Product Code Database
In computing, a window is a Graphical widget. It consists of a visual area containing some of the graphical user interface of the program it belongs to and is framed by a window decoration. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows. It displays the output of and may allow input to one or more processes.
Windows are primarily associated with graphical displays, where they can be manipulated with a pointer by employing some kind of pointing device. Text-only displays can also support windowing, as a way to maintain multiple independent display areas, such as multiple buffers in Emacs. Text windows are usually controlled by keyboard, though some also respond to the mouse.
A graphical user interface (GUI) using windows as one of its main "metaphors" is called a windowing system, whose main components are the display server and the window manager.
Research continued at Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center / PARC (led by Alan Kay). They used overlapping windows.
During the 1980s the term "WIMP", which stands for window, icon, menu, pointer, was coined at PARC.
Apple had worked with PARC briefly at that time. Apple developed an interface based on PARC's interface. It was first used on Apple Lisa and later Macintosh computers. Microsoft was developing Office applications for the Mac at that time. Some speculate that this gave them access to Apple's OS before it was released and thus influenced the design of the windowing system in what would eventually be called Microsoft Windows.
Windows usually include other graphical objects, possibly including a menu-bar, toolbars, controls, icons and often a working area. In the working area, the document, image, folder contents or other main object is displayed. Around the working area, within the bounding window, there may be other smaller window areas, sometimes called panes or panels, showing relevant information or options. The working area of a single document interface holds only one main object. "Child windows" in multiple document interfaces, and tabs for example in many web browsers, can make several similar documents or main objects available within a single main application window. Some windows in macOS have a feature called a drawer, which is a pane that slides out the side of the window and to show extra options.
Applications that can run either under a graphical user interface or in a text user interface may use different terminology. GNU Emacs uses the term "window" to refer to an area within its display while a traditional window, such as controlled by an X11 window manager, is called a "frame".
Any window can be split into the window decoration and the window's content, although some systems purposely eschew window decoration as a form of minimalism.
Window decoration typically consists of a title bar, usually along the top of each window and a minimal border around the other three sides. On Microsoft Windows this is called "non-client area".
In the predominant layout for modern window decorations, the top bar contains the title of that window and buttons which perform windowing-related actions such as:
The border exists primarily to allow the user to resize the window, but also to create a visual separation between the window's contents and the rest of the desktop environment.
Window decorations are considered important for the design of the look and feel of an operating system and some systems allow for customization of the colors, styles and animation effects used.
Default title-bar text often incorporates the name of the application and/or of its developer. The name of the Hostname running the application also appears frequently. Various methods (menu-selections, escape sequences, setup parameters, command-line options – depending on the computing environment) may exist to give the end-user some control of title-bar text. Document-oriented applications like a text editor may display the filename or path of the document being edited. Most will render the contents of the HTML element title in their title bar, sometimes pre- or postfixed by the application name. Google Chrome and some versions of Mozilla Firefox place their tabbed browsing in the title bar. This makes it unnecessary to use the main window for the tabs, but usually results in the title becoming truncated. An asterisk at its beginning may be used to signify unsaved changes.
The title bar often contains Graphical widget for system commands relating to the window, such as a maximize, minimize, rollup and close buttons; and may include other content such as an application icon, a clock, etc.
The following buttons may appear in the title bar:
Note that a context menu may be available from some title bar buttons or by right-clicking.
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