graphical user interfaces guis and wimps guis (graphical user interfacesand wimp (windowsiconsmice and pop-up menusstyle interfaces have been available within computer systems for many years but they are still one of the most significant developments to have occurred these interfaces were originally developed out of desire to address many of the perceived weaknesses of purely textual interfaces the textual interface to an operating system was typified by peremptory prompt in unix/linux systems for examplethe prompt is often merely single character such as %or $which can be intimidating this is true even for experienced computer users if they are not familiar with the unix/linux family of operating systems for examplea user wishing to copy file from one directory to another might have to type something likecp file pdf ~otheruser/projdir/srcdir/newfile pdf this long sequence needs to be entered with no mistakes in order to be accepted any error in this command will cause the system to generate an error message which might or might not be enlightening even where systems attempt to be more "user friendly'through features like command historiesmuch typing of arrow keys and filenames is typically needed the main issue on both input and output is one of bandwidth for examplein situations where the relationships between large amounts of information must be describedit is much easier to assimilate this if output is displayed graphically than if it is displayed as tables of figures on inputcombinations of mouse actions can be given meaning that could otherwise only be conveyed by several lines of text wimp stands for windows (or window managers)iconsmice and pop-up menus wimp interfaces allow the user to overcome at least some of the weaknesses of their textual counterparts--it is possible to provide pictorial image of the operating system which can be based on concept the user can relate tomenus can be used instead of textual commands and information in general can be displayed graphically the fundamental concepts presented via wimp interface were originally developed at xerox' palo alto research center and used on the xerox star machinebut gained much wider acceptance through first the apple macintosh and then ibm pc implementations of wimp interfaces most wimp style environments use desktop analogy (although this is less true of mobile devices such as phones and tablets)the whole screen represents working surface ( desktop)graphic windows that can overlap represent sheets of paper on that desktop