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	Desktop Metaphor
		The desktop metaphor has many shortcomings and is generally inappropriate for an active reading machine.
		1994] of a desktop would not be used and the human may be misled by the metaphor.
		Besides, the desktop metaphor is useful because of its affordances to organize and realize office tasks.
	www.csdl.tamu.edu /~l0f0954/academic/cpsc610/hw2-3.htm (373 words)

	NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Desktop metaphor
		The desktop metaphor itself has been extended and stretched with various implementations, since access to features and usability of the computer are usually more important than maintaining the ‘purity’ of the metaphor.
		A very primitive GUI presented a rough sketch of a desktop, complete with telephone, drawers, calculator, etc. The user made his choices by moving a sprite of a hand pointing with the use of a joystick and choose options by pushing the firebutton of the joystick.
		As in the Mac OS desktop, an icon for a floppy disk or CD-ROM would appear on the desktop when the disk was inserted into the drive, as it was a virtual counterpart of a physical floppy disk or CD-ROM on the surface of a workbench.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Desktop-metaphor (1694 words)

	MacKiDo/Innovation/Desktop
		Selecting a file, then hitting a "move" key to relocate it on the virtual desktop is nothing like your real desktop (not a good imitation of the metaphor you were supposed to be using).
		The concept of multiple disks, dragging to move or copy (including just rearranging the hierarchy), dragging to the trashcan to delete, selecting the text to rename, and so on, were all absolutely Apple innovations.
		Xerox did call their interface a "desktop metaphor" -- but it wasn't close to what people think of today when they use icons on the desktop on a Mac or PC.
	www.mackido.com /Innovation/Desktop.html (4024 words)

	Metaphors we compute by: bringing magic into interface design (Site not responding. Last check: )
		In the desktop metaphor, the computer screen is a virtual 'desktop' with electronic 'folders,' 'documents,' 'disk icons' and a 'trash can' which are patterned after the physical objects in the physical office.
		Under the desktop metaphor, it made no sense to pattern ejecting a diskette after the action of throwing a diskette in the trash, for we normally re-use a diskette once it is out of the system.
		The metaphors we use to understand ideas, minds and user interfaces are not separable from the "things in themselves." There are no minds which are metaphysically distinct from bodies, and there are no ideas or user interfaces which are metaphysically distinct from bodily metaphors.
	zakros.ucsd.edu /~trohrer/metaphor/gui4web.htm (5116 words)

	Desktop metaphor - CompWisdom (Site not responding. Last check: )
		By means of the desktop metaphor, PC vendors greatly reduced the steepness of the learning curve for their products and made computer technology available to a much larger class of users than before.
		Key to the success of this new generation of the desktop metaphor is that it be a new, compelling metaphor, that all components with which a user interacts support the notion of customizable, specialized user environments, and the focus is always on end-user value.
		The desktop metaphor was, by the definition of the inventor, the use of overlapping windows resembling pieces of paper on a desktop.
	www.compwisdom.com /topics/Desktop-metaphor (2680 words)

	Cooper ( Interaction Design
		The success of the Mac wasn't because of these metaphors but because it was the first computer that defined a tightly restricted vocabulary for communicating with users based on a very small set of mouse actions.
		The intuition of the metaphor paradigm takes place without understanding the mechanics of the software, so it is a step forward from the technology paradigm, but its power and usefulness has been inflated to unrealistic proportions.
		The heavy reliance on metaphor means that you can intuit the basic functioning of the software, but the downside is that the metaphor restricts all navigation to a very rudimentary, linear path.
	www.cooper.com /articles/art_myth_of_metaphor.htm (2593 words)

	The Pragmatics of HCI: The Desktop Metaphor
		As already pointed out in section 2.2,2, the desktop metaphor was chosen for personal computers due to the environment of their use.
		Furthermore, some actions in the desktop metaphor have no equivalent in the real world, for example changing the size of a window or duplicating an icon (Schmauks 124).
		Thus, despite the inconsistencies, the desktop metaphor seems to work well, and the reasons for this are examined in the next section.
	tom.alby.de /magisterarbeit/node51.html (422 words)

	The Pragmatics of HCI: The Metaphor as an Utterance
		The Pragmatics of HCI: The Metaphor as an Utterance
		Regarding the desktop metaphor as a virtual space has a disadvantage: since the computer is considered to be more like a virtual world and less like a conversation partner.
		To sum up, the desktop metaphor is the basis of every utterance in human-computer interaction, a speech event or the context of an utterance (Leech 13; Yule 57).
	tom.alby.de /magisterarbeit/node54.html (280 words)

	Metaphors we compute by: bringing magic into interface design
		Collins[1] explains that using the trash can metaphor to eject disks is "an example of magic that goes too far."[2] He suggests that metaphors are most intuitive to users when they are fairly literal, as in deleting a document by tossing it in the trash can.
		I see not only a tension between the literal and magical qualities of metaphor, but a tension between the users' feeling that the computer is an extension of their bodies and believing that it is an "other"--a sentient being with a consciousness of its own (and usually a malevolent consciousness at that).
		Metaphor is not about simply transporting a system of ideas from the designer's mind into the users; it is constitutive of both our theories of minds and our software.
	philosophy.uoregon.edu /metaphor/gui4web.htm (4428 words)

