On to Presentation Manager: icons, actions bars, dialog boxes, and radio buttons are coming. (one of six articles in DOS to OS-2 special report)

ON TO PRESENTATION MANAGER

When OS/2 Standard Edition 1.1 starts shipping in October, it will include Presentation Manager, a graphical user interface. For the first time in the IBM world, a graphical environment will be part of the operating system, as it is for the Macintosh. IBM users who wish to take advantage of the graphical environment will have to become familiar with icons, action bars, scroll bars, dialog boxes, and radio buttons. These visual aids, designed to make software easier to learn and use, won't seem strange to users of Microsoft Windous--in fact, Presentation Manager will look very much like Windows. But the change from character-based to graphical-based programs will challenge both developers and users. Yet by 1992, say the pundits, 75% to 80% of IBM application will have a graphical user interface.

Presentation Manager will bring to IBM and compatible computers more than just eye-pleasing graphics; it will offer a means of achieving consistency. All the applications programs written to run with it will have the same general appearance and use the same approach to initiating commands. This consistency will enable people to use new programs with almost no new learning requirements. "People should be able to sit down at a computer running Presentation Manager, call up an application, and know how to navigate," says Ken …