GUI Widget

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Various widgets.
Various widgets.

In computer programming, a widget (or control) is an interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Contents

[edit] Etymology

The term was first applied to user interface elements during Project Athena in the 1980s. The word was chosen because "all other common terms were overloaded with inappropriate connotations" and – since the project's Intrinsics toolkit associated each widget with a window of the underlying X Window System – because of the common prefix with the word window. [1]

[edit] Various widgets

[edit] Layout

  • systematic
    • tiles (= frames)
    • docking
    • grid
  • free
    • windows (on a form or on the desktop)
  • by
    • programmer and then fixed at compilation
    • user
v  d  e
Elements of graphical user interfaces

About box · Balloon help · Button · Combo box · Combutcon · Context menu · Check box · Dialog box · Drop-down list · File dialog · Grid view · Icon · Label · List box · Menu · Menu bar · Progress bar · Radio button · Ribbon · Scrollbar · Slider · Spinner · Status bar · Tab · Text box · Toolbar · Tooltip · Tree view · widget

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ralph R. Swick, Mark S. Ackerman (1988). "The X Toolkit: More Bricks for Building User-Interfaces, or, Widgets for Hire". USENIX Winter: 221–228. Retrieved on 2007-01-03.