Ashet OS

Graphical User Interface

§1 Concepts

The OS uses several different concepts tied together to form a coherent graphical user experience.

§1.1 Windows

A window is the logical unit of graphical interaction. It's a 2D surface which may contain widgets (user controls) and graphical contents.

§1.2 Desktops

A desktop is a container for windows. It is managed by a so called Desktop Server which presents the windows one way or another to the users.

§1.3 Widgets

A widget is an atomic logical building block of user interfaces. Typical widgets are:

§1.4 Desktop Servers

A desktop server is an application that presents windows of a desktop to the user.

§1.5 Widget Servers

A widget server is an application that provides different widget types to the operating system. These widget types can then be instantiated by applications to build their graphical interfaces.

§2 Strengths

One large strength of this design is the decoupling between logic (application creates windows and widgets) and the presentation layer (Widget Server defines interaction, Desktop Server defines presentation).

This allows a strong modularity and flexibility, ultimately allowing higher accessibility by giving the users the chance to exchange the widgets in the applications on their system by a version more suitable for them. This may include having tight screen reader integration, magnified fonts, or literally a non-rendered UI that is displayed black for users that are completely blind.