Table Of ContentEurographicSeminars
Tutorials and Perspectives in Computer Graphics
Edited by G.Enderle and D.A.Duce
Methodology of
Window Management
Proceedings of an Alvey Workshop at Cosener's House,
Abingdon, UK, April 1985
Edited by
ER.A. Hopgood D.A. Duce
E.V.C.Fielding K.Robinson
A.S. Williams
With 41 Figures
Springer-Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo
Eurographic Seminars
Edited by G. Enderle and D. A. Duce
for EUROGRAPIDCS -
The European Association for Computer Graphics
P.O. Box 16
CH-1288 Aire-Ia-Ville
Editors
F. Robert A. Hopgood
David A. Duce
Elizabeth V. C. Fielding
Ken Robinson
Antony S. Williams
Science and Engineering Research Council
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Informatics Division
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, OXll OQX
United Kingdom
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-70921-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-70919-7
DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-70919-7
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the
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broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying, machine or similar means, and storage in data
banks. Under § 54 of the German Copyright Law where copies are made for other than
private use, a fee is payable to 'Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort', Munich.
© 1986 EUROGRAPHICS The European Association for Computer Graphics,
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 15t edition 1986
P.O. Box 16. CH-1288 Aire-ia-Ville
The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
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Printing: Beltz Offsetdruck, HemsbachlBergstr. Bookbinding: J. Schaffer OHG, Gtiinstadt.
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Preface
This volume is a record of the Workshop on Window Management held at the Ruth-
erford Appleton Laboratory's Cosener's House between 29 April and 1 May 1985.
The main impetus for the Workshop came from the Alvey Programme's Man-
Machine Interface Director who was concerned at the lack of a formal definition of
window management and the lack of focus for research activities in this area. Win-
dow Management per se is not the complete problem in understanding interaction.
However, the appearance of bitmap displays from a variety of vendors enabling an
operator to work simultaneously with a number of applications on a single display
has focussed attention on what the overall architecture for such a system should be
and also on what the interfaces to both the application and operator should be.
The format of the Workshop was to spend the first day with presentations from a
number of invited speakers. The aim was to get the participants aware of the
current state of the art and to highlight the main outstanding issues. The second day
consisted of the Workshop participants splitting into three groups and discussing
specific issues in depth. Plenary sessions helped to keep the individual groups work-
ing on similar lines. The third day concentrated on the individual groups presenting
their results and interacting with the other groups to identify main areas of con-
sensus and also a framework for future work.
Part I of this volume gives the background to the Workshop, its scope and goals.
Part IT consists of position papers, the invited presentations and an edited version
of the discussion following each. The set of speakers covers a significant part of the
expertise currently available. This section provided a useful summary of the state-of-
the-art for the Workshop and highlighted the issues.
Each participant was asked to identify his major areas of concern prior to the
Workshop. These have been condensed and integrated to give a view of the prob-
lems prior to the Workshop. Lists of issues were also generated from these contribu-
tions and the invited presentations. These formed an initial basis for the Working
Group discussions reported in the next part.
Part lIT concentrates on the work carried out in the Working Groups with partic-
ular attention focussed on the Working Group conclusions and questions requiring
further study.
vi Methodology of Window Management
Part IV presents the main conclusions of the Workshop and includes an Open
List of questions requiring further study. This list indicates the current limits to the
understanding achieved at the Workshop. As always, more questions were raised
than conclusions reached. This part also includes a bibliography of the area and a
glossary of terms used in the book.
The discussion sessions have been heavily edited. The Editors hope that no
remarks have been attributed to individuals incorrectly. Copies of the typescript
were sent to all participants for comment prior to publication.
The contents of this volume should not be considered as definitive conclusions but
as a contribution to the study of methodology in human-computer interaction partic-
ularly with respect to single user workstations.
This book should be of interest to anybody with an interest in graphics and
interaction in general. Many of the issues discussed have a more general applicabil-
ity than the particular area under discussion. However, the primary audience is
those directly involved in the area of the human factors and design of systems on
high-powered single user workstations.
Acknowledgements
The major acknowledgement must be to the cumulative effort of the participants
who contributed time and energy to achieve what has been recorded here.
The Organizing Committee was largely responsible for the work prior to the
Workshop. Special thanks must be given to the individuals who gave their time.
The main funding source for the Workshop was the Alvey MMI Director who
ensured that the right mix of individuals could attend. We are also indebted to a
number of organizations who provided significant financial'help including Ruther-
ford Appleton Laboratory, Eurographics, SUN Microsystems, Microsoft Corpora-
tion and Graphic Software Systems.
The secretariat came from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory's Informatics Divi-
sion. It worked long hours both during and after the Workshop to ensure an accu-
rate transcript of the workshop in the minimum time. Carol Barnes, Janice Gore
and Rita Hollington typed many thousands of keystrokes in the process. Special
thanks must be paid to David Duce who organized the secretariat in his quiet and
efficient style coping with most catastrophes in his stride; and to Carol Barnes and
Janice Gore who worked very long hours typing the drafts of this book.
