Talk:History of the graphical user interface

message: X11 & FVWM95? It's a joke? It is pure Windows running WindowMaker in cygwin emulator!!
Comment: What are you talking about? The first versions of X Windows was made around 1984 for UNIX, and thus predates MS Windows by far... As for FVWM95, it's a version of FVWM2 that has been remade to look more like windows.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.225.105.62 (talk) 18:06, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  X11 & FVWM95? It's a joke? 

message: Something to compare this page to could be an article just published on the Ars Technica site http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/gui.ars. I think it's been influeneced a bit by wikipedia (I notice a few screenshots are the same as ones I dug up a while back) - Diceman 11:49, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Depending how much influence there was from the Wikipedia article at that time, this is a potential problem. I've just referenced the article elsewhere. The "new concept" claim was in the Ars Technica article but appently not in that version of History of the graphical user interface (unless it was removed between the article's initial draft and publication?) Anyway, if this is controversial, please discuss at Talk:Icon bar. Thanks. --Trevj (talk) 12:08, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think this is a real problem. WP:CIRCULAR is a warning against linking to mirror sites and people citing Wikipedia, not about online newspapers with a solid reputation. Ars Technica has a good enough review process so that it can be presumed to have performed fact-checking and count as a reliable source. Diego Moya (talk) 15:03, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text:  for the clarification. Also thanks for this edit. --Trevj (talk) 15:15, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  History of the GUI article on Ars Technica 

message: Aero will also be the first version of Windows where the graphics card will be used to draw the desktop
Maybe that should be rephrased in some way? :) 
Can't come up with anything myself, sorry. --217.157.167.102 13:04, 12 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: In the Windows Vista part

message: Shouldn't these two GUIs be mentioned here? I'd say they are just as notable as BeOS and OS/2 Warp. Jacoplane 18:55, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. Also a discussion of other less common X environments under the one that spawned them, like ROX under RISC OS. (Not just any X window manager; only those that have a distinct operating environment.) To the end user they're way more important than what underlying system draws the graphics onto the screen, and god knows trying KDE out for me is about as big a change as running Windows/Mac OS X in terms of what I get. — Felix the Cassowary 23:39, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  GNOME & KDE 

message: But this can only be considered a rumor, as all copyrights on windowed GUIs were property of Xerox at that time.
Shouldn't this be patents? Copyrights protect implemetations, patents protect ideas. There's difference. --logixoul 12:40, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Changed it. But unsure whether I'm right. --logixoul (is not watching anymore) 13:43, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Patent or ©? 

message: Don't HTML-based UI's fit into the picture here somewhere? Sure the early ones were very crude, but then we had applets, flash, DHTML, etc. Now there seems to be a push to rich internet applications that are based on a number of different technologies.
I think that the history is incomplete without some discussion about how the web interface has evolved over the last 12 or so years. Bernfarr 09:07, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. --logixoul 15:57, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

text: Shouldn't that be another page? it certainly offered nothing new over existing graphical user interfaces and to this day it's much clunkier than even the oldest GUI systems. Lost Goblin 17:19, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I guess its relevant enough to justify a sentence or two (similar to what you wrote). OTOH I agree that it'd be better on a page on its own. --logixoul 13:07, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think there might be a logical disconnect between the GUI where Cairo -> GTK+ -> C++ go with program development and Netscape's introduction of the Graphical web browser extended with DOM, Flash, HTML5, and the plug-ins required to run them go with web-page development.Pendare (talk) 13:25, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  What about HTML? 

message: Can anyone explain why there are separate sections (that are no co-located) for UIs of the same basic "heritage", such as Windows vs. Windows Vista/Aero, and the various iterations of the Apple interface?  It would appear that someone wanted them to be roughly time-sequential, but (IMO) that way lies madness, as after Vista, we'll have a post-Tiger (Panther?) section, etc, etc.  It would seem that a historical/modern split, then a creator split would make more sense than the current ad-hoc ordering. -- Gnetwerker 00:53, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, the section reads like advertising. I tried to fix it up some. Per your complaint I'll move it back under "Windows". Ashibaka tock 00:03, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why is Windows Vista separate from Windows? 

