1. An apparatus operating in a hardware and software environment for generating a visual display on a display screen, the visual display having a plurality of windows displayed on a desktop background, each of the plurality of windows being assigned to, and displaying screen information generated by, one of a plurality of application programs, the apparatus comprising: (a) a processor; (b) a storage attached to and under the control of the processor, the storage having a screen buffer for holding screen information; (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, methods for storing screen information in the data structure and an object constructor method containing a virtual initialization method; (e) means for constructing 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; and (f) means for instantiating a view object from the view object class information by executing the object constructor method and, in turn, invoking the virtual initialization method of the view object to initialize the view object by inserting the view object into a view hierarchy structure of one view system object.
1. An apparatus operating in a hardware and software environment for generating a visual display on a display screen, the visual display having a plurality of windows displayed on a desktop background, each of the plurality of windows being assigned to, and displaying screen information generated by, one of a plurality of application programs, the apparatus comprising: (a) a processor; (b) a storage attached to and under the control of the processor, the storage having a screen buffer for holding screen information; (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, methods for storing screen information in the data structure and an object constructor method containing a virtual initialization method; (e) means for constructing 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; and (f) means for instantiating a view object from the view object class information by executing the object constructor method and, in turn, invoking the virtual initialization method of the view object to initialize the view object by inserting the view object into a view hierarchy structure of one view system object. 2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, 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.