User Interface Technique for Managing All Open Objects in a Windowing Environment

The "user in control" design premise is one of the fundamental principles of object oriented user interface design. This philosophy embraces the concept that the user is in control of the system instead of the system dictating or limiting how the user interacts with the system at any given point in time. Consequently, in an object oriented system, the user has the flexibility to interact with any part of the system at any time. Unfortunately, with this flexibility the user may end up with an extremely "messy desk" which results from opening and overlaying numerous windows. Fig. 1, Managing a "messy desk" is a cumbersome task in a windowing environment. Moving, sizing, and arranging windows can be a very time consuming job.