Macintosh user interface

Macintosh user interface

(operating system)The graphical user interface used byApple Computer's Macintosh family of personal computers,based on graphical representations of familiar office objects(sheets of paper, files, wastepaper bin, etc.) positioned on atwo-dimensional "desktop" workspace.

Programs and data files are represented on screen by smallpictures (icons). An object is selected by moving a mouseover the real desktop which correspondingly moves thepointer on screen. When the pointer is over an icon onscreen, the icon is selected by pressing the button on themouse.

A hierarchical file system is provided that lets a user"drag" a document (a file) icon into and out of a folder(directory) icon. Folders can also contain other folders andso on. To delete a document, its icon is dragged into atrash can icon. For people that are not computerenthusiasts, managing files on the Macintosh is easier thanusing the MS-DOS or Unix command-line interpreter.

The Macintosh always displays a row of menu titles at the topof the screen. When a mouse button is pressed over a title, apull-down menu appears below it. With the mouse button helddown, the option within the menu is selected by pointing to itand then releasing the button.

Unlike the IBM PC, which, prior to Microsoft Windows hadno standard graphical user interface, Macintosh developersalmost always conform to the Macintosh interface. As aresult, users are comfortable with the interface of a newprogram from the start even if it takes a while to learn allthe rest of it. They know there will be a row of menu optionsat the top of the screen, and basic tasks are always performedin the same way. Apple also keeps technical jargon down to aminimum.

Although the Macintosh user interface provides consistency; itdoes not make up for an application program that is notdesigned well. Not only must the application's menus be clearand understandable, but the locations on screen that a userpoints to must be considered. Since the mouse is the majorselecting method on a Macintosh, mouse movement should be keptto a minimum. In addition, for experienced typists, the mouseis a cumbersome substitute for well-designed keyboardcommands, especially for intensive text editing.

Urban legned has it that the Mac user interface was copiedfrom Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. Although it istrue that Xerox's smalltalk had a GUI and Xerox introducedsome GUI concepts commercially on the Xerox Star computer in1981, and that Steve Jobs and members of the Mac and Lisaproject teams visited PARC, Jef Raskin, who created the Macproject, points out that many GUI concepts which are nowconsidered fundamental, such as dragging objects and pull-downmenus with the mouse, were actually invented at Apple.

Pull-down menus have become common on IBM, Commodore andAmiga computers. Microsoft Windows and OS/2Presentation Manager, Digital Research's GEM,Hewlett-Packard's New Wave, the X Window System, RISC OS and many other programs and operating environments alsoincorporate some or all of the desktop/mouse/icon features.

Apple Computer have tried to prevent other companies fromusing some GUI concepts by taking legal action against them.It is because of such restrictive practises that organisationssuch as the Free Software Foundation previously refused tosupport ports of their software to Apple machines, though thisban has now been lifted.