The development of graphical interfaces becomes more and more important, as more and more graphical oriented computers are used. Many users are still working with traditional commandline tools, and only use the graphical capabilities of their computers to display several command shells. Of course, this may be appropriate for some tasks, and users but using an application with a graphical interface usually improves the user's productivity. Usually graphical interfaces provide a more intuitive access to applications. This is possible by the use of graphical symbols, color, various fonts etc.. This does not mean that graphical interfaces must be totally different from traditional interfaces, but the graphical environment gives more freedom for the design of the application.
The range of applications that are supplied with a graphical interface goes from complex software packages (like word processors) to small interface components (like alert boxes) for ``toy'' applications. The complexity of the graphical environment makes it necessary that developers get some kind of support. First, to allow a fast development of applications, and second to support the design of ``good'' graphical interfaces.
The developer of a complex software package usually needs support for the design of a consistent interface. It is important that the process of the implementation is supported. Changeability of the design, support for product maintenance and project management are important.
On the other hand, the existence of commonly used and
well-known traditional applications makes it interesting for
the user to create graphical frontends for existing
commandline oriented tools. An example for this kind of
encapsulation of traditional applications into a graphical
frontend is the HP Encapsulator
[#Cagan90#
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Harry Beker
Thu Feb 29 18:06:38 MET 1996