizing strategies, another tiling window manager from this period was the Cambridge Window Manager developed by IBMs Academic Information System group. In 2000, both larswm and Ion released a first version, awesome — a dwm derivative with window tiling, floating and tagging, written in C and configurable and extensible in Lua. It was the first WM to be ported from Xlib to XCB, bspwm — represents windows as the leaves of a full binary tree
36.
Cinnamon (software)
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Cinnamon is a desktop environment that is based on the GTK+3 toolkit. Cinnamon originally started as a fork of GNOME Shell, thus initially as a graphical shell of the GNOME software. Cinnamon was developed by the Linux Mint distribution, with wider adoption spreading to other distributions over time, the Linux Mint development team was initially unsure about the future of the distribution after the release of GNOME3. Its new graphical shell, GNOME Shell, did not fit the design goals the team had in mind for Linux Mint, but there were initially no available alternatives. Linux Mint 11 Katya was released in May 2011 with the release of GNOME2. Therefore, the set out to improve GNOME Shell so that it would fit Linux Mints goals. In the meantime, the MATE desktop environment was forked from GNOME2, the Mint team decided to incorporate MATE into Linux Mint 12 Lisa alongside MGSE, to give users a choice whether to use the traditional GNOME2 desktop or the GNOME 3-based MGSE. However, MGSE fell short of expectations, since GNOME Shell was going in a different direction than the Mint developers had in mind, it was clear that MGSE was not viable in the long run. The project was announced on 2 January 2012 on the Linux Mint blog. From version 1.2 onward, Cinnamon uses Muffin, a fork of Mutter from GNOME3, Cinnamon 1.6 was introduced on 18 September 2012 with new default file browser Nemo replacing Nautilus, although Nautilus is still optional. Cinnamon 1.8 was released on 5 May 2013, GNOME Control Center has been forked. It is now called Cinnamon-Control-Center and it combines Gnome-Control-Center and Cinnamon-Settings, gnome-Screensaver has been also forked and is now called Cinnamon-Screensaver. Now it is possible to install and update applets, extensions, desklets and it also features a modified Nemo interface. Desklets that come with the release are like Widgets, Cinnamon 2.0 was released on 10 October 2013. From this version, Cinnamon is no longer a frontend on top of the GNOME desktop like Unity or GNOME Shell, Cinnamon is still built on GNOME technologies and uses GTK+, but it no longer requires GNOME itself to be installed. The biggest changes in this release are improved edge-tiling, improved user management, configurable individual sound effects, Cinnamon 3.2 was tagged on 7 November 2016 and released to the first Mint environment LMDE2 on 13 November 2016. There is documentation for the Cinnamon edition of Linux Mint, with a chapter on the Cinnamon desktop, new overview modes have been added to Cinnamon 1.4. These two modes are Expo and Scale, which can be configured in Cinnamon Settings, Cinnamon can be modified by themes, applets and extensions
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Windowing system
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In computing, a windowing system is a type of graphical user interface which implements the WIMP paradigm for a user interface. Usually a window decoration is drawn around each window, the main component of any windowing system is usually called the display server, although alternative denominations such as window server or compositor are also in use. Any application that runs and presents its GUI in a window, is a client of the display server. It receives all the input from the kernel, that the kernel receives from all attached devices, such as keyboard, pointing devices, or touchscreen. The display server is responsible for the output of the clients to the computer monitor. The output of sound is not managed by the display server. A windowing system enables the user to work with several programs at the same time. Each program presents its GUI in its own window, which is generally an area of the screen. From a programmers point of view, a windowing system implements graphical primitives, for example, rendering fonts or drawing a line on the screen. It provides an abstraction of the hardware for use by higher-level elements of the graphical interface such as a window manager. A display server protocol can be capable or even network transparent. History of the user interface Widget toolkit Desktop environment
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WIMP (computing)
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In human–computer interaction, WIMP stands for windows, icons, menus, pointer, denoting a style of interaction using these elements of the user interface. It was coined by Merzouga Wilberts in 1980, other expansions are sometimes used, substituting mouse and mice or pull-down menu and pointing, for menus and pointer, respectively. Though the term has fallen into disuse, some use it as a synonym for graphical user interface. Any interface that uses graphics can be called a GUI, however, while all WIMP systems use graphics as a key element, and therefore are GUIs, the reverse is not true. Some GUIs are not based in windows, icons, menus, for example, most mobile phones represent actions as icons, and some may have menus, but very few include a pointer or run programs in a window. WIMP interaction was developed at Xerox PARC and popularized with Apples introduction of the Macintosh in 1984, in a WIMP system, A window runs a self-contained program, isolated from other programs that run at the same time in other windows. An icon acts as a shortcut to an action the computer performs, a menu is a text or icon-based selection system that selects and executes programs or tasks. The pointer is a symbol that represents movement of a physical device that the user controls to select icons, data elements. This style of system improves human–computer interaction by emulating real-world interactions, users can carry skill at a standardized interface from one application to another. Some human–computer interaction researchers consider WIMP to be ill-suited for multiple applications, wIMP-style user interfaces place visually impaired users at a disadvantage, especially when alternative text-based interfaces are not made available. Researchers have been exploring other alternatives that make modern computer systems more accessible, the latter resulted in the development of BumpTop desktop and its acquisition and release by Google. History of the user interface Desktop metaphor Natural user interface Alistair D. N. Edwards