	Desktop Metaphor (Site not responding. Last check: )
		1994] of a desktop would not be used and the human may be misled by the metaphor.
		Besides, the desktop metaphor is useful because of its affordances to organize and realize office tasks.
		This is in the best case, an indirect support for an active reading machine, an still a composite metaphor would be required, since it would be very difficult to find real world objects that fit the desktop metaphor and represent intuitively the automated practices provided by active reading machine.
	www.texasflora.org /~l0f0954/academic/cpsc610/hw2-3.htm (373 words)

	Desktop metaphor Article, Desktopmetaphor Information (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The desktop metaphor is a set of unifying concepts currently used in a number of GUI -based operating systems.
		The desktop metaphor itself has been extended and stretched with various implementations, since access to features andusability of the computer are usually more important than maintaining the "purity" of the metaphor.
		The first computer to popularise the desktop metaphor over the earlier command line interface was the AppleMacintosh of 1984.
	www.anoca.org /user/documents/desktop_metaphor.html (317 words)

	Desktop metaphor - Article from FactBug.org - the fast Wikipedia mirror site
		The desktop metaphor is a set of unifying concepts currently used in a number of GUI-based operating systems.
		In recent times the filing cabinet and desktop metaphor has become less important, especially since the advent of very large storage media, which can make the easy navigation of files and folders problematic.
		The addition of "smart folders" and the like leads to a method of locating files that is based on search criteria important to the user, rather than its physical arrangement on disk, which ultimately is of no importance to the user.
	www.factbug.org /cgi-bin/a.cgi?a=348304 (331 words)

	Metaphors and the user interface
		The essence of metaphor is to give an idea of some unknown thing or concept, by illustrating it with something else which is known and which originally has nothing to do with it.
		This metaphor was invented by Al Gore, to the analogy of the interstate highway system of the U.S. There are people who say that this metaphor is in fact too good[10].
		Some criticise the highway metaphor because they think that travelling is not the point here [11]: we (hopefully) don't spend too much time travelling, we rather "jump" from one place to the other, and the important point is what we see on these places.
	www.katalinszabo.com /metaphor.htm (3324 words)

	Technology Review - The Next Computer Interface (Site not responding. Last check: )
		It failed spectacularly, mostly because the metaphor was so literal that it got in the way—users spent too much time navigating the desktop, trying to figure out how the virtual furniture, shelves and cozy fireplace related to a task like opening a file or application.
		It's not the desktop metaphor that's holding us back, they say; it's the whole notion that we need to make computers act like something other than what they are.
		The desktop metaphor is so tightly wedded in our minds to keyboard, mouse and monitor that unless the outside package changes, the on-screen presentation doesn't have much of a chance to evolve either.
	www.passig.com /pic/NextComputerInterface.htm (3401 words)

	desktop metaphor
		In general, the desktop computer is too big and too heavy to be held in hand as a reading device.
		A desktop forces the reader to look forward at a screen when he may prefer to looking down at the medium or looking up at it when lying in bed.
		In contrast, paper document metaphor is more proper for an active reading machine than the desktop metaphor.
	www.austincc.edu /~songhome/desktop_metaphor.htm (293 words)

	Desktop . Calendar . GNOME . Desktop metaphor (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Systems that use desktops include: GNOME KDE Mac OS Microsoft Windows When talking about computer hardware, a desktop computer is a personal computer that is too large to carry and designed to remain in the same place.
		A desktop is the horizontal surface of a desk.
		The GNOME desktop is built from a large number of different projects.
	www.uk.fraquisanto.net /Desktop (428 words)

	ETHICOMP2001. Gdansk, Poland. June 2001
		This ``desktop metaphor,'' as it was called, was the guiding principle behind the very successful Apple Macintosh and, soon after, the Microsoft Windows operating systems.
		However, the desktop metaphor also introduces a number of thorny problems, raising ethical issues concerning the manner in which this development has taken and is taking place.
		But the desktop metaphor is of no help to someone who doesn't have a desktop [Brock 1996].
	www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk /conferences/ccsrconf/ethicomp2001/abstracts/moniot.html (872 words)

	TechBlog: Is BumpTop your new desktop?
		Jef Raskin was later said to regret the desktop metaphor and over the years became openly critical of both the Apple and Windows desktops.
		MacOS, of course, is based on the desktop metaphor, although Apple has fiddled with it so much over the years that it bears only a passing resemblance to the original Macintosh desktop.
		Despite the near universal acceptance of the desktop metaphor, it's been criticized often over the years, both in the popular press and in academia.
	blogs.chron.com /techblog/archives/2006/06/is_bumptop_your.html (827 words)

