graphical user interface

graphical user interface

Graphical user interface User interface and interaction design
Designing the visual composition and temporal behavior of GUI is an important part of software application programming in the area of human-computer interaction. Its goal is to enhance the efficiency and ease of use for the underlying logical design of a stored program, a design discipline known as usability. Methods of user-centered design are used to ensure that the visual language introduced in the design is well tailored to the tasks.

The visible graphical interface features of an application are sometimes referred to as "chrome" or "Gui" (Goo-ee)

Large widgets, such as windows, usually provide a frame or container for the main presentation content such as a web page, message or drawing. Smaller ones usually act as a user-input tool.

A GUI may be designed for the requirements of a vertical market as application-specific graphical user interfaces. of application-specific GUIs are:

Automated teller machines (ATM)

Point-Of-Sale touchscreens at restaurants

Self-service checkouts used in a retail store

Information kiosks in a public space, like a train station or a museum

Monitors or control screens in an embedded industrial application which employ a real time Operating System (RTOS).

The latest cell phones and handheld game systems also employ application specific touchscreen GUIs. Newer automobiles use GUIs in their navigation systems and touch screen multimedia centers.

Graphical user interface Components
Elements of graphical user interfaces

A GUI uses a combination of technologies and devices to provide a platform that the user can interact with, for the tasks of gathering and producing information.

A series of elements conforming a visual language have evolved to represent information stored in computers. This makes it easier for people with few computer skills to work with and use computer software. The most common combination of such elements in GUIs is the WIMP ("window, icon, menu, pointing device") paradigm, especially in personal computers.

The WIMP style of interaction uses a virtual input device to control the position of a pointer, most often a mouse, and presents information organized in windows and represented with icons

In personal computers all these elements are modeled through a desktop metaphor, to produce a simulation called a desktop environment in which the display represents a desktop, upon which documents and folders of documents can be placed. Window managers and other software combine to simulate the desktop environment with varying degrees of realism.

Graphical user interface Interaction
There are a couple of human interface device, for the efficient interaction with a GUI:

Computer keyboard especially used in conjunction with Keyboard shortcuts.

Pointing devices for the Cursor (or rather Pointer) control: Mouse, Pointing stick, Touchpad, Trackball, Joystick, etc.

Besides the human actions, there are also actions performed by programs, that effect the GUI. For example, there are components like inotify or D-Bus to facilitate the communication of computer programs with each other.

Graphical user interface Technologies
The use of three-dimensional graphics has become increasingly common in mainstream Operating Systems, from creating attractive interfaces—eye candy— to functional purposes only possible using three dimensions

Interfaces for the X Window System have also implemented advanced three-dimensional user interfaces through compositing window managers such as Beryl, Compiz and KWin using the AIGLX or XGL architectures, allowing for the usage of OpenGL to animate the user's interactions with the desktop.

Another branch in the three-dimensional desktop environment is the three-dimensional GUIs that take the desktop metaphor a step further, like the BumpTop, where a user can manipulate documents and windows as if they were "real world" documents, with realistic movement and physics.

The Zooming User Interface (ZUI) is a related technology that promises to deliver the representation benefits of 3D environments without their usability drawbacks of orientation problems and hidden objects. It is a logical advancement on the GUI, blending some three-dimensional movement with two-dimensional or "2.5D" vector objects. In 2006, Hillcrest Labs introduced the first zooming user interface for television.

Graphical user interface
In computing, graphical user interface (GUI, sometimes pronounced 'gooey') is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation. GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLI), which require commands to be typed on the keyboard.

Graphical user interface
The actions in GUI are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements

Graphical user interface Post-WIMP interfaces
Smaller mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones typically use the WIMP elements with different unifying metaphors, due to constraints in space and available input devices. Applications for which WIMP is not well suited may use newer techniques, collectively named as post-WIMP user interfaces.

Graphical user interface Post-WIMP interfaces
As of 2011, some touch-screen-based operating systems such as Apple's iOS (iPhone) and Android use the class of GUIs named post-WIMP. These support styles of using more than one finger in contact with a display, which allows actions such as pinching and rotating, which are unsupported by one pointer and mouse.

Graphical user interface History
History of the graphical user interface

Graphical user interface Precursors
A precursor to GUIs was invented by researchers at the Stanford Research Institute, led by Douglas Engelbart

Graphical user interface Precursors
Ivan Sutherland developed a pointer-based system called the Sketchpad in It used a light-pen to guide the creation and manipulation of objects in engineering drawings.

Graphical user interface PARC user interface
The PARC user interface consisted of graphical elements such as windows, menus, radio buttons, check boxes and icons. The PARC user interface employs a pointing device in addition to a keyboard. These aspects can be emphasized by using the alternative acronym WIMP, which stands for windows, icons, menus and pointing device.

Graphical user interface Evolution
Following PARC the first GUI-centric computer operating model was the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981, followed by the Apple Lisa (which presented the concept of menu bar as well as window controls) in 1983, the Apple Macintosh 128K in 1984, and the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga in 1985.

The early GUI commands, until the advent of IBM Common User Access, used different command sequences for different programs. A command like the F3 function key activated help in WordPerfect, but exited an IBM program. The menus were accessed by different keys (control in WordStar, Alt or F10 in Microsoft programs, "/" in Lotus 1-2-3, F9 in Norton Commander to name a few common ones).

To this end, the early software came with keyboard overlays. These are plastic or wooden masks which sit over the empty space between the keys, providing the user with the named application's use of various keys. Even today, different keystrokes exist with radically different calls. For example, the Control-Alt-Delete interface is intercepted in Windows and Ubuntu to invoke a task menu. In other Unix PC-systems, this usually invokes an automatic shutdown.

The GUIs familiar to most people today (as of the early 2000s) are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and the X Window System interfaces for desktop and laptop computers, and Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Android, Windows Phone, Palm OS / Web OS, and Apple's iOS for handheld ("smartphone") devices.

Apple, IBM and Microsoft used many of Xerox's ideas to develop products, and IBM's Common User Access specifications formed the basis of the user interface found in Microsoft Windows, IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager, and the Unix Motif toolkit and window manager

Graphical user interface Command-line interfaces
Since the commands available in command line interfaces can be numerous, complicated operations can be completed using a short sequence of words and symbols

On the other hand, GUIs can be made quite hard by burying dialogs deep in the system, or moving dialogs from place to place. Also, dialog boxes are considerably harder for the user to script.

WIMPs extensively use modes as the meaning of all keys and clicks on specific positions on the screen are redefined all the time. Command line interfaces use modes only in limited forms, such as the current directory and environment variables.

