PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) Speeches/Conference Papers (150)

Modern computing systems exploit graphical user interfaces for interaction with users; as a result, introductory computer science courses must begin to teach the principles underlying such interfaces. This paper presents an approach to graphical user interface (GUI) implementation that is simple enough for beginning students to understand, yet rich enough to demonstrate many important aspects of computer science. The GUI interface described is implemented using a library of C macros and provides a display window that outputs bit-mapped graphics and inputs mouse actions. The macro calls and conventions are described in the context of an implementation of Conway's Game of Life, a programming exercis.e found in many introductory texts. The GUI interface for the Game of Life program is detailed in the first section, in order to provide a concrete example of the capabilities of the simplified GUI library