	The Desktop Metaphor
		Metaphors are the representation of one thing in terms of another.
		The desktop concept was invented in 70s by a group of researchers at Xerox's high-end computer science lab in Palo Alto.
		That's the beauty of the metaphor, it can be used to help understanding without being tied down by the limitations of the real-world equivalent.
	www.optimalusability.com /post.php?postid=28 (444 words)

	eXmosis: The Desktop Metaphor
		The problem of this metaphor is that while it works for organising information, just as people organise it on their desks, it doesn't take into account the extended functionality that a computer system offers.
		This is the restriction of the desktop metaphor, and hence why we should strive to free ourselves of it.
		What we need is a metaphor that takes this into account, a paradigm that portrays information more as a "flow", that takes into account not just the content, but its relations with the environment in which it resides.
	www.exmosis.net /node.The_Desktop_Metaphor (416 words)

	Desktop environment (Linux Reviews)
		The name is derived from the desktop metaphor used by most of these interfaces, as opposed to the earlier, textual command line interfaces (CLI).
		The desktop environments for the popular proprietary operating systems Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X are, in their intended use, relatively unalterable.
		The Amiga approach to desktop environment was noteworthy; the original Workbench desktop environment in AmigaOS evolved through time to originate an entire family of descendants.
	linuxreviews.org /dictionary/Desktop_environment (571 words)

	BlueSparc \| Open, Accessible Web Design » Blog Archive » An Elaboration of the Desktop Metaphor (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Well this article on OSNews speaks on the subject of the Desktop Metaphor in greater detail.
		By desktop metaphor we mean the concept where the Graphical User Interface represents an office desk on screen.
		The whole area is the desktop itself which is littered with many documents as in real life.
	www.bluesparc.com /2006/03/17/an-elaboration-of-the-desktop-metaphor (397 words)

	EXPLORING ALTERNATIVES TO THE DESKTOP METAPHOR (Site not responding. Last check: )
		In 1981, the Xerox Star workstation introduced researchers to the “desktop metaphor” of computing, the idea being to communicate a virtual office environment to users [Smith, 1982 #1032].
		In this case, the experiments will lead to the development, deployment, and evaluation of a number of alternatives to replace the desktop metaphor.
		Rather than giving people interfaces based on inappropriate metaphors, we should be designing to accommodate the tasks that people perform within varied cultural settings.
	www.iaaec.com /projects/hcide/hc3.html (545 words)

	BumpTop Desktop Metaphor \| stéfan sinclair online (Site not responding. Last check: )
		BumpTop is a project, based at the University of Toronto, to experiment with metaphors of the electronic desktop.
		The underlying principle seems to be to make the electronic desktop resemble as much as possible the physical desktop, with principles of physics respected where appropriate (like the interaction between items), and organization strategies available where possible (like turning items at an angle to reveal a prominent feature).
		But the only real question of substance I was left with in the end is whether or not the top of a desk is really the most useful/efficient metaphor for working with computers.
	www.stefansinclair.name /blog/BumpTop (251 words)

	True Desktop Metaphor - MacNN Forums (Site not responding. Last check: )
		My problem with desktop metaphor as it has been for years now is that it is basically not a desktop, its just a full time directory running fullscreen.
		The desktop itself was and still is a folder on the harddrive.
		The problem with a desktop is that in order to use things, you have to put them on the desktop, and there's only limited space available for doing that.
	forums.macnn.com /84/mac-os-x-archives/127543/true-desktop-metaphor (2602 words)

	OrangeGuava (Site not responding. Last check: )
		A real world desktop has stacks of paper arranged informally in such a way that you always know where to find a piece of information, simply by knowing which side of the desk you always put that kind of information.
		A quick way to send ink when the desktop is hidden behind other applications is to use the popup window that appears when you move the pen over the OrangeGuava logo on the taskbar.
		No, all the user settings and desktop layout data is left in place after uninstall, so if you reinstall the software or upgrade to a newer version your desktop will stay as you left it.
	www.orangeguava.com /desktop.aspx (1906 words)

	Room With A View (RWAV): A Metaphor For Interactive Computing - IBM Research Division Report RC xxxxx
		The desktop metaphor, introduced on the Xerox Alto computer [Thacker82], has since been embodied in a variety of window management systems.
		Elements of the computer-based desktop are represented spatially through a set of icons, such as filing cabinets, folders, paint palettes, etc. These icons are indicative of the objects that we may have in a real office.
		While the Rooms metaphor extends the number of workspaces available for use, the window into the information space is still limited to a single desktop (computer display) at a time.
	www.research.ibm.com /people/k/koved/papers/rwavrc.html (3384 words)

	SIGCHI Bulletin Vol.27 No.4, October 1995: Views and Feelings: Metaphorically Speaking
		Another word that I have difficulty with is our use of "Metaphor" in such phrases as "the desktop metaphor".
		A computer system or screen is not a figure of speech, (nor for that matter does a system that uses the desktop metaphor resemble any desktop I've ever seen; my waste bin is on the floor, and so is my filing cabinet, and well, to be honest, so are many of my papers...).
		When you look up "metaphor" in user-interface books, they often say something like "an analogy where...", in other words they use the correct word to describe the incorrect one.
	sigchi.org /bulletin/1995.4/views.html (577 words)

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