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A graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced "gooey") is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text.1 GUIs and PUIs
The precursor to GUIs was invented by researchers at the Stanford Research Institute (led by Doug Engelbart) with the development and use of text-based hyperlinks for the On-Line System. The concept of hyperlinks was further refined and extended to graphics by researchers at Xerox PARC, who went beyond text-based hyperlinks and used GUIS as the primary interface for the Xerox Alto computer. Most modern general-purpose GUIs are derived from this system. For this reason some people call this class of interface a PARC User Interface (PUI) (note that PUI is also an acronym for perceptual user interface ). The PUI consists of graphical widgets (often provided by widget toolkit libraries) such as windows, menus, radio buttons, check boxes, and iconA computer icon is a small graphic, usually ranging from 16 pixels by 16 pixels up to 128 pixels by 128 pixels, which represents a file, folder, application or device on a computer system. Icons were first developed as a tool for making computer interfaces, and employs a pointing deviceA pointing device is any hardware component that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer. CAD systems and Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) allow the user to control and provide data to the computer using physical "gestures" point, click, and drag (such as a mouse, trackball, or touchscreen) in addition to a keyboard. For this reason, many people refer to PUIs as WIMPIn human-computer interaction, WIMP stands for "window, icon, menu, pointing device", denoting a style of interaction using these elements. It is often used as an approximate synonym of graphical user interfaces. WIMP interaction was developed at Xerox PAs, which stands for Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer. The term GUI is similarly used synonymously with a WIMP system, and most modern GUIs are certainly WIMPs, although occasionally other metaphors surface, such as Microsoft BobMicrosoft Bob was a product released by Microsoft in March 1995, designed to be a user friendly interface for Microsoft Windows version 3. 1, intended to replace the Program Manager. The software included home management programs such as a calendar and ad , 3dwm or (partially) FSV .
Examples of systems that support PUIs are Mac OSMac OS which stands for Mac intosh O perating S ystem, is Apple Computer’s name for the operating systems for Macintosh computers. The original Mac OS was the first commercially successful operating system which used a graphical user interface. The Macint, Microsoft WindowsImage use policy. Microsoft Windows is a range of commercial operating environments for personal computers. The range was first introduced by Microsoft in 1985 and eventually has come to dominate the world personal computer market. All recent versions of, NEXTSTEPNeXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. developed to run on its proprietary NeXT computers (informally known as "black boxes"). NeXTSTEP 1. 0 was released on 18 September 1989 after several previews and the X Window SystemIn computing, the X Window System (commonly X11 or X is a windowing system for bitmap displays. It is the standard graphical interface on Unix, Unix-like operating systems and OpenVMS, and is available for most other modern operating systems. X provides t. The latter is extended with toolkits such as Motif ( CDE), Qt ( KDE) and GTK+ ( GNOME).