message: Should AIGLX and XGL be mentioned, or no because they're not very functional yet? — a thing 08:44, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  XGL &amp; AIGLX 

message: I added a section in about 3D desktops Metisse/XGL/AIGLX. I didn't want to go into the politics (Vista, etc.) but I wanted to stick to what is currently generally available. I also mentioned DirectFB, which is not but is an interesting technology which probably will be more available in the future.
Probably need expanding and possibly updating with a current state of affairs.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grahamsbrain (talk • contribs) 10:41, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Added

message: Missing from the various sections is the important topic of extensible GUI technology, such as OpenDoc and OLE Automation.  That's a major issue.  There is a whole industry based on writing extensions to Microsoft Word, for example -- speech recognition, language translation, etc.  Those all work by dynamically modifying the GUI of Word. DonPMitchell 10:07, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Extensible GUI 

message: Missing from this is a kind of great grandfather of GUIs, the PLATO system. Now, I read that you refer to GUIs as windowed environment, that it is multi-tasking, and that one uses a mouse ordinarly. I would argue that each of these things has antecedents in the PLATO system. I would like to offer the page on it in wiki and to point out that you can actually use the legacy code preservation simulation client at www.cyber1.org. No, PLATO is not anything that OS X, Vista, Ubuntu or even the Lisa was, but it was part of the development history. Please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_System —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.24.41.154 (talk) 22:08, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  PLATO 

message: The article states that Windows was modeled on the Mac OS (released in 1984) while early builds and screenshots of Windows were available in 1983. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.241.236.224 (talk) 06:36, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anachronism 

message: Workbench is also used on the Amiga as a metaphor for their own standard of "desktop" as opposed to others, such as "Macintosh Finder". Workbench itself is another library or process. Rumors said that this concept of modularity was invented by Commodore to treat Workbench as a window amongst the others in the desktop, in order to avoid reprisal from Apple. But this can only be considered a rumor, as all patents on windowed GUIs were property of Xerox at that time.
The first part of this is nonsense, as the Mac Finder was always an actual process (yes, even back in 1984, it was just another process -- one that you could replace if you so choose, and had a better choice...). The Xerox-holds-all-the-patents line is patently untrue. And why talk about a rumor here?
The Amiga section in general seems a little out of control. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.34.156.186 (talk) 21:32, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nuked a para from the Amiga section 

message: How come there are no references in this article? Not even one? Rees11 01:27, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  References 

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message: I've built on the previous changes to ordering by adding a top level separation in chapters, that IMHO helps to follow the article as a unified "history of GUIs" and not just a collection of historys of individual projects. Hope this enhances the article.Diego 00:09, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reestructuring of the first level in chapters to help a historic narrative 

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message: Why aren't Compiz or Beryl mentioned in the '3D User Interface' section, while Windows Vista that's mostly 2.5D is mentioned?
After all, Compiz and Beryl are the first really useful 3D desktops.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.225.105.62 (talk) 18:14, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  3D User Interface 

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thread_title: Image copyright problem with Image:BeOS Desktop.png

message: I think DATAR may have used one of the first GUI's
Matt (talk) 22:38, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Early GUI? 

message: "Short for Graphical User Interface, the GUI was first developed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay, Douglas Engelbart, and a group of other researchers."
When did Engelbart work for Xerox? elgaard (talk) 16:44, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: He didn't. He was at SRI at the time. - Rlw (Talk) 18:16, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

text: Yeah, The Mother of All Demos was at SRI International. Disavian (talk) 22:59, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Did Engelbart work for Xerox? 

message: A picture would greatly enhance the section.  The best one I can find is http://weather-dimensions.com/tedkaehler/us/ted/resume/st80release-lic2.jpg, but IDK about permissions.  Does anyone know of any?  Yodaat (talk) 00:27, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Xerox PARC 

message: It was first shown to the public in July, 1980 and first sold commercially in August, 1980, months before the Xerox Star. It was thus the very first computer to be sold commercially with a GUI....For a Wikipedia article on the history of the GUI to not even mention the first Commercial application of the GUI is just ridiculous. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.170.135.182 (talk) 18:19, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: What, no mention of the 3Rivers Computer "PERQ"?

message: I recently learned a neat vocabulary word: skeuomorph! That's when something artificial tries to visually replicate something "real". In the case of the GUI desktop, well, we refer to a desktop, we are trying to replicate or recreate the actions of a desk with a desk calendar, drawers, file folders, etc. It applies to other stuff as well (ie. the false leather grain they mold into the plastic on your car's dashboard, the fake stitches on pieces of artificial leather used on sandals, etc). I will add a link to this in "See also". Acidradio (talk) 22:24, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Skeuomorph? 

