Re: Screen vs. Window--Techie Reply (long)

["D. Margulis" <ampersandvirgule -at- WORLDNET -dot- ATT -dot- NET>]

Sharon Key wrote:
>
> What is the difference between these two terms?

I do not suggest that the following essay should influence what you call
anything in user doc, but if you are writing internal doc for
developers, perhaps this discussion will be useful.

Screen:

1.      The visible glass portion of the monitor

        a.      As in touchscreen

        b.      Where you see the commands you type at a prompt

2.      A static array of characters generated by a program; it may
        be information-only, on it may include fields for you to
        type in. It may incorporate ascii graphics, colored borders and
        backgrounds, and all those other funky DOS-type things
        (remember?), as long as it is constructed of fixed rows and
        columns. I would include character displays that incorporate
        popup menus, dialogs, and so forth (such as the DOS Edit
        program), although others may disagree.

        This sort of screen is used in PC and workstation operating
        systems as well as in mainframe programs that drive dumb
        terminals.

        A common usage is, "Press Enter to go to the Add Customer
        screen."

3.      What displays inside the window of a terminal emulation
        program. This could be either a type 1.a. or a type 2. screen.
        So, if you are using Windows and you open an MS-DOS Prompt
        window, what you see is a screen with a prompt. If you type
        "edit" and press Enter, you will see the DOS Edit screen. You
        may maximize, minimize, or resize the MS-DOS Prompt window or
        press Alt+Enter and toggle to full-screen mode.

Window:

In all graphical environments that I'm familiar with (except maybe
DesqView, but I don't remember the details of that one) a window
(lowercase) is a control that you can open or close; and maximize,
minimize, or resize (usually). It has more-or-less consistent controls,
some or which may be optional, such as a menu bar, a status bar,
horizontal and vertical scroll bars, a title bar, and a button bar. All
of these surround an empty rectangle in which a program can display a
document (for example) or a desktop containing child windows.

The parent window displays on the desktop, which is the background
graphic that displays whenever the graphical environment is running and
which does not itself have window controls. (A maximized window may be
the same size as the desktop and therefore obscure it.)

You close a window. You exit a program (as discussed a few weeks ago in
techwr-l.)

In Windows (capitalized), a dialog is not a window. It is a control that
you generally cannot resize and does not have typical window controls.
You dismiss a dialog (perhaps by pressing Enter or clicking OK) rather
than closing it.

A message box is not a window or a dialog. It contains a message and
one, two, or three buttons; but it does not include edit boxes, list
boxes, combo boxes, radio buttons, or anything else you might find in a
dialog.

In other graphical enviroments (other than Windows, that is)
nomenclature diverges below the window level. So the equivalent of a
dialog or a message box may have a different name.

HTH, YMMV, IMHO, yadayadayada,

Dick