The Workshop was held at the Cosener's House in Abingdon. Particular thanks
are due to the staff there for making us most welcome and coping with our excessive
demands in terms of alterations to meal times and accommodation for six computers
and a photocopier, in addition to the participants.
Chapter 12 first appeared in the proceedings of the 1985 EUUG Conference in
Paris. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the European Unix Systems User
Group. Figures 4.1 to 4.7 are reproduced by kind permission of Xerox Corporation.
Unix™ is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. Ada® is a registered trade-
mark of the U.S. Government (Ada Joint Program Office).
List of Participants
Organizing Committee
Bob Hopgood Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
William Newman Independent Consultant
Austin Tate University of Edinburgh
George Coulouris Queen Mary College, London
Ken Robinson Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Tony Williams Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Participants
David Barnes University of Kent
Peter Bono Graphic Software Systems
John Butler Microsoft Corporation
Steve Cook Queen Mary College, London
Martin Cooper British Telecom Research Laboratories
Gordon Dougan Office Workstations Ltd
Arthur Foster GEC Research Laboratories
James Gosling SUN Microsystems Inc
Paul ten Hagen CWI, Amsterdam
Alistair Kilgour University of Glasgow
Brad Myers University of Toronto
Colin Prosser International Computers Ltd
David Rosenthal Carnegie-Mellon University
David Small High Level Hardware Ltd
Dominic Sweetman Whitechapel Computer Works Ltd
Warren Teitelman SUN Microsystems Inc
Harold Thimbleby University of York
Mike Underwood Alvey MMI Directorate
Neil Wiseman University of Cambridge
x Methodology of Window Management
Secretariat
David Duce
Note Takers Secretaries
Tony Cox Carol Barnes
David Duce Janice Gore
Liz Fielding Rita Hollington
Simon Frost
Duncan Gibson
Janet Haswell
Janet Malone
Mark Martin
Martin Prime
Trudy Watson
Table of Contents
Preface V
Acknowledgements Vll
List of Participants IX
Part I
1 Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND 1
1.2 GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP 2
1.3 ORGANIZATION 3
1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHOP 4
1.5 DEMONSTRATIONS 5
1.6 TERMINOLOGY 5
Part n
2 Introducing Windows to Unix: User Expectations 9
by Colin Prosser
2.1 INTRODUCTION 9
2.2 USER EXPECTA n ONS 9
2.3 DISCUSSION 11
3 A Comparison of Some Window Managers 15
by Tony Williams
3.1 INTRODUCTION 15
3.2 A MODEL OF WINDOW MANAGEMENT 16
3.3 COMPARISON OF WINDOW MANAGERS 19
3.4 ARCHITECTURE, ADDRESS SPACES AND COMMUNICATIONS 28
3.5 OTHER SYSTEMS 31
3.6 SUMMARY 31
3.7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 32
3.8 DISCUSSION 32
xii Methodology of Window Management
4 Ten Years of Window Systems - A Retrospective View 35
by Warren Teitelman
4.1 INTRODUCTION 35
4.2 SMALLTALK 35
4.3 DLISP 36
4.4 INTERLISP-D 39
4.5 TAJO (MESA DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT) 39
4.6 THE DOCS SYSTEM (CEDAR) 40
4.7 VIEWERS (CEDAR) 41
4.8 SUNWINDOWS 45
4.9 SUNDEW 46
4.10 DISCUSSION 46
5 SunDew - A Distributed and Extensible Window System 47
by James Gosling
5.1 INTRODUCTION 47
5.2 GOALS 47
5.3 DESIGN SKETCH 49
5.4 DISCUSSION 53
6 Issues in Window Management Design and Implementation 59
by Brad Myers
6.1 INTRODUCTION 59
6.2 USER INTERFACE 60
6.3 INPUT 65
6.4 IMPLEMENTATION 66
6.5 SUMMARY 69
6.6 DISCUSSION 70
7 A Modular Window System for Unix 73
by Dominic Sweetman
7.1 INTRODUCTION 73
7.2 ARCHITECTURE 74
7.3 FUTURE REQUIREMENTS 78
7.4 DISCUSSION 79
8 Standards Activities 81
by John Butler
8.1 INTRODUCTION 81
8.2 MODELS 82
8.3 UNRESOLVED MATTERS 86
9 A Graphics Standards View of Screen Management 87
by Bob Hopgood
9.1 INTRODUCTION 87
9.2 VOCABULARY 87
9.3 INTERFACE TO GKS 88
9.4 SUBDIVISION OF FRAMES 90
9.5 ASPECT RATIO AND POSITIONING WITHIN A FRAME 91
9.6 OUTPUT CONTROL 91