Most modern operating systems provide both a GUI and some level of a CLI, although the GUIs usually receive more attention. The GUI is usually WIMP-based, although occasionally other metaphors surface, such as those used in Microsoft Bob, 3dwm or File System Visualizer (FSV).

Applications may also provide both interfaces, and when they do the GUI is usually a WIMP wrapper around the command-line version

Graphical user interface Three-dimensional user interfaces
Semantically, however, most graphical user interfaces use three dimensions - in addition to height and width, they offer a third dimension of layering or stacking screen elements over one another

Some environments use the methods of 3D graphics to project virtual three dimensional user interface objects onto the screen. These are often shown in use in sci-fi films (see below for examples). As the processing power of computer graphics hardware increases, this becomes less of an obstacle to a smooth user experience.

Three-dimensional graphics are currently mostly used in computer games, art and computer-aided design (CAD). A three-dimensional computing environment could also be useful in other scenarios, like molecular graphics and aircraft design.

Several attempts have been made to create a multi-user three-dimensional environment, including the Croquet Project and Sun's Project Looking Glass.

Graphical user interface In science fiction
Many futuristic imaginings of user interfaces rely heavily on object-oriented user interface (OOUI) style and especially object-oriented graphical user interface (OOGUI) style.

AmigaOS Graphical User Interfaces
Intuition provided some basic widgets

Operating system - Graphical user interfaces
Most of the modern computer systems support graphical user interfaces (GUI), and often include them. In some computer systems, such as the original implementation of Mac OS, the GUI is integrated into the kernel.

While technically a graphical user interface is not an operating system service, incorporating support for one into the operating system kernel can allow the GUI to be more responsive by reducing the number of context switches required for the GUI to perform its output functions

Many computer operating systems allow the user to install or create any user interface they desire. The X Window System in conjunction with GNOME or KDE Plasma Desktop is a commonly found setup on most Unix and Unix-like (BSD, Linux, Solaris) systems. A number of Windows shell replacements have been released for Microsoft Windows, which offer alternatives to the included Windows shell, but the shell itself cannot be separated from Windows.

Numerous Unix-based GUIs have existed over time, most derived from X11

Graphical user interfaces evolve over time. For example, Windows has modified its user interface almost every time a new major version of Windows is released, and the Mac OS GUI changed dramatically with the introduction of Mac OS X in 1999.[26]

Linux adoption - Hardware platforms with graphical user interface
Linux is used on desktop computers, servers and supercomputers, as well as a wide range of devices.

Linux adoption - Other Embedded systems with graphical user interface
Smartphones are gradually replacing these kinds of embedded devices, but they still exist. An example are the Portable media players. Some of the OEM firmware is Linux based. A community-driven fully free and open-source project is Rockbox.

Linux adoption - Other Embedded systems with graphical user interface
In-vehicle infotainment hardware usually involves some kind of display, either build-in into the Dashboard and/or additional displays

Linux adoption - Embedded systems without graphical user interface
Customer-premises equipment are a group of devices that are embedded and have no graphical user interface in the common sense. Some are remotely operated via Secure Shell or via some Web-based user interface running on some lightweight web server software. Most of the OEM firmware is based on the Linux kernel and other free and open-source software, e.g. Das U-Boot and Busybox. There are also a couple of community driven projects, e.g. OpenWrt.

Smaller scale embedded Network-attached storage-devices are also mostly Linux-driven.

OpenVMS - Graphical user interface
OpenVMS uses the DECwindows Motif user interface (based on CDE) layered on top of OpenVMS's X11 compliant windowing system.

Graphical user interface builder - Programs
Embedded Wizard a commercial development tool focussed on user interface applications for embedded systems.

ActiveState Komodo (No longer has a GUI Builder)

Wavemaker open source, browser-based development platform for Ajax development based on Dojo, Spring, Hibernate

Windows Presentation Foundation

Crank Storyboard Suite

Graphical user interface builder - IDE Plugins
NetBeans GUI design tool, formerly known as Matisse.

Graphical user interface builder - IDEs with GUI builders
ActiveState Komodo no longer has a GUI Builder

Adobe Flash Builder

CodeGear RAD Studio (former Borland Development Studio)

LabWindows/CVI with drag-and-drop GUI builder for creating test and measurement applications

Philasmicos Entwickler Studio

Xcode (Contains Interface Builder, formerly a separate application)

Graphical user interface testing
In software engineering, graphical user interface testing is the process of testing a product's graphical user interface to ensure it meets its written specifications. This is normally done through the use of a variety of test cases.

Graphical user interface testing - Test Case Generation
To generate a set of test cases, test designers must be certain that their suite covers all the functionality of the system and also has to be sure that the suite fully exercises the GUI itself. The difficulty in accomplishing this task is twofold: to deal with domain size and with sequences. In addition, the tester faces more difficulty when they have to do regression testing.

The size problem can be easily illustrated. Unlike a CLI (command line interface) system, a GUI has many operations that need to be tested. A relatively small program such as Microsoft WordPad has 325 possible GUI operations. In a large program, the number of operations can easily be an order of magnitude larger.

The second problem is the sequencing problem

Regression testing becomes a problem with GUIs as well. This is because the GUI may change significantly across versions of the application, even though the underlying application may not. A test designed to follow a certain path through the GUI may not be able to follow that path since a button, menu item, or dialog may have changed location or appearance.

These issues have driven the GUI testing problem domain towards automation. Many different techniques have been proposed to automatically generate test suites that are complete and that simulate user behavior.

Most of the techniques used to test GUIs attempt to build on techniques previously used to test CLI (Command Line Interface) programs

Graphical user interface testing - Planning and artificial intelligence
A novel approach to test suite generation, adapted from a CLI technique involves using a planning system. Planning is a well-studied technique from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) domain that attempts to solve problems that involve four parameters:

Planning systems determine a path from the initial state to the goal state by using the operators. An extremely simple planning problem would be one where you had two words and one operation called ‘change a letter’ that allowed you to change one letter in a word to another letter – the goal of the problem would be to change one word into another.

For GUI testing, the problem is a bit more complex
Graphical user interface testing - Planning and artificial intelligence For GUI testing, the problem is a bit more complex

Using a planner to generate the test cases has some specific advantages over manual generation. A planning system, by its very nature, generates solutions to planning problems in a way that is very beneficial to the tester:

The plans are always valid. What this means is that the output of the system can be one of two things, a valid and correct plan that uses the operators to attain the goal state or no plan at all. This is beneficial because much time can be wasted when manually creating a test suite due to invalid test cases that the tester thought would work but didn’t.

