Graphical User Interfaces

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Graphical User Interfaces

• Presented by
• Richard A. Sarut(Group 1)
• Cs551-Front End Design Methods
• Azusa Pacific University
• Professor-Dr. Cliff Kettemborough

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WHAT IS A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE?

• Graphical user interface GUI.
• GUI is a graphical (rather than purely textual)
  user interface to a computer.
• Elements of a GUI include such things as
  windows, pull-down menus, buttons, scroll bars,
  icons .

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The Evolution of GUIs

• Early computer interfaces involved the use of
  the keyboard and terminal in a text mode
• Command line entry entails remembering various
  codes and characters
• Terminal displays are terse and cryptic to the
  untrained user . . . so computer scientists
  began developing a different way of looking at
  interfaces

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The GUI Timeline
1973
 
April 1973, the first operational Alto computer
is completed at Xerox PARC. The Alto is the
first system to pull together all of the elements
of the modern Graphical User Interface. 
Features 3-button mouse. Bit-mapped display.
The use of graphical windows. Ethernet network.

1973
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The GUI Timeline
1980
1980 Three Rivers Computer Corporation
introduces the the Perq graphical workstation.
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The GUI Timeline
1981
1981 June Xerox introduces the Star, the
commercial successor to the Alto. Notable
features Double-clickable icons, overlapping
windows, dialog boxes and a 1024768 monochrome
display.
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The GUI Timeline
1983
1983 January Apple introduces the Lisa. Notable
features  Pull down menus and menu bars.
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The GUI Timeline
1984
September Digital Research announces its GEM
icon/desktop user interface for 8086- and
DOS-based computers. It also was later ported to
the Atari ST.
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The GUI Timeline
1984
June "window system X"  announced at MIT.
Versions 1-6 were monochrome only, and ran on
DEC VS100's displays connected to VAXen and
VAXstations 1 and 2.  Versions 8-10 dealt with
color, for the VAXstation II/GPX. X10 is the
first version that saw widespread availability
and use on many vendor's systems. Version 11 was
redesign for higher performance, more window
management styles, extensibility and better
graphics
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The GUI Timeline
1985
1985 Geos released for Commodore 64 and later
the Apple II. 
July  Commodore introduces the Amiga 1000 with
the Amiga Workbench Version 1.0.
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The GUI Timeline
1987
Microsoft releases the second version of Windows,
version 2.03.  Features Finally has resizable
/ overlapping windows and new windowing controls.

 
September 1988 Apple releases GS/OS, a 16-bit
operating system with a Macintosh-like GUI for
the Apple IIGS.
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The GUI Timeline
1990
1990 Commodore releases Amiga Workbench 2 for
the A3000. Features New 3d effects, a revised
menu system and many other improvements.
May 1990 Windows 3.0 released by Microsoft
Features Program Manager shell.  
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The GUI Timeline
1990
Spring of 1992 IBM releases OS/2 Version 2.0, a
true 32-bit OS. Features a new "Workplace
Shell", an object oriented user interface that is
heavily integrated with the rest of the OS.   
September Amiga Workbench 3 released for AGA
Amigas. Features Images for backgrounds, color
pallet remapping.    
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The GUI Timeline
1993
May 1993 Microsoft releases the first version of
Windows NT, their 32-bit OS. They give it the
version number "3.1" and use the same user
interface they do for regular Windows 3.1. Made
available for Intel, Power PC, Alpha, and MIPS
systems
1994 QNX Software Systems releases the first
embeddable microkernel windowing system, the
Photon microGUI
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The GUI Timeline
1995
1995 Microsoft introduces Windows 95 on August
24th. 
October Be introduced BeOS at Agenda 96. The
first version was designed to run on a custom
multiprocessor system known as the "BeBox". 
Later made available for Power PC and Intel
systems.
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The GUI Timeline
1996
IBM Releases OS/2 Warp 4 with a significant
facelift for the Workplace Shell.
Microsoft releases Windows NT 4.0 with the same
user interface as Windows 95.
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The GUI Timeline
1997-1998
July 1997 Mac OS 8 is finally released. Selling
1.25 million copies in less than 2 weeks, it
becomes the best-selling software in that period.

June 25, 1998 Microsoft releases Windows 98.
Features Internet Explorer Web browser
application takes over the role of the Windows
shell, advertising right on the desktop, entire
help system replaced by Internet Explorer.
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GUIs and The OS Resource and Hardware Abstraction
Layers

• Many Gui functions abstracted at user interface
• Guis require significant
• System resources
• Intensive multiprocessing

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Overhead Reduction The use of Threads

• The utilization of threads allow concurrency in
  the operating system
• All threads run the same code
• Each thread manages just one window in a
  collection of windows
• Context switching among individual virtual screen
  managers is important

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Design of GUIs

• There are numerous standards for graphical user
  interface design
• Concepts of human and machine interface
• Tools employed to develop a successful interface

Decision Tables(Some Common Examples)
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Design of GUIs-Examples
Lists, Choices, Selection Lists
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Design of GUIs-Industrial Applications
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Design of GUIs-Industrial Applications
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Summary

• Graphical user interfaces have become an
  essential component to any operating system
• Most computer users would probably would not be
  using computers in their daily lives if were not
  for the graphical user interface

where art imitates life.