Graphical User Interface

Gui Origins

When computers were first introduced to the general public, they had to be operated via complex punch-card systems. Eventually, users were able to abandon the punch-card system in favor of a text-only operating system. Users would see a command prompt on a blank screen, and would have to input textual command codes (e.g., “run” and “copy”), similar to those found in MS-DOS personal computer systems. Knowledge of programming languages allowed users to write their own programs to handle simple tasks. The extent of a computer's use was defined, and often restricted, by what the user could get the system to do through programming or text commands.

Between 1972 and 1974, researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), created a computer called the Alto that featured a mouse, a network card, the first GUI, and Smalltalk, a computer language. These components helped aid users to communicate more easily with their computers. During these years, Xerox PARC researchers like Jef Raskin, Bruce Horn, and Alan Kay were trying to create an easier-to-use interface for computers. Prototypes for Xerox's computer named Star drew the attention of Steve Jobs, head of Apple Computer. After visiting Xerox PARC, Jobs later hired many of these same researchers to work on his two lines of Apple computers, Lisa and Macintosh.

There is disagreement among computer aficionados as to whether or not Apple “stole” Xerox's ideas and interfaces. Some records say that Jobs saw only the Alto and not the Star; some say he saw a working model of the Star; and some claim that Apple computers already had its own ideas being put into production, and that all Jobs really did was share ideas. Regardless of which version of the story a person believes, the fact is that Xerox's Star, released in 1981, was the first computer to have a GUI operating system available to commercial businesses, while Apple Computer's Lisa, released in 1983, was the first computer sold to the public that had a working GUI. Because Apple used stronger marketing techniques and targeted the general public, Apple became known as the first computer with a GUI.

Even with the new GUI concept, Lisa was not a commercial success, and was ultimately pulled off the market, to be succeeded by the Macintosh (Mac) and an improved GUI, with features that would become standards of a working Macintosh desktop, and later the IBM PC-clone Windows desktop. Users could double-click on folders, drag unwanted files to a trashcan, choose various options from pull-down menus, and even customize what they wanted to see on their desktop when the computer booted up.

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