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A window system is a standard part of all modern computer
graphical user interfaces, as opposed to command line interfaces. The idea was developed as a part of
the WIMP paradigm at Xerox PARC.
A window system enables the computer user to work with several programs or applications at the same time. Each program runs in
its own window, which is a rectangular area of the screen. Most window systems allow windows to overlap, and provide
means for the user to perform standard operations such as moving/resizing a window, sending a window to the foreground/background
and minimizing/maximizing a window.
From a programmer's point of view, a window system implements graphical
primitives such as rendering fonts or drawing a line on the screen, effectively
providing an abstraction of the graphics hardware.
Some window systems, like X have advanced capabilities such as
network transparency, allowing the user to run graphical applications on a remote machine.
See also
Specific GUI windows systems:
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