A planning system pays attention to order. Often to test a certain function, the test case must be complex and follow a path through the GUI where the operations are performed in a specific order. When done manually, this can lead to errors and also can be quite difficult and time consuming to do.

Finally, and most importantly, a planning system is goal oriented. What this means and what makes this fact so important is that the tester is focusing test suite generation on what is most important, testing the functionality of the system.

When manually creating a test suite, the tester is more focused on how to test a function (i. e. the specific path through the GUI). By using a planning system, the path is taken care of and the tester can focus on what function to test. An additional benefit of this is that a planning system is not restricted in any way when generating the path and may often find a path that was never anticipated by the tester. This problem is a very important one to combat.

Another interesting method of generating GUI test cases uses the theory that good GUI test coverage can be attained by simulating a novice user

The difficulty lies in generating test suites that simulate ‘novice’ system usage. Using Genetic algorithms is one proposed way to solve this problem. Novice paths through the system are not random paths. First, a novice user will learn over time and generally won’t make the same mistakes repeatedly, and, secondly, a novice user is not analogous to a group of monkeys trying to type Hamlet, but someone who is following a plan and probably has some domain or system knowledge.

Genetic algorithms work as follows: a set of ‘genes’ are created randomly and then are subjected to some task. The genes that complete the task best are kept and the ones that don’t are discarded. The process is again repeated with the surviving genes being replicated and the rest of the set filled in with more random genes. Eventually one gene (or a small set of genes if there is some threshold set) will be the only gene in the set and is naturally the best fit for the given problem.

For the purposes of the GUI testing, the method works as follows
Graphical user interface testing - Planning and artificial intelligence For the purposes of the GUI testing, the method works as follows

The system to do this testing described in can be extended to any windowing system but is described on the X window system

Graphical user interface testing - Mouse position capture
A popular method used in the CLI environment is capture/playback. Capture playback is a system where the system screen is “captured” as a bitmapped graphic at various times during system testing. This capturing allowed the tester to “play back” the testing process and compare the screens at the output phase of the test with expected screens. This validation could be automated since the screens would be identical if the case passed and different if the case failed.

Graphical user interface testing - Mouse position capture
Using capture/playback worked quite well in the CLI world but there are significant problems when one tries to implement it on a GUI-based system

Graphical user interface testing - Event capture
To combat this and other problems, testers have gone ‘under the hood’ and collected GUI interaction data from the underlying windowing system

Graphical user interface testing - Event capture
Another way to run tests on a GUI is to build a driver into the GUI so that commands or events can be sent to the software from another program. This method of directly sending events to and receiving events from a system is highly desirable when testing, since the input and output testing can be fully automated and user error is eliminated.

Test automation - Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing
This approach can be applied to any application that has a graphical user interface

A variation on this type of tool is for testing of web sites. Here, the "interface" is the web page. This type of tool also requires little or no software development. However, such a framework utilizes entirely different techniques because it is reading HTML instead of observing window events.

Another variation is scriptless test automation that does not use record and playback, but instead builds a model of the Application Under Test (AUT) and then enables the tester to create test cases by simply editing in test parameters and conditions

Operating systems - Graphical user interfaces
While technically a graphical user interface is not an Operating System service, incorporating support for one into the Operating System kernel can allow the GUI to be more responsive by reducing the number of context switches required for the GUI to perform its output functions

Many computer Operating Systems allow the user to install or create any user interface they desire. The XWindow System in conjunction with GNOME or KDE Plasma Desktop is a commonly found setup on most Unix and Unix-like (BSD, Linux, Solaris) systems. A number of Windows shell replacements have been released for Microsoft Windows, which offer alternatives to the included Windows shell, but the shell itself cannot be separated from Windows.

Numerous Unix-based GUIs have existed over time, most derived from X11

SymbOS - Graphical user interface
The GUI of SymbOS works in a completely object-oriented manner. The look and feel mimics that of Microsoft Windows. It contains the well-known task bar with the clock and the start menu and can open up to 32 windows that can be moved, resized and scrolled. The complete system is written in optimized assembly language, meaning that the GUI runs as fast as the host machine supports.

SymbOS - Graphical user interface
Content of a window is defined with controls that are primitive GUI elements such as sliders, check boxes, text lines, buttons or graphics. The background or invisible areas of a window don't need to be saved in a separate bitmap buffer. If an area needs to be restored on the display, its contents will be redrawn instead. This makes SymbOS GUI much more memory-friendly compared to most other 8-bit GUIs.

Oracle Data Mining - Graphical user interface: Oracle Data Miner
Oracle Data Mining can be accessed using Oracle Data Miner a GUI “client” that provides access to the data mining functions and structured templates called Mining Activities that automatically prescribe the order of operations, perform required data transformations, and set model parameters

R (programming language) - Graphical user interfaces
* [ Tinn-R]– an open source, highly capable integrated development environment featuring syntax highlighting similar to that of MATLAB. Only available for Windows

* Java Gui for R – cross-platform stand-alone R terminal and editor based on Java (programming language)|Java (also known as JGR).

* [ Deducer] – GUI for menu driven data analysis (similar to SPSS/JMP (statistical software)|JMP/Minitab).

* Rattle GUI – cross-platform GUI based on RGtk2 and specifically designed for data mining.

* R Commander – cross-platform menu-driven GUI based on tcltk (several plug-ins to Rcmdr are also available).

* RExcel – using R and Rcmdr from within Microsoft Excel.

* RKWard – extensible GUI and IDE for R.

* RStudio – cross-platform open source IDE (which can also be run on a remote linux server).

* Revolution Analytics provides a Visual Studio based IDE and has plans for web based point and click interface.

* RWeka allows for the use of the data mining capabilities in Weka and statistical analysis in R.

There is a special issue of the Journal of Statistical Software that discusses GUIs for R.

Graphical user interfaces evolve over time. For example, Windows has modified its user interface almost every time a new major version of Windows is released, and the MacOS GUI changed dramatically with the introduction of MacOSX in 1999.Poisson, Ken. [ Chronology of Personal Computer Software]. Retrieved on Last checked on

GNU Debugger - Graphical user interface
The debugger does not contain its own graphical user interface, and defaults to a command-line interface

GNU Debugger - Graphical user interface
Some other debugging tools have been designed to work with GDB, such as memory leak detectors.

Test automation framework - Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing
A variation on this type of tool is for testing of web sites. Here, the interface is the web page. This type of tool also requires little or no software development. However, such a framework utilizes entirely different techniques because it is reading HTML instead of observing window events.