message: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/screenshots/xerox-star-8010/index.html
Diego (talk) 10:06, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Xerox Star screenshots 

message: The first sentence currently says, "Beginning in 1979, started by Steve Jobs and led by Jef Raskin, the Apple Lisa and Macintosh teams at Apple Computer (which included former members of the Xerox PARC group) continued to develop such ideas." That lengthy sentence could be parsed in several ways, but none would be fully accurate. Jef advised the Lisa team in 1979-80; he never led them. He founded the Macintosh project in 1978; he led it until Jobs took the helm in 1981. I'm not sure how to revise the sentence so it's both accurate and relevant.Larry Tesler (talk) 18:42, 30 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Apple's contribution

message: The very first thing a person sees in this article is a tribute to William Gates.  How so?  By the use of the term "Graphical" in the title.  Bill was the first person to use this obdurate and uneducated form of the word for describing his *graphic* (IE: containing pictorial elements) interface.  This type of misuse now has permeated the English language, and we now have such things as historical events, mathematical equations, technological advances, magical tricks, quadratical equations, psychical studies, and similar language atrocities.  A few days ago I ran across an article where a college professor wrote about bubonical plague infesting several Pacifical islands.  Just because a word ends in the letter C does not mean a person has to add the -al suffix.  I don't care what Uncle Billy says, it's a *graphic* interface, folks.  Please modify the entire article to use the term correctly.
Thanks - John Fairbairn - Rush Creek Research Company
67.233.240.168 (talk) 08:55, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: A thought on language usage

message: The article should have photos showing the Lisa GUI on top and the Mac GUI below. 
The IIgs is not noteworthy enough and the Lisa is the most noteworthy.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.33.93.239 (talk) 09:22, 4 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Apple GUI pictures are not accurate with regards to noteworthiness 

message: I mean, come on. An article about the history of the GUI and no mention of SmallTalk (the language and environment that gave birth to the GUI) or Windows 3.x (the first GUI environment to be a major commercial success)? - 200.82.96.168 (talk) 07:02, 10 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article is really incomplete 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: "The GUI was first developed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay, Larry Tesler, Dan Ingalls, David Smith, Clarence Ellis and a number of other researchers."
Not completely wrong, but pretty much misses the truth. Have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler_Lampson and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_(software) which are more accurate. Provable fact is, that the first graphical user interface on the Alto was written by Lampson and his colleagues in BCPL, not by the mentioned people and not in Smalltalk. You can even have a look at the Alto source code here: http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/xerox_alto_file_system_archive.html. The first WYSIWIG text editor Bravo written by Lampson and Simonyi was the basis for the first DTP application Gipsy written by Tesler and Mott (see links).  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.202.183.35 (talk) 23:18, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wrong or at least misleading text in section Xerox Parc 

message: Despite the article going greatly in depth on the history of various early GUIs from the 80's, the history of modern GUIs that are still in use today are awkwardly slotted in as a sentence or two in the section talking about the 90's, in the same space talking about obsolete OS's such as NextSTEP, OS/2, Amiga Workbench etc. I understand that many of those OS's have modern day derivatives and reimplementations, but the article should really have a section post-2000s that talks about the consolidation of the OS marketplace into the Windows, MacOS, and Linux & more recently Chrome OS world we have today in the desktop space, how those various GUIs have evolved since then, alongside the emergence of smartphones and tablets with their Post-WIMP interfaces, how they differ from mouse-based UIs and how they've effected on the development of traditional desktop GUIs (for example Windows 8, GNOME 3, various iOS-style interfaces introduced to MacOS, etc). Like many Wikipedia articles on computing history, it seams like history ends around the mid-2000s, which I'm guessing is when these articles were last updated in a substantial form. It wasn't long ago that Wikipedia still talked about PDAs in the present tense. 
The "Current Trends" section needs to be expanded greatly - at the moment there's just a tiny paragraph on smartphones and tablets which is especially jarring considering their impact on society and the fact that they're the primary computing device for many people now. In fact, are Mobile Device GUIs really a "current trend" when we're now a more then a decade out from the first iPhone and Android devices? Or that that class of GUIs owe much of their inspiration from earlier mobile devices such as PDAs like the Apple Newton, Windows Mobile/CE and Palm going back into the early 90's, something which isn't even mentioned once?
Then a much larger paragraph on "3D user interfaces" which is confusingly worded to refer to both 3D GUI prototypes such as BumpTop (which was discontinued a decade ago and largely never went anywhere) and modern GPU accelerated GUIs which relegate that power largely for some graphical effects such as drop shadows and window blur rather then substantial changes in UI paradigm. Then a few sentences on "Notebook Interfaces" which doesn't really state it's relevance to the history of GUI development as a whole, especially in a article largely talking about OS-level interfaces rather then application interfaces. On that note - should this article make reference to application UI design? And the web, where does that fit in with GUI history, especially in relation to web apps?
And a small paragraph on virtual reality that doesn't even make reference to VR-centric GUIs, on an article about graphical user interfaces? Nor any mention of AR or Mixed Reality, such as the work Microsoft is doing with Hololens, Google Glass, mobile device AR from various developers and device manufacturers etc. 82.15.131.45 (talk) 14:42, 24 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Current Trends" needs to be greatly expanded and a new section for GUI history post-2000 needs to be added 

message: For project 103.252.144.164 (talk) 15:18, 2 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  About GUI