1. Constituents

The usual WIMP (window, icon, menu, pointer) graphical user interfaces have two main features:

• they require the ability to designate the representation of an object, a command or a value. This action is called "pointing";

• they organize macroscopic dialog with the following graphic object classes:

  • windows,

  • icons,

  • menus.

They are therefore considered to be direct-designation interfaces. In the detailed organization of the dialog, they use a wide variety of interactors that implement pointing. Generally speaking, the dialog is governed by a language whose elements are the interactors - windows, icons, menus, buttons, dialog boxes and so on.