An Icon-Driven End-User Interface to UNIX

Abstract Some aspects of the end user interface are considered and an icon-driven system recently developed by us, called UNICON (after “UNIX-icon”), is described. UNI-CON uses colour graphic icons, instead of commands, as the means by which a user and operating system interact. It is designed, as far as is possible, to be independent of graphics devices and to be portable between different operating systems. The current version, which runs under Berkeley UNIX™ 4·1 bsd, is an implementation of a minimum kernel of filestore management commands relevant to all applications. Various problems and potential applications highlighted during the project are also discussed.