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Aucbvax.6313 fa.works utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works Thu Feb 25 22:14:07 1982 Re: Window Management >From George.Coulouris@CMU-10A Thu Feb 25 20:14:52 1982 Message-Id: <25FEB82 173209 GC12@CMU-10A> Via: Mit-Ai; 26 Feb 82 0:31-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 26 Feb 82 0:42-EDT

Based on our experience with our 'animated desktop' colour windowed display here at Queen Mary College London, I have the following comments:

1) The interface seems most natural when windows glide smoothly onto the 'desk-top' instead of appearing suddenly in the middle of it. Similar comments apply to moving windows to other parts of the screen and removing them from the screen.

2) If you do that, the windows have to overlap, at least while they are moving, otherwise they would have to find a path that was free of other windows.

3) Colour helps a great deal in discriminating overlapping windows. Having tried it, we wouldn't want to give it up.

4) Despite the above, the screen can get cluttered. It can also be quickly uncluttered by the use of an application-level command to remove some of the windows (in our model, the command is to 'put them back in the filing cabinet'). If you want to, you can construct your application software so that the screen isn't allowed to get cluttered, but I wouldn't use the clutter argument as a reason to ban overlapping windows at the system level.

George Coulouris

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