Customer-premises equipment are a group of devices that are embedded and have no graphical user interface in the common sense. Some are remotely operated via Secure Shell or via some Web-based user interface running on some Comparison of lightweight web servers|lightweight web server software. Most of the OEM firmware is based on the Linux kernel and other free and open-source software, e.g. Das U-Boot and Busybox. There are also a couple of community driven projects, e.g. OpenWrt.

NetworkManager - Graphical user interfaces
; NetworkManagement: NetworkManager back-end for KDE SC 4, provides a Plasma (KDE)|plasma GUI widget|widget frontend.

; KNetworkManager: the K Desktop Environment 3 frontend developed by Novell.[ KNetworkManager documentation]

; nmcli: built-in command line interface (added in 2010,[ Initial pieces of nmcli, gitweb] e.g

Graphical user interface builder
A 'graphical user interface builder' (or 'GUI builder'), also known as 'GUI designer', is a software development tool that simplifies the creation of graphical user interface|GUIs by allowing the designer to arrange GUI widget|widgets using a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor. Without a GUI builder, a GUI must be built by manually specifying each widget's parameters in code, with no visual feedback until the program is run.

Graphical user interface builder
User interfaces are commonly programmed using an Event-driven programming|event-driven architecture, so GUI builders also simplify creating event-driven code. This supporting code connects widgets with the outgoing and incoming Event (computing)|events that trigger the functions providing the application logic.

*Embedded Wizard a commercial development tool focussed on user interface applications for embedded systems.

**ActiveState Komodo (No longer has a GUI Builder)

**[ SpecTcl] (part of Komodo prior to Komodo 4.0 )

*Wavemaker open source, browser-based development platform for Ajax development based on Dojo, Spring, Hibernate

*Windows Presentation Foundation

*Crank Storyboard Suite

Graphical user interface builder - IDE Plugins
*NetBeans#GUI_design_tool|NetBeans GUI design tool, formerly known as [ Matisse].

* ActiveState Komodo no longer has a GUI Builder

* Adobe Flash Builder

* Borland Delphi|CodeGear RAD Studio (former Borland Development Studio)

* Clarion (programming language)|Clarion

* LabWindows/CVI with drag-and-drop GUI builder for creating test and measurement applications

* Philasmicos Entwickler Studio

* Xcode (Contains Interface Builder, formerly a separate application)

Virtual Memory System - Graphical user interface
OpenVMS uses the DECwindows Motif (software)|Motif user interface (based on Common Desktop Environment|CDE) layered on top of OpenVMS's X Window System|X11 compliant windowing system.[ HP DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS] Software Product Description (SPD)Using DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS, Margie Sherlock, ISBN

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Accelerator (software)|Accelerator Development Solutions provides end-to-end RAD generation and other productivity frameworks for C# and for cross platform support C.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Alpha Five: A rapid development tool for building database driven web and mobile tools based on HTML5.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * AppFlower: A RAD platform allowing to build Business Applications working on every devices.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Code::Blocks is a cross-platform C/C++ RAD IDE using wxWidgets; the latest developmental builds have a built-in form designer wxSmith, so it's similar to Embarcadero C++ Builder and Microsoft Visual C++/MFC now.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * DaDaBIK is a software written in PHP aimed at quickly creating a Create, read, update and delete|CRUD (create, read, update, delete) database front-end or a simple database-driven application without coding. The Database management system|DBMSs currently supported are: MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Ebase Xi is a commercial rapid application development computing platform|platform that combines web browser-based user interface development, business process management and data integration into a single-technology Integrated development environment|IDE.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * IBM Rational Business Developer Extension is a cross-platform, Rapid Application Development IDE for creating enterprise and web applications and services for Windows, Linux, Unix (Solaris, HPUX, AIX), System z and System i

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * IBM Rational Application Developer is a cross-platform, Rapid Application Development IDE for creating enterprise and web applications and services for Windows, Linux and Unix (Solaris, HPUX, AIX)

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * LANSA (development environment)|LANSA is a development environment for generating applications on multiple platforms. One of the main features of LANSA is its high level programming language, called RDML (Rapid Development and Maintenance Language). It is classified as a 4GL (4th generation language). LANSA-developed applications run on many systems including MS Windows, IBM i and Linux.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Lazarus (software)|Lazarus is a cross-platform IDE similar to Embarcadero Delphi.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * m-Power is a Software Development tool which automates application development and rapidly creates enterprise-class Web applications over any database or platform.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * MyEclipse is a Rapid Application Development environment, focusing on enterprise Java and Web application development. The specialty MyEclipse Blue Edition is most similar to IBM Rational Application Developer.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * NetBeans is a cross-platform, RAD IDE for creating visual desktop, mobile, web, and SOA applications for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The IDE officially supports Java, PHP, JavaScript and C/C++ programming languages.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * nuBuilder is an open source browser based database development tool which stores all forms, reports, data and any custom code in MySQL and displays the content dynamically.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Omnis Studio is a cross-platform, Rapid Application Development tool or IDE for creating enterprise and web applications for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * OpenROAD is a cross-platform IDE for Linux/Unix, Windows with embedded SQL support

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Panther (development tool)|Panther is a cross-platform (Microsoft windows|Windows, Unix, Linux; Text user interface|TUI, GUI, World Wide Web|Web), cross-database RAD toolset for development of client–server and n-tier|n-tier database-oriented applications.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * PureBasic Form Designer is a drag drop development tool integrated into the PureBasic IDE that compiles to very compact 32 and 64-bit machine code executables for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Real Studio is a cross-platform IDE for creating desktop applications for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The language is similar to both VB and Java. It compiles to machine code, uses native controls and produces native executables.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * RadRails is a cross-platform IDE for creating Ruby on Rails web applications.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Servoy Servoy is a cross-platform application development and deployment environment. Servoy consists of a GUI designer, is event-driven and runs scripts through JavaScript. Servoy allows applications to be deployed to both a native Smart client / Rich client and to a pure HTML Web client from the same codebase and user interface

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Smartface: A cross platform native app development tool to create Mobile Applications for Android and iOS, using WYSIWYG design editor with JavaScript code editor.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Squeak is an open-source, cross-platform Smalltalk system which can be used to develop applications for desktop, mobile, server-based, and web platforms. Squeak supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Mac OS Classic, many flavors of Unix, and a handful of other Operating Systems. Squeak is the home of the Seaside RAD web app framework and multiple GUI toolkits, some of which allow the building of GUIs by drag and drop.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Ultimate++ is a C++ cross-platform rapid application development framework, featuring an integrated development environment called TheIDE.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Visual FoxPro With its local cursor engine, tight coupling between language and data, and various features, Visual FoxPro 9.0 can be used for building database solutions of all sizes

