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Environment Evolution

Driven by hardware revolution

• Character Displays (1960's - now)

  • display: text plus alphamosaic pseudo-graphics

  • object and command specification: command line typing

  • control over appearance: coding for text formatting

  • application control: single task

• Vector Displays (1963 - 1980's)

  • display: line drawings and stroke text

  • object and command specification: command line typing, function keys, menus

  • control over appearance: pseudo WYSIWYG

  • application control: single or multitasked, host-satellite distributed computing

• 2D bitmap raster displays for PCs and workstations(1972 - now)

  • display: windows, icons, legible text and "flat earth" graphics

  • object and command specification: minimal typing via WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointing) GUI (Graphical User-Interface): point-and-click selection of menu items and objects, widgets and direct manipulation (e.g. drag and drop)

  • control over appearance: WYSIWYG (and WYSIAYG)

  • application control: multi-tasking, networked client-server computation and window management (even X terminals)

Overview of Computer Graphics - 08 MAY 95

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