There is even a trash can for throwing things away. Buttressing the desktop are dozens of subsidiary metaphors. Overlapping windows let users peer into different areas within the computer without having to stop what they are doing. Pull-down menus drop like window shades from the top of the screen, eliminating the need to look up commands in a manual. On the Macintosh, the medium is the metaphor, and users begin to think not in words but in symbols.
Paint programs come equipped with electronic pencils, paint buckets, spray cans and erasers.
Desktop-publishing programs come with electronic scissors and pasteboards. These ideas, of course, did not spring fully formed from the mind of Jobs. It's clear, however, that Apple significantly improved on Xerox's work. In Smalltalk, for example, all commands are executed through pop-up menus. On the Mac, users can reach right into cyberspace and manipulate documents directly, grabbing a file with a mouse, dragging it across the screen and dropping it into a folder or trash can.