[net.cog-eng] Windowing

billingsley@sketch.DEC (Pat Billingsley 225-5405) (04/21/84)

I'd like to know more about how people with access to windowing systems
actually use them.  How many windows do users keep on the screen at a
time?  Do people prefer to layer windows, or to keep the contents of
each window in full view?  Is anyone aware of any published research
on user performance with or preference for different types of windowing
operations?

--Pat Billingsley

jfarrell@sun.uucp (Jerry Farrell) (04/23/84)

I have 8 windows on my screen right now.  When I was at Xerox, & each window
tended to be a distinct task, the number was greater, typically around 14.
(Many of these were quite trivial -- a performance monitor which graphed CPU
utilization & disk accesses, e.g.).

They are:
	a terminal emulator dedicated to mail (in which I'm handling this)
	a terminal emulator dedicated to my system console (iconic)
	a terminal emulator dedicated to an editor which has my calendar
		loaded, and my phonelist as an alternate file (iconic)
	a clock
	a bitmap editor, for sketching pictures
	a general graphics environment, currently keeping a strip-chart
		performance monitor
	a terminal emulator used as a general executive window
	a terminal emulator generally used for editing / viewing source
		for code or documents