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Also see HCI (human-computer interaction).
A GUI (usually pronounced GOO-ee) is a graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface to a computer. As you read this, you are looking at the GUI or graphical user interface of your particular Web browser. The term came into existence because the first interactive user interfaces to computers were not graphical; they were text-and-keyboard oriented and usually consisted of commands you had to remember and computer responses that were infamously brief. The command interface of the DOS operating system (which you can still get to from your Windows operating system) is an example of the typical user-computer interface before GUIs arrived. An intermediate step in user interfaces between the command line interface and the GUI was the non-graphical menu-based interface, which let you interact by using a mouse rather than by having to type in keyboard commands.
Today's major operating systems provide a graphical user interface. Applications typically use the elements of the GUI that come with the operating system and add their own graphical user interface elements and ideas. A GUI sometimes uses one or more metaphors for objects familiar in real life, such as the desktop, the view through a window, or the physical layout in a building. Elements of a GUI include such things as: windows, pull-down menus, buttons, scroll bars, iconic images, wizards, the mouse, and no doubt many things that haven't been invented yet. With the increasing use of multimedia as part of the GUI, sound, voice, motion video, and virtual reality interfaces seem likely to become part of the GUI for many applications. A system's graphical user interface along with its input devices is sometimes referred to as its "look-and-feel."
The GUI familiar to most of us today in either the Mac or the Windows operating systems and their applications originated at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Laboratory in the late 1970s. Apple used it in their first Macintosh computers. Later, Microsoft used many of the same ideas in their first version of the Windows operating system for IBM-compatible PCs.
When creating an application, many object-oriented tools exist that facilitate writing a graphical user interface. Each GUI element is defined as a class widget from which you can create object instances for your application. You can code or modify prepackaged methods that an object will use to respond to user stimuli.
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Learn more about ASP.NET, Ajax and Web application development |
| Silverlight Learning Guide: Silverlight is Microsoft's new framework for building browser- and platform-agnostic Web apps. This resource will help developers see what Silverlight can do for them. |
| ASP.NET AJAX Learning Guide: This reference introduces developers to Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX framework with a plethora of tips, tutorials and webcasts. |
| ASP.NET 2.0 Learning Guide: ASP.NET 2.0 provides a hefty number of enhancements, including over 50 new controls that significantly reduce coding. |
| Beginning ASP.NET AJAX development, Part 1: ASP.NET AJAX continues to gain momentum as a Web development standard. Here we look at tutorials and application add-ins to help developers get started. |
| Mobile and Wireless Development Learning Guide: If you're ready to expand your developer skills to mobile and wireless applications, then this learning guide is for you. It's chock full of articles, tutorials, tools, sample code and much more. ... |
| Advanced Windows Debugging Book Chapter and Podcast: This book excerpt and podcast offers information that will help you to master some of the most powerful debugging tools, including NTSD, CDB, WinDbg, KD, and ADPlus. |
| Fast Guide: SharePoint blogs: Most companies have limited budgets and resources, MOSS blogs may offer just the added support needed to keep abreast of the information you need when you need it. |
| Best practices of the AJAX kind: Some tips from online giant Yahoo have value for any would-be AJAX front-end developers, be they Microsoft community members or outliers. |
| LAST UPDATED: |
12 Oct 2006
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