6. The apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein the one application program comprises a plurality of application threads, each of the plurality of application threads running independently of other application threads and comprising means for instantiating a view object in the storage.
5. An apparatus operating in a hardware and software environment for generating on a screen display a visual display having a plurality of windows displayed on a desktop background, the apparatus comprising: (a) a processor for concurrently executing a plurality of application programs, each of the application programs generating screen information to be displayed in one of the plurality of windows; (b) a storage attached to and under the control of the processor, the storage having a screen buffer for holding the screen information to be displayed on the screen display; (c) means, coupled to the display screen, for visually displaying screen information held in the screen buffer on the display screen; (d) view object class information stored in the storage, the view object class information including a data structure for holding screen information for one of the plurality of windows; an object constructor method; and a virtual object destructor method; (e) means for creating a view system object in the storage for each of the plurality of application programs each view system object including: a view hierarchy structure having a plurality of levels for holding at least one view object; and means for transferring screen information stored in view objects held in the view hierarchy structure to the screen buffer so that the screen information is displayed on the display screen; (f) means for instantiating a view object from the view object class information and for inserting the view object into the view hierarchy structure by executing the object constructor method for each of the plurality of application programs; and (g) means for invoking the virtual object destructor method of a view object when an application program terminates to remove the view object from the view hierarchy structure before the view object is destroyed.