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * VisualWorks is a cross-platform Smalltalk RAD for creating desktop, mobile, enterprise, and web-based applications for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Mac OS Classic, and a number of Unix systems. The system supports popular protocols and frameworks like ODBC, Seaside, and GemStone/S. Commercial and free non-commercial versions available.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Web Dynpro is SAP's RAD to create web applications connected to function modules in mySAP ERP.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * WideStudio is an open source integrated development environment for desktop applications purely made in Japan.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * XVT is a cross-platform, Rapid Application Development IDE for creating enterprise and desktop applications in C/C++ on Windows, Linux, Unix (Solaris, HPUX, AIX), and Mac

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * XPower++ is a cross-platform IDE for Windows, Linux, Mac OSX, and Mobile Operating Systems.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * CA Technologies|CA Plex, a software development tool that combines the techniques of model-based development, patterns and code generation to accelerate the delivery and maintenance of multi-platform, distributed business applications

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cross-platform RAD tools * Philasmicos Entwickler Studio is a cross-platform C/C++ RAD IDE for wxWidgets.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cloud-based RAD tools *AppFlower is a cloud based platform to develop Business Applications without hand coding.

*Coghead (is out of business as of 2009)
List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cloud-based RAD tools *Coghead (is out of business as of 2009)

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cloud-based RAD tools *Mendix is an enterprise application platform that facilitates the building, deployment and integration of web and Mobile Applications.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cloud-based RAD tools *nuBuilder is an open source, browser based database development tool which stores all forms, reports, data and any custom code in MySQL and displays the content dynamically. With a tool available for converting from data, forms and reports from MS Access.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cloud-based RAD tools *Progress Software Rollbase is a platform that allows rapid creation of robust and scalable software as a service (SaaS), data rich business apps using only drag drop tools and minimal code. It has import utilities for MS Access and Force.com apps.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Cloud-based RAD tools *Wavemaker is an open-source, visual, drag and drop development studio that runs in a browser and generates standard Java applications for deployment.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Accelerator (software)|Accelerator for .NET provides end-to-end RAD generation and other productivity frameworks for .NET, including support for MVVM, Windows Communication Foundation|WCF, and Windows Workflow Foundation|WF.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Qt (framework)|Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework. It includes a cross-platform class library, integrated development tools and a cross-platform IDE.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Clarion (programming language)|Clarion is a data-centric Advanced Rapid Application Development (ARAD) tool featuring roundtrip code generation that preserves all of your own hand-written code while allowing you to re-generate your application as often as needed. It provides reusable metadata to quickly create corporate quality applications to manage business data

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Dolphin Smalltalk is a Smalltalk development environment for Windows with advance RAD features. Proprietary, with a free Community Edition.

* Gambas Basic, Open source, Linux
List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Gambas Basic, Open source, Linux

* Gupta Technologies|Gupta Team Developer / SQLWindows
List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Gupta Technologies|Gupta Team Developer / SQLWindows

* Lazarus (software)|Lazarus Pascal, Open Source, Multi-platform
List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Lazarus (software)|Lazarus Pascal, Open Source, Multi-platform

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * PureBasic Form Designer is a multi-platform drag drop development tool integrated into the PureBasic IDE that compiles to very compact 32 and 64-bit machine code executables for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Real Studio from REAL Software is a cross-platform, drag and drop development tool that compiles to machine code, uses native controls and produces native executables for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and the web.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Desktop rapid application development tools * Softwell Maker is a desktop IDE with a cross-platform deployment component allowing publish application into almost any Java enable system.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools *AppFlower open source application builder using Propel (PHP)|Propel with a visual designer for Model Add/Edit/View.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * Base One Foundation Component Library|Base One Foundation Component Library (BFC) is a RAD framework for building .NET Framework|.NET applications using Microsoft SQL Server|SQL Server, Oracle Database|Oracle, IBM DB2|DB2, Adaptive Server Enterprise|Sybase, and MySQL databases.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * CodeCharge Studio is a visual rapid application development environment for web-based database driven application development. CodeCharge Studio places emphasis on code generation technology to provide ASP.NET, PHP, JavaServer Pages|JSP, Servlets, ColdFusion and Perl language support.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * DaDaBIK is a software written in PHP aimed at fastly creating a Create, read, update and delete|CRUD (create, read, update, delete) database front-end or a simple database-driven application without coding. The Database management system|DBMSs currently supported are: MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * IBM Rational Business Developer Extension supports database application development for IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Oracle database, Microsoft SQL Server and other JDBC compliant relational databases

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * IBM Rational Application Developer supports database application development for IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Oracle database, Microsoft SQL Server and other JDBC compliant relational databases

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * IBM Lotus Notes is a RAD environment for collaboration and document management tasks.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * FileMaker is a cross-platform database application from FileMaker Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc.)

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * OpenOffice.org Base is an open source database-driven RAD development environment for building client (desktop) based applications.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * Kexi is an open source database-driven RAD development environment for building desktop applications. It is considered an alternative to Open Office Base in the Open Source environment and provides similar features to commercially available RAD development environments such as FileMaker, Alpha Five and Microsoft Access.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * Real Studio from REAL Software is a cross-platform, visual, drag and drop development tool with an object-oriented language that has a report editor and supports database connectivity to SQLite, Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server (Windows only), Postgres and ODBC.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * Softwell Maker is an ultra RAP data-centric IDE with a cross-platform deployment component allowing publish application into almost any Java enable system.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * Sybase PowerBuilder is data-driven development tool for creating client/server, distributed, Web and Smart Clients applications for JEE, Win32, and .NET platforms.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Database rapid application development tools * Visual DataFlex is a Windows based development environment for creating Windows and web-based database applications. Object oriented, database neutral, 3-tier model (database – business rules – user interface).

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Embedded control rapid application development tools * VisSim is a block diagram language for model based embedded system development

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Embedded control rapid application development tools * LabVIEW is a graphical programming language that allows you to program embedded off-the-shelf systems, FPGAs, custom designs

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Embedded control rapid application development tools * EICASLAB is a Visual programming language that allows you to design embedded control architectures, providing assistance in modelling, simulation, rapid control prototyping and automatic code generation for the final target.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Notification/communication rapid application development tools * Boomerang Software Framework – Boomerang is a notification/communication framework for professional developers that provides a service oriented infrastructure and a rapid development interface. The infrastructure supports out, printers, fax servers, file/ftp servers and incoming ( to database).

