Iconic shells for multitasking workstations

Abstract

Today's workstations running a multitasking operating system provide high level graphics toward user friendly interfaces. Microcomputers, on their side, implement graphic interfaces on monotasking operating systems. There are two differences between these machines: the operating system and the user interface to this operating system (the shell). Workstations still use standard shells (textual commands) but through a sophisticated graphic environment as a window manager, while microcomputers have their own graphic shell running on monotasking operating system. In this paper we examine the features of both systems and then we present an iconic shell developed for Unix#8482;@@@@ workstations. This shell differs from existing shells because the interaction language is based on graphic manipulations, and is integrated in a multitasking environment.