Windows: The Concept

Note!: This document deals with the computer interface and the concept of a "windowing" environment. We are not referring to the Microsoft product, and therefore the information in this document will apply to all computers using a G.U.I.

What's a G.U.I. ?

The GUI (the acronym GUI is sometimes treated like a word, and is pronounced "gooey"), which stands for Graphical User Interface, is what you interact with to make your computer do stuff. Let's break it down. An Interface is something that gives control of a device. The steering wheel, pedals, shifter, and dashboard are the interface to a car. You have a keypad on your phone and a remote for your television which are interfaces to those devices. A User, well, that's You. Graphical means with pictures. So we put it all together and we have You getting control of a device with pictures. In this case our device is a computer.

The Computer

OK, so what do you know about computers? Answers that people give to this question generally fit on a continuum. They range from "I know nothing about computers and I'm afraid of them" to "I've worked with many different platforms and have written programs for several of them". You probably fit somewhere in between. We talk in another section about computer hardware, but I want to briefly mention that there are many different types of computers. You may or may not be using the same type that I am creating this document with. I happen to be using a Dell computer running Windows XP. Dell is a brand of computer and Windows is a platform. Dell computers fall into the category of what used to be known as an IBM compatible or PC compatible. It is now more commonly known as a Wintel machine, meaning that it uses Microsoft Windows for it's operating system (OS), and an Intel corporation chip for its brains (CPU). Macintosh is a brand and is also a platform (the Mac OS). See the table below for some other brands and platforms. To add a little further confusion, some brands can run on different platforms and vice versa.

Brand	Platform (primary)	Other
Dell Micron Compaq Gateway IBM Hewlett Packard	Windows 95/98/2000/XP	Linux Unix Windows NT
Macintosh	Macintosh (Mac OS)	Unix/Linux
Amiga	Amiga (Amiga OS)	Linux
Sun	Unix (Solaris)	Linux

I Don't Do Windows

So, do you do Windows? Chances are you do. Whether you own a Dell or a Gateway or even a Macintosh, you probably use a GUI that is a windowing environment. The windowing concept is one of getting a "view" of a portion of your computer through a "window". In the GUI, small pictures on the screen (called icons) represent elements of the computer's functionality. Many GUI's use the office environment as the analogy. In an office you have a desk, and a file cabinet, and a trash can and/or recycle bin, etc. Well the same goes for the GUI on your computer. You have a desktop (see the examples of the Windows and Macintosh desktops below), a Trash Can (Macintosh) or Recycle Bin (Windows 95/98/2000/XP), and electronic file cabinets (your computer's hard disk). The desktop is where you do your work such as, write your letters (word processors), create presentations (programs like PowerPoint), create artwork (photo editors like Photoshop), keep track of addresses or recipes (databases), and so on. The electronic file cabinet is the place where you store all of your work. The Trash Can or Recycle Bin is obviously where you throw things out you don't need.

Windows Desktop	Macintosh Desktop

OK, So I Do Windows. What Are They Again?

Well, let's start with what they aren't. In the old days of computer interfaces, you had to type on a keyboard the commands to get the computer to do something. If you wanted to list some files in a particular section of the computer (a directory) you typed a command. If you wanted to start a program, you typed a command. If you wanted to get rid of a document or file, you typed a command. MS-DOS and some Unix systems still work this way, but unless you're a programmer, the windows style environment is much preferred. In the windowing environment, to see a list of files you would point your mouse at an icon and click. To start a program click an icon. To get rid of something move the icon of the file over the trash can/recycle bin and let go.

The window is your view of a section of the computer. Within the window will be one or more icons representing programs, files, documents or folder icons where more icons will be contained within. You can have multiple windows open on the desktop by clicking either drive icons or folder icons. When we say clicking icons, we are actually talking about a procedure called double-clicking, which is two rapid clicks of the mouse button on the icon.

A Windows Window	A Macintosh Window

If you look at the Windows desktop, you'll see an icon labeled My Computer. Opening this icon will display the My Computer Window. Within this window are the different icons representing the drives. There is, for instance, an icon labeled 3½ Floppy (A:). This represents the floppy disk drive. Another icon is labeled simply (C:). This icon represents the internal hard disk of the computer. There are other icons representing other types of drives and devices for the computer.

If you look at the Macintosh desktop, You'll see an icon labeled MAC HD 8.5. Opening this icon will display the contents of the Macintosh hard drive window. Within this window are the folders that contain programs, files and documents on the hard disk of the computer. Macintosh computers differ from the Windows computers in that the drives appear directly on the desktop when you insert the media, be it a floppy or Zip disk, or CD-ROM. We talk more about hard drives and other computer stuff in the hardware section.