Editing Windowing system (section)

{{More citations needed|date=December 2019}}
{{short description|Software that manages separately different parts of display screens}}
[[File:Window (windowing system).svg|thumb|300px|Typical elements of a '''[[Window (computing)|window]]'''. The [[window decoration]] is either drawn by the [[window manager]] or by the client. The drawing of the content is the task of the client.]]

In [[computing]], a '''windowing system''' (or '''window system''') is a software suite that manages separately different parts of [[Electronic visual display|display screen]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kent|first1=Allen|last2=Williams|first2=James G.|title=Encyclopedia of Microcomputers: Volume 19 - Truth Maintenance Systems to Visual Display Quality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s6NKbEJiEMkC&pg=PA227|access-date=8 June 2017|date=1996-10-11|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780824727178|page=227}}</ref> It is a type of [[graphical user interface]] (GUI) which implements the [[WIMP (computing)|WIMP]] ([[Window (computing)|window]]s, [[Icon (computing)|icon]]s, [[Menu (computing)|menu]]s, [[Pointer (user interface)|pointer]]) paradigm for a [[User Interface Toolkit|user interface]].

Each currently running [[Application software|application]] is assigned a usually resizable and usually rectangular surface of the display to present its GUI to the user; these windows may overlap each other, as opposed to a [[tiling interface]] where they are not allowed to overlap. Usually a [[Window (computing)#window decoration|window decoration]] is drawn around each window. The programming of both the window decoration and of available [[Graphical widget|widget]]s inside of the window, which are [[Computer graphics|graphical element]]s for direct user interaction, such as sliders, buttons, etc., is eased and simplified through the use of [[widget toolkit]]s.