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Window manager
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A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to provide a desktop environment. Few window managers are designed with a distinction between the windowing system and the window manager. Every graphical user interface based on a windows metaphor has some form of window management, in practice, the elements of this functionality vary greatly. Elements usually associated with window managers allow the user to open, close, minimize, maximize, move, resize, many window managers also come with various utilities and features, e. g. docks, task bars, program launchers, desktop icons, and wallpaper. On systems using the X window system, there is a distinction between the window manager and the windowing system. Strictly speaking, an X window manager does not directly interact with hardware, mice. Users of the X Window System have the ability to use many different window managers – Metacity, used in GNOME2, and KWin, used in KDE Plasma Workspaces. Since many window managers are modular, people can use others, such as Compiz, sawfish and awesome on the other hand are extensible window managers offering exacting window control. Components of different window managers can even be mixed and matched, for example, Window managers under the X window system adopt applications from the root window and re-parent them to window decorations. Re-parenting can also be used to add the contents of one window to another, for example, a flash player application can be re-parented to a browser window, and can appear to the user as supposedly being part of that program. Re-parenting window managers can therefore arrange one or more programs into the same window, Microsoft Windows has provided an integrated stacking window manager since Windows 2.0, Windows Vista introduced the compositing Desktop Window Manager as an optional hardware-accelerated alternative. Since Windows 8, the Desktop Window Manager can no longer be disabled, the Windows window manager can also act as an X window manager through Cygwin/X in multiwindow mode. Note that Microsoft and X Window System use different terms to describe similar concepts, for example, there is no specific word for window manager functionality in Windows. Window managers are often divided into three or more classes, which describe how windows are drawn and updated, Compositing window managers let all windows be created and drawn separately and then put together and displayed in various 2D and 3D environments. The most advanced compositing window managers allow for a deal of variety in interface look and feel. All window managers that have overlapping windows and are not compositing window managers are stacking window managers, stacking window managers allow windows to overlap by drawing background windows first, which is referred to as painters algorithm. Changes sometimes require that all windows be re-stacked or repainted, which usually involves redrawing every window, tiling window managers paint all windows on-screen by placing them side by side or above and below each other, so that no window ever covers another
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Desktop environment
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The desktop environment was seen mostly on personal computers until the rise of mobile computing. Desktop GUIs help the user to access and edit files. Instead, the traditional command-line interface is used when full control over the operating system is required. A desktop environment typically consists of icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, a GUI might also provide drag and drop functionality and other features that make the desktop metaphor more complete. While the term desktop environment originally described a style of user interfaces following the desktop metaphor and this usage has been popularized by projects such as the Common Desktop Environment, K Desktop Environment, and GNOME. On a system offers a desktop environment, a window manager in conjunction with applications written using a widget toolkit are generally responsible for most of what the user sees. The window manager supports the user interactions with the environment, while the toolkit provides developers a software library for applications with a unified look, a windowing system of some sort generally interfaces directly with the underlying operating system and libraries. This provides support for hardware, pointing devices, and keyboards. The window manager generally runs on top of this windowing system, applications that are created with a particular window manager in mind usually make use of a windowing toolkit, generally provided with the operating system or window manager. A windowing toolkit gives applications access to widgets that allow the user to interact graphically with the application in a consistent way, the first desktop environment was created by Xerox and was sold with the Xerox Alto in the 1970s. The Alto was generally considered by Xerox to be an office computer, it failed in the marketplace because of poor marketing. With the Lisa, Apple introduced a desktop environment on a personal computer. The desktop metaphor was popularized on commercial personal computers by the original Macintosh from Apple in 1984, Microsoft Windows dominates in marketshare among personal computers with a desktop environment. Among the more popular of these are Googles Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, Intels NUC, on tablets and smartphones, the situation is the opposite, with Unix-like operating systems dominating the market, including the iOS, Android, Tizen, Sailfish and Ubuntu. Microsofts Windows phone, Windows RT and Windows 10 are used on a smaller number of tablets. On systems running the X Window System, desktop environments are more dynamic. All these individual modules can be exchanged and independently configured to suit users, not all of the program code that is part of a desktop environment has effects which are directly visible to the user. Some of it may be low-level code, KDE, for example, provides so-called KIO slaves which give the user access to a wide range of virtual devices
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