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Active Agenda's code generator is a RAD development framework using XML specification files and the PHP development language.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Alpha Five is a commercial RAD development environment for both client and web-server based database driven applications. This tool is typically classified with commercial packages such as Microsoft Access and FileMaker. Alpha Five has, in the last few years, evolved into becoming a real alternative to PHP, Visual Studio.net and Ruby for building database driven web apps, but in a lot less time because its RAD component approach.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * AppFlower is a very rapid application development framework for creating enterprise application without the need of coding. Advanced users can extend AppFlower applications using PHP, the Symfony framework and ExtJS.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Base One Foundation Component Library|BFC is a RAD framework for both client and server-side development in the .NET environment.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * CakePHP is a RAD development framework using the PHP development language.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Caspio is a platform-as-a-service framework that uses wizards instead of coding for RAD.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * CodeCharge Studio is a visual RAD development environment for web-based database driven application development. CodeCharge Studio places emphasis on code generation technology to provide ASP.NET, PHP, JavaServer Pages|JSP, Servlets, ColdFusion and Perl language support.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Django (web framework)|Django is an open source web application framework, written in Python, which loosely follows the model-view-controller design pattern.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Grails (framework)|Grails is an open-source Groovy (programming language)|Groovy-based high-productivity framework inspired by Ruby on Rails and following the Convention over configuration|coding by convention paradigm. Grails applications can run in standard Java servlet containers.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Joget Workflow is an open source web-based application builder with emphasis on workflow and Business Process Management.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Koding is an online development environment with the goal of simplifying worldwide development and providing free computation and development to everyone.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * OpenXava is a Domain-driven design|domain-driven Java framework for rapid development of AJAX applications. It's open source.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Oracle ADF|Oracle Application Development Framework uses Oracle's JDeveloper a FREE IDE that supports ADF's J2EE based framework.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Pinax (software)|Pinax is python/django based platform for rapidly developing web based apps that integrates reusable Django apps and providing starter projects and infrastructure tools, so your apps already have capabilities like user registration, login, lost password workflows etc.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Pylons project|Pylons is a set of open source web application frameworks, written in Python, which makes extensive use of the Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) standard to promote re-usability and to separate functionality into distinct modules.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * radPHP commercial, visual, rapid application development IDE for PHP by Embarcadero (formerly Delphi for PHP)

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Real Studio Web Edition is a rapid application development environment for the web. The language is object oriented and is similar to both VB and Java. Applications are uniquely compiled to binary code.

* Ruby on Rails sponsored by 37signals
List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Ruby on Rails sponsored by 37signals

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Scriptcase is a powerful tool to increase web development productivity. It supports most databases available generating highly customizable PHP code, AJAX and JQUERY.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Spring Roo is an open source rapid application development tool that produces Java (programming language)|Java-based Spring Framework|Spring applications.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Visual DataFlex is a Windows based development environment for creating advanced web-based database applications using AJAX. Object oriented, database neutral, 3-tier model (database – business rules – user interface).

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Wavemaker visual, drag and drop development, standard Java deployment, open source (Windows/Linux/MacOS). It has been acquired by VMWARE and now offers community and professional versions of the product.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Web2py is a RAD framework for web-based database driven applications with key features including in-browser coding support, admin/design interface, DAL (database abstraction layer), and translation support.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Wolf Frameworks is a 100% AJAX, XML .NET based Platform for designing and delivering cross platform web applications using a browser.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Web-based RAD tools * Zend Framework is an open source, object-oriented web application framework licensed under the New BSD License.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Components based on rapid application development paradigm * Add-in Express provides a number of rapid development tools for creating extensions for Microsoft Office applications and Internet Explorer using Visual Studio and Delphi.

List of graphical user interface builders and rapid application development tools - Components based on rapid application development paradigm * Panther (development tool)|Panther is a cross-platform (Microsoft windows|Windows, Unix, Linux; Text user interface|TUI, GUI, World Wide Web|Web), cross-database RAD toolset for development of n-tier component based database oriented applications. It builds native components employing the same visual paradigm used for client screens. Editions for middleware from IBM WebSphere|IBM, Tuxedo (software)|BEA and Component Object Model|Microsoft exist (and can be combined).

GDB - Graphical user interface
The debugger does not contain its own graphical user interface, and defaults to a command-line interface

Graphical user interfaces

Graphical user interfaces
The actions in GUI are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements

Graphical user interfaces - Components
The WIMP style of interaction uses a virtual input device to control the position of a pointer (computing WIMP)|pointer, most often a mouse, and presents information organized in windows and represented with icons

Graphical user interfaces - Post-WIMP interfaces
As of 2011, some touch-screen-based operating systems such as Apple's iOS (Apple)|iOS (iPhone) and Android (operating system)|Android use the class of GUIs named post-WIMP. These support styles of interaction using more than one finger in contact with a display, which allows actions such as pinching and rotating, which are unsupported by one pointer and mouse.[ Tufts.edu]

Graphical user interfaces - Interaction
* Computer keyboard especially used in conjunction with Keyboard shortcuts.

* Pointing devices for the Cursor (computers)|Cursor (or rather Pointer (graphical user interfaces)|Pointer) control: Mouse (computing)|Mouse, Pointing stick, Touchpad, Trackball, Joystick, etc.

* Virtual keyboard

* Head-up displays, translucent information devices at the eye level

Graphical user interfaces - Precursors
A precursor to GUIs was invented by researchers at the Stanford Research Institute, led by Douglas Engelbart

Graphical user interfaces - Precursors
Ivan Sutherland developed a pointer-based system called the Sketchpad in It used a light-pen to guide the creation and manipulation of objects in engineering drawings.

Graphical user interfaces - PARC user interface
The PARC user interface consisted of graphical elements such as window (computing)|windows, menu (computing)|menus, radio button (computing)|radio buttons, check boxes and icon (computing)|icons. The PARC user interface employs a pointing device in addition to a keyboard. These aspects can be emphasized by using the alternative acronym WIMP (computing)|WIMP, which stands for windows, icons, menus and pointing device.

Graphical user interfaces - Evolution
Following PARC the first GUI-centric computer operating model was the Xerox Star|Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981,[ The first GUIs] followed by the Apple Lisa (which presented the concept of menu bar as well as Window manager|window controls) in 1983, the Apple Inc.|Apple Macintosh 128K in 1984, and the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga in 1985.

Graphical user interfaces - Evolution
Apple, IBM and Microsoft used many of Xerox's ideas to develop products, and IBM's Common User Access specifications formed the basis of the user interface found in Microsoft Windows, IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager, and the Unix Motif (software)|Motif toolkit and window manager

Graphical user interfaces - Popularization
In 1984, Apple released a television commercial which introduced the Apple Macintosh during the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII by CBS, with allusions to George Orwell's noted novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The commercial was aimed at making people think about computers, identifying the user-friendly interface as a personal computer which departed from previous business-oriented systems, and becoming a signature representation of Apple products.

