Editing WIMP (computing) (section)

{{Short description|Style of human–computer interaction}}
{{distinguish|WIMP (software bundle)|Weakly interacting massive particle{{!}}WIMP (Physics)}}[[File:LibreOffice Writer 5.0.png|thumb|right|A [[word processing]] program that uses a WIMP paradigm, providing mouse-operated toolbars and menus to access its functions]]

In human–computer interaction, '''WIMP''' stands for "[[window (computing)|window]]s, [[icon (computing)|icons]], [[menu (computing)|menu]]s, [[Pointer (user interface)|pointer]]",<ref name="nytimes cellphone">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/science/17map.html | title=The Cellphone, Navigating Our Lives | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=February 16, 2009 | access-date=December 14, 2011 | last = Markoff | first = John | location=New York | quote=[...] so-called WIMP interface — for windows, icons, menus, pointer [...] | author-link = John Markoff }}</ref><ref name="microsoft ">{{cite web | url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/haptic-issues-virtual-manipulation/ | title=Haptic Issues for Virtual Manipulation | publisher=[[Microsoft]] | date=December 1996 | access-date=May 22, 2018 | last = Hinckley | first = Ken | quote=The Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointer (WIMP) interface paradigm dominates modern computing systems.}}</ref><ref name="microsoft input technologies">{{cite web | url=http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kenh/papers/InputChapter.pdf | title=Input Technologies and Techniques | publisher=[[Microsoft]] | access-date=December 14, 2011 | last = Hinckley | first = Ken | quote=Researchers are looking to move beyond the current "WIMP" (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointer) interface [...] }}</ref> denoting a style of interaction using [[List of graphical user interface elements|these elements]] of the user interface. <!--It was coined by [[Merzouga Wilberts]] in 1980.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lottiebooth.com/pdf/essay.pdf|title=Alan Kay and the Graphical User Interface|first=Charlotte|last=Booth|access-date=2009-06-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713232927/http://www.lottiebooth.com/pdf/essay.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-13|url-status=dead}}</ref>--><!-- there's no other article about this (Merzouga Wilberts) person --> Other expansions are sometimes used, such as substituting "mouse" and "mice" for menus, or "pull-down menu" and "pointing" for pointer.<ref name="nytimes computers behave like people">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/01/business/the-executive-computer-when-oh-when-will-computers-behave-like-people.html | title=The Executive Computer; When, Oh When, Will Computers Behave Like People? | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=January 1, 1995 | access-date=December 14, 2011 | last = Flynn | first = Laurie | location=New York | quote="We've taken the WIMP interface as far as it can go," he added, referring to the Windows-icon-mouse-pull-down menu.}}</ref><ref name="siggraph90 ">{{cite conference | citeseerx = 10.1.1.121.7982 | title=SIGGRAPH '90 Workshop Report: Software Architectures and Metaphors for Non-WIMP User Interfaces | publisher=[[ACM SIGGRAPH]] | last1 = Green | first1 = Mark | book-title=SIGGRAPH '90 |date=July 1991 | conference=[[SIGGRAPH]] | location=Dallas | last2 = Jacob | first2 = Robert | quote=The acronym, WIMP, stands for Windows, Icons, Mice and Pointing, and it is used to refer to the desk top, direct manipulation style of user interface.}}</ref><ref name="nytimes facing the future">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/magazine/facing-the-future.html | title=Facing the Future | work=[[The New York Times Magazine]] | date=April 14, 1996 | access-date=December 14, 2011 | last = Patton | first = Phil | location=New York | quote=GUI and WIMP (for window, icon, mouse and pointer) are interfaces based on framed text, drop-down menus and clickable buttons arranged along on-screen panels called tool bars.}}</ref>

Although the [[acronym]] has fallen into disuse, it has often been likened to the term ''[[graphical user interface]] (GUI)''. Any interface that uses graphics can be called a GUI, and WIMP systems derive from such systems. However, while all WIMP systems use graphics as a key element (the icon and pointer elements), and therefore are GUIs, the reverse is not true. Some GUIs are not based in windows, icons, menus, and pointers. For example, most mobile phones represent actions as icons and menus, but often do not rely on a conventional pointer or containerized windows to host program interactions.{{fact|date=August 2017}} 

WIMP interaction was developed at  [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]] (see [[Xerox Alto]], developed in 1973) and popularized with [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s introduction of the [[Macintosh]] in 1984, which added the concepts of the "menu bar" and extended window management.<ref>Andries van Dam: [http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/253671.253708 Post-WIMP User Interfaces.] In: ''Communications of the ACM'', 40(2) (February 1997), pp. 63–67. [http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cache/papers/cs/11222/http:zSzzSzcs.ru.ac.zazSzhomeszSzg97rc001zSzpaperszSzp63-van_dam.pdf/dam97postwimp.pdf Citeseer]</ref>

The WIMP interface has the following components:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hcigroupon6.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/type-of-interfaces/|title=Type of interfaces (WIMP and GUI)|last=HCI|date=2014-11-10|website=HCIGroupon6|language=en|access-date=2020-02-22}}</ref>

* A window runs a self-contained program, isolated from other programs that (if in a multi-program operating system) run at the same time in other windows.
**These individual program containers enable users to move fluidly between different windows.
**The [[window manager]] software is typically designed such that it is clear which window is currently active. [[Design principles]] of spacing, grouping, and simplicity help the user maintain focus when working between more than one window.
* An icon acts as a shortcut to an action the computer performs (e.g., execute a program or task).
**Text labels can be used alongside icons to help identification for small icon sets.
* A menu is a text or icon-based selection system that selects and executes programs or tasks. Menus may change depending on context in which they are accessed.
* The pointer is an onscreen symbol that represents movement of a physical device that the user controls to select icons, data elements, etc.

This style of system improves [[human–computer interaction]] (''HCI'') by emulating real-world interactions and providing greater [[usability|ease of use]] for non-technical people. Because programs contained by a WIMP interface subsequently rely on the same core input methods, the interactions throughout the system are standardized. This [[Consistency (user interfaces)|consistency]] allows users' skills to carry from one application to another.