History of the GUI The Early Days The

History of the GUI

The Early Days

The concept of a window system first introduced by SAGE project and Sutherland’s Sketchpad

SAGE Project • SAGE stands for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment • Used by NORAD from the late 50 s to 80 s • Tracked and intercepted enemy bombers • The computers that ran it were immense

55, 000 vacuum tubes 1/2 -acre of floor space 275 tons and each SAGE site had two of them

Sketchpad • Developed in 1963 for Ivan Sutherland’s doctoral dissertation • Ancestor to modern CAD systems • First app with a graphical user interface • Used light pen to control onscreen elements

o. N-Line System (NLS) • Englebart was influenced by the Sketchpad project • NLS was the first use of a computer mouse

Xerox PARC • PARC - Palo Alto Research Center • Under Merzouga Wilberts, codified the WIMP paradigm • WIMP - Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers • Resulted in the Xerox Alto experimental computer, later released as Xerox Star

GUIs Go Mainstream

Lisa • Developed by Apple in the late 70 s and early 80 s • Not commercially successful • The graphics taxed the system’s 5 MHz processor, so it felt very sluggish • More advanced system than Macintosh at the time

Macintosh • Developed alongside Lisa at Apple in the late 70 s and early 80 s. • Released in 1984 • First commercially successful product with a GUI • Continued to expand on WIMP ideas • Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG)

The HIG • Huge, detailed document • Described how applications on Macintosh platform should behave • Very important because Mac was the first commercially viable GUI • Apple wanted to ensure developers “got it”

Macintosh (cont. ) • Drop down menus • Trash can to delete files • Files looked like paper documents • Directories looked like file folders • Extensively modeled on work at PARC, but extended the work at PARC considerably

Apple IIGS • Released in 1986 • First Apple II to feature a GUI • GS/OS modeled on Macintosh OS • Included color, not to appear on a Mac until the Mac II a year later

GEM • Circa 1985 • GUI that sat over the top of MS-DOS, Dr. DOS, CP/M, etc. • Sued by Apple over the similarities to Macintosh • Default UI on the Atari ST computer

GEM on an Atari ST

Commodore Amiga • Launched by Commodore in 1985 • Desktop environment called “Workbench” • Featured some very advanced graphic capabilities • Adopted extensively by video editors because of Video Toaster

Amiga OS

MS-DOS-based GUIs • Though there was no GUI in MS-DOS there were a number of applications with GUIs • Most well-known example is Deluxe Paint

Deluxe Paint

Microsoft Windows • First two versions of Windows were not commercially successful • Windows 3. 0 took off • Windows 3. 0 was based on Common User Access • CUA gave Windows consistency

Common User Access • Developed by IBM • Strict rules about how apps should look and behave • Developed in response to chaotic UIs on IBM platform • Modeled around Apple Human Interface Guidelines

Prior to CUA. . . • Opening a file: • Wordperfect: F 7 then 3 • Lotus 1 -2 -3: / then W then R • MS Word: Esc then T then L • Wordstar: Ctrl+K+O • emacs: Ctrl+X then Ctrl+F

GEOS • Originally ran on Commodore 64 hardware • Ported to Apple II and IBM PC • 8 -bit in a 16 -bit world • Never really took off • Included gadgets and a word processor

X Window System • Referred to as X 11 in most circles • Standard GUI system on Unix platform • Developed to be client-server • Allows you to run graphical applications on other machines over the network • Still in use today

Windows 95/NT 4 • 32 -bit, can address up to 4 GB of memory • Better multitasking • New “Cairo” user interface • Very successful • Followed up with Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and now Vista

Mac OS X • New GUI called Aqua • Better multitasking • Based on Ne. XT OS Open. Step • Raised the bar on graphical embellishment of the interface • Included a true CLI

Rest of Class • Continue working on your Term Paper subjects • I’ll meet with each of you individually to talk about them and finalize the subject