Accompanied by Windows 95#Release|an extensive marketing campaign, Windows 95 was a major success in the marketplace at launch and shortly became the most popular desktop operating system.

In 2007 with the iPhoneMather, John

The GUIs familiar to most people as of the mid-2010s are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and the X Window System interfaces for desktop and laptop computers, and Apple's iOS (Apple)|iOS, Android (operating system)|Android, Symbian OS|Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone, Palm OS / Web OS, and Firefox OS for handheld (smartphone) devices.

Graphical user interfaces - Command-line interfaces
WIMPs extensively use mode (computer interface)|modes as the meaning of all keys and clicks on specific positions on the screen are redefined all the time. Command line interfaces use modes only in limited forms, such as the current directory and environment variables.

Graphical user interfaces - Technologies
The use of three-dimensional graphics has become increasingly common in mainstream operating systems, from creating attractive interfaces—Attractiveness|eye candy— to functional purposes only possible using three dimensions

Interfaces for the X Window System have also implemented advanced three-dimensional user interfaces through compositing window managers such as Beryl (window manager)|Beryl, Compiz and KWin using the AIGLX or XGL architectures, allowing for the usage of OpenGL to animate the user's interactions with the desktop.

The Zooming User Interface (ZUI) is a related technology that promises to deliver the representation benefits of 3D environments without their usability drawbacks of orientation problems and hidden objects

Graphical user interfaces - In science fiction
Many futuristic imaginings of user interfaces rely heavily on object-oriented user interface|object-oriented user interface (OOUI) style and especially object-oriented graphical user interface (OOGUI) style.

Linux adoption - Other embedded systems with graphical user interface
In-vehicle infotainment hardware usually involves some kind of display, either built into the Dashboard or additional displays

List of XML schemas - Graphical user interfaces
* JAXFront - JAXFront GUI generator (free community edition)

* GLADE - GNOME's User Interface Language (GTK+)

* XAML - Microsoft's Extensible Application Markup Language

Graphical user interface elements
'Graphical user interface elements' are those elements used by graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to offer a consistent visual language to represent information stored in computers. These make it easier for people with few computer skills to work with and use computer software.

Graphical user interface elements
This article explains the most common elements of visual language interfaces found in the WIMP (computing)|WIMP (window, icon, menu, pointer) paradigm, although many are also used at other graphical post-WIMP interfaces. These elements are usually embodied in an interface using a widget toolkit or desktop environment.

Graphical user interface elements - Structural elements
User interfaces use visual conventions to represent the generic information shown. Some conventions are used to build the structure of the static elements on which the user can interact, and define the appearance of the interface.

Graphical user interface elements - Window
A window is an area on the screen that displays information, with its contents being displayed independently from the rest of the screen

Their behaviour can automatically change according to the choices of the single users and their preferred approach to the graphical user interface.

* A 'Web browser|browser window' allows the user to move forward and backwards through a sequence of documents or web pages. Web browsers are an example of these types of windows.

* 'Computer_terminal#Text_terminals|Text terminal' windows are designed for embedding interaction with text user interfaces within the overall graphical interface. MS-DOS and Unix|UNIX consoles are examples of these types of windows.

* A 'child window' opens automatically or as a result of a user activity in a parent window. Pop-up ad|Pop-up windows on the Internet can be child windows.

* A 'message window', or 'dialog box', is a type of child window. These are usually small and basic windows that are opened by a program to display information to the user and/or get information from the user. They usually have a button that must be pushed before the program can be resumed.

Graphical user interface elements - Menus
Menus allow the user to execute commands by selecting from a list of choices. Options are selected with a mouse or other pointing device within a GUI. A keyboard may also be used. Menus are convenient because they show what commands are available within the Computer software|software. This limits the amount of documentation the user reads to understand the software.

* A 'menu bar' is displayed horizontally across the top of the screen and/or along the tops of some or all windows. A pull-down menu is commonly associated with this menu type. When a user clicks on a menu option the pull-down menu will appear.

* A 'Menu (computing)|menu' has a visible title within the menu bar. Its contents are only revealed when the user selects it with a pointer. The user is then able to select the items within the pull-down menu. When the user clicks elsewhere the content of the menu will disappear.

* A 'context menu' is invisible until the user performs a specific mouse action, like pressing the right mouse button. When the software-specific mouse action occurs the menu will appear under the cursor.

* 'Menu extras' are individual items within or at the side of a menu.

Graphical user interface elements - Icons
An Icon (computing)|icon is a small picture that represents objects such as a file, program, web page, or command. They are a quick way to execute commands, open documents, and run programs. Icons are also very useful when searching for an object in a browser list, because in many operating systems all documents using the same extension will have the same icon.

Graphical user interface elements - Controls (or Widgets)
Interface elements known as 'graphical control elements', 'controls' or 'widgets' are software components that a computer user interacts with through direct manipulation to read or edit information about an application

Graphical user interface elements - Controls (or Widgets)
Common uses for widgets involve the display of collections of related items (such as with various List box|list and Canvas (GUI)|canvas controls), initiation of actions and processes within the interface (Button (computing)|buttons and Menu (computing)|menus), Web navigation|navigation within the virtual space|space of the information system (Hyperlink|links, Tab (GUI)|tabs and scrollbars), and representing and manipulating data values (Label (control)|labels, check boxes, radio buttons, Slider (computing)|sliders, Spinner (computing)|spinners...)

Graphical user interface elements - Tabs
A Tab (GUI)|tab is typically a rectangular small box which usually contains a text label or graphical icon associated with a view pane

Graphical user interface elements - Tabs
Tabs are also present in the settings panes of many applications. Windows for example uses tabs in most of its control panel dialogues.

Graphical user interface elements - Interaction elements
Some common idioms for interaction have evolved in the visual language used in GUIs. Interaction elements are interface objects that represent the state of an ongoing operation or transformation, either as visual remainders of the user intent (user interface)|intent (such as the pointer), or as affordances showing places where the user may interact.

Graphical user interface elements - Cursor
A cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device.

Graphical user interface elements - Pointer
The pointer echoes movements of the pointing device, commonly a mouse (computing)|mouse or touchpad. The pointer is the place where actions take place that are initiated through direct manipulation Gesture recognition|gestures such as click (GUI)|click, Multi-touch|touch and Drag (computing)|drag.

Graphical user interface elements - Insertion point
The caret, text cursor or insertion point represents the point of the user interface where the Focus (computing)|focus is located. It represents the object that will be used as the default subject of user-initiated command (computing)|commands such as writing text, starting a Selection (user interface)|selection or a copy-paste operation through the keyboard.

