The important features of the Archimedes desktop system are windows, icons, the mouse and menus. Windows A window is an area of the screen allocated for a special function. In a window you can show a list of the files on a disc, write a memo or a program, draw a picture, alter the colours used for the screen display or perform other types of task. You can have several windows open on the screen at once, and you can even be doing something different in each of them at the same time. Windows are described further in the section Using windows. Icons The icons which appear on the icon bar represent things available for use on the desktop.
If you want to do something, or examine the contents of a filing system, you look at the icon bar to see if its icon is available. If it is, you can select it and a window containing the activity you want is opened. The Archimedes desktop 14