from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Graphical User Interface
GUI
<operating system> (GUI) The use of pictures rather than just
words to represent the input and output of a program. A
program with a GUI runs under some {windowing system}
(e.g. The {X Window System}, {MacOS}, {Microsoft Windows},
{Acorn} {RISC OS}, {NEXTSTEP}). The program displays certain
{icons}, {buttons}, {dialogue boxes}, etc. in its {windows} on
the screen and the user controls it mainly by moving a
{pointer} on the screen (typically controlled by a {mouse})
and selecting certain objects by pressing buttons on the mouse
while the pointer is pointing at them. This contrasts with a
{command line interface} where communication is by exchange of
strings of text.
Windowing systems started with the first {real}-time graphic
display systems for computers, namely the {SAGE} Project
[Dates?] and {Ivan Sutherland}'s {Sketchpad} (1963). {Douglas
Engelbart}'s {Augmentation of Human Intellect} project at
{SRI} in the 1960s developed the {On-Line System}, which
incorporated a mouse-driven cursor and multiple windows.
Several people from Engelbart's project went to Xerox PARC in
the early 1970s, most importantly his senior engineer, {Bill
English}. The Xerox PARC team established the {WIMP} concept,
which appeared commercially in the {Xerox 8010} (Star) system
in 1981.
Beginning in 1980(?), led by {Jef Raskin}, the {Macintosh}
team at {Apple Computer} (which included former members of the
Xerox PARC group) continued to develop such ideas in the first
commercially successful product to use a GUI, the Apple
Macintosh, released in January 1984. In 2001 Apple introduced
{Mac OS X}.
{Microsoft} modeled the first version of {Windows}, released
in 1985, on Mac OS. Windows was a GUI for {MS-DOS} that had
been shipped with {IBM PC} and compatible computers since
1981. Apple sued Microsoft over infringement of the
look-and-feel of the MacOS. The court case ran for many
years.
[Wikipedia].
(2002-03-25)