Graphical user interface elements - Selection
A Selection (user interface)|selection is a list of items on which user operations will take place. The user typically adds items to the list manually, although the computer may create a selection automatically.

Graphical user interface elements - Adjustment handle
A Adjustment handles|handle is an indicator of a starting point for a drag and drop operation. Usually the pointer shape changes when placed on the handle, showing an icon that represents the supported drag operation.

Iperf - Graphical user interface
There is a graphical user interface (GUI) front end available called jperf.[ also a Google Code project for jperf]

Apple IIgs - Graphical user interface
The IIGS system software provided a mouse (computing)|mouse-driven graphical user interface using concepts such as window (computing)|windows, menus, and icons

Apple IIgs - Graphical user interface
Software companies complained that Apple did not provide technical information and development tools to create IIGS software. In 1988 Compute! reported that both Cinemaware and Intergalactic Development had to write their own tools to use IIGS audio, with the latter stating that these sorts of problems … are becoming well known throughout the industry.

History of the graphical user interface
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Human interface - Graphical User Interface, 1968 to present
* Doug Engelbart demonstrated NLS, a system which uses a mouse, pointers, hypertext, and multiple windows.

* 1970 – Researchers at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (many from SRI) develop WIMP paradigm (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers)

* 1973 – Xerox Alto: commercial failure due to expense, poor user interface, and lack of programs

* 1979 – Steve Jobs and other Apple engineers visit Xerox. Pirates of Silicon Valley dramatizes the events, but Apple had already been working on the GUI before the visit

* 1981 – Xerox Star: focus on WYSIWYG. Commercial failure (25K sold) due to expense ($16K each), performance (minutes to save a file, couple of hours to recover from crash), and poor marketing

* 1984 – Apple Macintosh popularizes the GUI. Super Bowl commercial shown once, most expensive ever made at that time

* 1984 – MIT’s X Window System: hardware- independent platform and networking protocol for developing GUIs on UNIX-like systems

* 1985 – Windows 1.0 – provided GUI interface to MS-DOS. No overlapping windows (tiled instead).

* 1985 – Microsoft and IBM start work on OS/2 meant to eventually replace MS-DOS and Windows

* 1986 – Apple threatens to sue Digital Research because their GUI desktop looked too much like Apple’s Mac.

* 1987 – Windows 2.0 – Overlapping and resizable windows, keyboard and mouse enhancements

* 1988 – OS/ Standard Edition (SE) has GUI written by Microsoft, looks a lot like Windows 2

ProFTPD - Graphical user interface
ProFTPD comes with a command-line interface (CLI) only, but there are several third-party Graphical user interface|Graphical user interfaces (GUI) existing for ProFTP for users who prefer this to the CLI, or like to use a combination of both. Especially when it comes e.g. to real-time monitoring of current user actions and file transmissions, a GUI can be very helpful and superior to the CLI. Some existing GUIs for ProFTPD are (selection):

* [ GAdmin-ProFTPD], a GTK+ front end for GNOME and KDE, as a part of the [ GAdmintools] collection

* [ ProFTPD Admin]

* [ ProFTPD PHP/MySQL administration tool]

Pointer (graphical user interfaces)
It can be used to select and move other graphical user interface elements, and is distinct from the cursor (computers)|cursor, which responds to computer keyboard|keyboard input

Pointer (graphical user interfaces)
The pointer commonly appears as an angled arrow, (angled because historically that improved appearance on low resolution screens ) but it can vary within different programs or operating systems

Pointer (graphical user interfaces) - Appearance
The pointer hotspot is the active pixel of the pointer, used to target a click. The hotspot is normally along the pointer edges or in its center, though it may reside at any location in the pointer.[ Mouse][ Setting a Cursor's Hot Spot]

In many GUIs, moving the pointer around the screen may reveal other screen hotspots as the pointer changes shape depending on the circumstances. For example:

* In text that the user can select or edit, the pointer changes to a vertical bar with little cross-bars (or curved serif-like extensions) at the top and bottom mdash; sometimes called an I-beam since it resembles the cross-section of the construction detail of the same name.

* When displaying a document, the pointer can appear as a hand with all fingers extended allowing scrolling by pushing the displayed page around.

* Graphics-editing pointers such as brushes, pencils or paint buckets may display when the user edits an image.

* On an edge or corner of a window (computing)|window the pointer usually changes into a double arrow (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) indicating that the user can drag the edge/corner in an indicated direction in order to adjust the size and shape of the window.

* The corners and edges of the whole screen may also act as hotspots. According to Fitts's_law#Screen_hotspots|Fitts's law, which predicts the time it takes to reach a target area, moving mouse and trackball pointers to those spots is easy and fast. As the pointer usually stops when reaching a screen edge, the size of those spots can be considered of virtual infinite size, so the hot corners and edges can be reached quickly by throwing the pointer toward the edges.

* While a computer process is performing tasks and cannot accept user input, a wait pointer (an hourglass in Microsoft Windows|Windows before Windows Vista|Vista and many other systems, spinning ring in Windows Vista, watch in classic Mac OS, or Spinning wait cursor|spinning ball in Mac OS X) is displayed when the mouse pointer is in the corresponding window.

* When the pointer hovers over a hyperlink, a mouseover event changes the pointer into a hand with an outstretched index finger

* The mouseover or hover gesture can also present information about what the pointer is hovering over; the information is a description of what selecting an active element is for or what it will do, it appears only when stationary over content. A common use of viewing the information is when browsing the internet to know the destination of a Hyperlink|link before selecting it, if the URL of the text is not recognisable.

Pointer (graphical user interfaces) - Pointer trails and animation
Pointer trails can be used to enhance its visibility during movement. Pointer trails are a feature of GUI operating systems to enhance the visibility of the pointer. Although disabled by default, pointer trails have been an option in every version of Microsoft Windows since Windows 3.1.

When pointer trails are active and the mouse is moved, the system waits a moment before removing the pointer image from the old location on the screen. A copy of the pointer persists at every point that the pointer has visited in that moment, resulting in a snake-like trail of pointer icons that follow the actual pointer. When the user stops moving the mouse, the trails disappear and the pointer returns to normal.

Pointer trails have been provided as a feature mainly for users with Visual perception|poor vision and for screens where low visibility may become an issue, such as Liquid crystal display|LCD screens in bright sunlight.

In Windows, pointer trails may be enabled in the Control Panel (Windows)|Control Panel, usually under the Mouse (computing)|Mouse applet.

Introduced with Windows NT, an animated pointer was a small looping animation that was played at the location of the pointer

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