Desktop metaphor

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The computer interface is a conceptual metaphor of a writing desk.

In computing, the desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users interact more easily with the computer.[1] The desktop metaphor treats the computer monitor as if it is the top of the user's desk, upon which objects such as documents and folders of documents can be placed. A document can be opened into a window, which represents a paper copy of the document placed on the desktop. Small applications called desk accessories are also available, such as a desk calculator or notepad, etc.

The desktop metaphor itself has been extended and stretched with various implementations of desktop environments, since access to features and usability of the computer are usually more important than maintaining the 'purity' of the metaphor. Hence one can find trash cans on the desktop, as well as disks and network volumes (which can be thought of as filing cabinets—not something normally found on a desktop). Other features such as menu bars or taskbars have no direct counterpart on a real-world desktop, though this may vary by environment and the function provided; for instance, a familiar wall calendar can sometimes be displayed or otherwise accessed via a taskbar or menu bar belonging to the desktop.

History

The desktop metaphor was first introduced by

Mother of All Demos",[4]
though it was incorporated by PARC in the environment of the Smalltalk language.[5]

One of the first desktop-like interfaces on the market was a program called

video gaming. Onscreen options were chosen by pushing the fire button on the joystick. The Magic Desk I program featured a typewriter graphically emulated complete with audio effects. Other applications included a calculator, rolodex organiser, and a terminal emulator. Files could be archived into the drawers of the desktop. A trashcan
was also present.

The first computer to popularise the desktop metaphor, using it as a standard feature over the earlier

Apple Macintosh in 1984. The desktop metaphor is ubiquitous in modern-day personal computing; it is found in most desktop environments of modern operating systems: Windows as well as macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like
systems.

BeOS observed the desktop metaphor more strictly than many other systems. For example, external hard drives appeared on the 'desktop', while internal ones were accessed clicking on an icon representing the computer itself. By comparison, the Mac OS places all drives on the desktop itself by default, while in Windows the user can access the drives through an icon labelled "Computer".

applets
) were utilities, directories were drawers, etc. Icons of objects were animated and the directories are shown as drawers which were represented as either open or closed. As in the classic Mac OS and macOS desktop, an icon for a floppy disk or CD-ROM would appear on the desktop when the disk was inserted into the drive, as it was a virtual counterpart of a physical floppy disk or CD-ROM on the surface of a workbench.

Paper paradigm

icons
on the desktop
MATE desktop environment running on Debian
showing the desktop, application menu, and About MATE window

The paper paradigm refers to the

Apple Computer, and was an attempt to make computers more user-friendly by making them resemble the common workplace of the time (with papers, folders, and a desktop).[6] It was first presented to the public by Engelbart in 1968, in what is now referred to as "The Mother of All Demos
".

From John Siracusa:[7]

Back in 1984, explanations of the original

GUI before inevitably included an explanation of icons
that went something like this: "This icon represents your file on disk." But to the surprise of many, users very quickly discarded any semblance of indirection. This icon is my file. My file is this icon. One is not a "representation of" or an "interface to" the other. Such relationships were foreign to most people, and constituted unnecessary mental baggage when there was a much more simple and direct connection to what they knew of reality.

Since then, many aspects of computers have wandered away from the paper paradigm by implementing features such as "shortcuts" to files, hypertext, and non-spatial file browsing. A shortcut (a link to a file that acts as a redirecting proxy, not the actual file) and hypertext have no real-world equivalent. Non-spatial file browsing, as well, may confuse novice users, as they can often have more than one window representing the same folder open at the same time, something that is impossible in reality. These and other departures from real-world equivalents are violations of the pure paper paradigm.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Desktop Metaphor". www.csdl.tamu.edu. Archived from the original on 2001-02-22. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
  2. CiteSeerx10.1.1.22.1340
    .
  3. ^ Thacker, Charles P., et al. Alto: A personal computer. Xerox, Palo Alto Research Center, 1979.
  4. ^ Reimer, Jeremy (2005). "A History of the GUI (Part 2)". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
  5. ^ Reimer, Jeremy (2005). "A History of the GUI (Part 3)". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
  6. ^ "Realworld Desk".
  7. ^ "About the Finder..." arstechnica.com. 2003.

External links