1.5.3 Operating System Managers Flashcards
User Interfaces - GUI
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are more modern environments to work in.
GUIs are usually based on the window-icon-menu-pointer paradigm or a multi-touch interface.
User Interfaces - WIMP
WIMP stands for window-icon-menu-pointer:
Applications can be seen in movable, resizable windows.
Programs and documents are represented by icons.
Options are available via menus.
User interaction is through moving a pointer.
User Interfaces - CLI
A command line interface (CLI) is an environment where the computer is controlled by typing text commands using the keyboard.
The computer cannot display graphics, only text.
CLIs use less memory than graphical interfaces.
Memory and Process Management - Purpose of Memory Manager
The memory manager controls the allocation of random access memory (RAM) to each running process.
If the memory manager fails to manage memory well, then the computer will slow down and might crash.
Memory and Process Management - Purpose of process manager
Modern operating systems allow users to run multiple programs at once.
In reality, a CPU can only execute one process at a time. So the CPU must switch between processes so quickly that it seems that they are running simultaneously.
Memory and Process Management - Multitasking
Modern operating systems allow multiple applications to run at once. This is known as multitasking.
For this to work, the operating system must manage how memory and CPU time is allocated to each running process.
