Vanishing windows: a technique for adaptive screen management

Windowing systems offer many benefits to users, such as being able to work on multiple tasks concurrently; or working with a number of windows, each connected to different remote machines or applications. Unless these windows are managed efficiently, users can easily become overwhelmed by the number of currently open windows and lose their way round the desktop. This can lead to a state where the desktop is cluttered with windows. At this stage "window thrashing" occurs, as users begin to perform window management operations (move, resize, minimise etc.) in order to locate relevant pieces of information contained in one of several open windows. [Continues.]