British Mk X, US SCR720 airborne radar 1943 use adjacent CRTs to present general view of contacts and a different view of any operator-selected contact simultaneously using different processing of radar information.

Written by Vannevar Bush in 1945, it describes a futuristic device having multiple viewing "screens", analogous to modern day workspaces. That the concept of multiple "viewing positions" was considered more than sixty (60) years ago, claim 1 is obvious and does not warrant the protection associated with novel ideas.

real time multitasking operating system running on 6809 processor. presents multiple independent workspace windows/processes. I still have a copy of the software, documentation, and a machine that runs it.

This may or may not sound absurd, but ... In 1979 Atari released a game called Adventure. The game included multiple virtual workspaces or rooms and multiple object icons that could be selected and dragged around the workspaces. If an object icon was dropped on a workspace it would remain on that workspace even when the workspace was no longer viewed. When the workspace where an object icon was dropped was made active again the object was still positioned in the position where it was dropped. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_(Atari_2600)

A program plus a hardware card which would plug into an xt, 8088 type computer. This program would emulate the Sperry terminals. It would allow switching between 8 different sessions.

The Port user interface supports multiple windows and concurrency, enabling several programs to be executing simultaneously, and viewed simultaneously. Each window occupies the full width of the screen. Windows can grow and shrink vertically but cannot overlap. There can be many windows; the screen displays as many as will fit. Those that are hidden can easily be brought into view. Figure 2-1 shows a Port display with four windows. Edit and Browse are visible while Room and Message are hidden. Room or Message can be made visible by selecting its respective activity name.

NoteCards provides the user with a "semantic network" of electronic notecards interconnected by typed links. This network serves as a medium in which the user can represent collections of related ideas. It also functions as a structure for organizing, storing, and retrieving information. The system provides,the usei~ with tools for displaying, modifying, manipulating, and navigating through this network. It also includes a set of methods and protocols for creating programs to manipulate the information in the network.

NoteCards is a system designed to aid in the collection, structuring, and analysis of textual and graphical information. The basic objects in the NoteCards system are NoteCards (or simply cards). Each card contains a small, idea-sized unit of text or graphics. Individual cards can be linked together to form networks that reflect the interconnections among the information (ideas) contained in each card. These networks among cards rely on the notion of typed links. Links are identified by link icons, objects located in the text or graphics of one card (the originating card) that reference some other card (the destination card). The user can retrieve and display the destination card of any link by using the mouse to select the iconic representation of that link in the originating card. The user can also display a listing of all of the links that are directed into and out of a card. The screen image below shows two cards that discuss the model underlying the system.

Selected text regarding user interfaces

In 1978-9 I implemented an APL interpreter for the GEC 4000 Series computers together with a HP terminal which had a double-workspace with APL and ASCII characters which could be programmatically switched between.

Multiplayer game for the IBM VM/CMS operating system environment. Up to 5 players. Freely distributed. Documentation attached.

Sidekick was one of a number of Terminate Stay Resident programs that overlaid the current workspace with a new window. Providing multple concurrent workspaces.

X version 1 was released in May 1984. It included independent multiple workspaces. DEC made version 6 available on their MicroVAX in 1985. DEC made X version 9 available on their VAXstation-II machines in 1985. Several more-or-less public releases of version 10 were made in January/February 1986.

A channel interface multiple virtual control unit controls a plurality of classes of terminal sessions on a graphics system workstation, the multiple virtual control unit includes lookup tables having indicia related to a class of display session to be enabled for controlling a workstation in either a alpha-numeric display mode or a graphics display mode.

An application desktop/workspace switcher for the Apple Macintosh

A method and apparatus for controlling a segmented display on a processor read-out device. An addressable memory is provided for storing segments of information which may be displayed. The addresses of the segments presently being displayed are stored and these addresses are utilized to retrieve the information to be displayed in each of the segments. The segmented display may be presented in a plurality of different modes. A capability is provided for changing the mode being displayed at any given time and for altering the information which is displayed in each of the modes. When there is a change in the mode of display, various functions must be performed. Among these functions may be the positioning of an entry marker, the saving or clearing of a memory segment which may be used for different types of information in different modes, and the chaining together of related segments for the selected mode.

A method and apparatus for controlling a segmented display on a processor read-out device. An addressable memory is provided for storing segments of information which may be displayed. The addresses of the segments presently being displayed are stored and these addresses are utilized to retrieve the information to be displayed in each of the segments. The segmented display may be presented in a plurality of different modes. A capability is provided for changing the mode being displayed at any given time and for altering the information which is displayed in each of the modes. When there is a change in the mode of display, various functions must be performed. Among these functions may be the positioning of an entry marker, the saving or clearing of a memory segment which may be used for different types of information in different modes, and the chaining together of related segments for the selected mode.

Native graphical interface file manager and application launcher of the Amiga Operating System

“Closed" windows in Figure 4.6, are windows that have been "set aside" and appear in a list in the upper right of the desktop. Could read on multiple workspaces.

This timeline lists all of the graphical user interface environments that I have been able to find information about through my own research and on the Internet.

A key constraint on the effectiveness of window-based human-computer interfaces is that the display screen is too small for many applications. This results in “window thrashing,” in which the user must expend considerable effort to keep desired windows visible. Rooms is a window manager that overcomes small screen size by exploiting the statistics of window access, dividing the user's workspace into a suite of virtual workspaces with transitions among them. Mechanisms are described for solving the problems of navigation and simultaneous access to separated information that arise from multiple workspaces.

A graphic terminal is disclosed using bitmaps to represent plural overlapping displays. Graphics software is also disclosed in which the overlapping asynchronous windows or layers are manipulated by manipulating the bitmaps. With this software, the physical screen becomes several logical screens (layers) all running simultaneously, any one of which may be interacted with at any time.

A multiple window display system is provided for displaying data from different applications in a multi-tasking environment. The display system includes plural screen buffers (12.sub.l to 12.sub.n) for storing character codes and attribute codes of data which may be displayed on the display screen. Task selection means (26) selectively couples the output of a single selected one of the plural screen buffers to the character generator (16) and attribute logic (18) at any given time. Address modification means (20.sub.l to 20.sub.n, 22.sub.l to 22.sub.n) permits changes to be made in the display windows. The software driver includes screen control blocks (32), window control blocks (34), presentation space control blocks (36), presentation spaces (38), and a screen matrix (40) in system memory. The presentation spaces (38) receive application data for plural windows of the displayable area. Each window defines the whole or a subset of a corresponding presentation space. The screen matrix (40) is mapped to the display screen and filters data from the windows of the presentation spaces to the screen buffer to designate which of the data will be shown in corresponding positions on the display screen.

In a multi-window system for setting a plurality of windows on the screen for independent display in each window, a novel display control method is disclosed in which a visible region of a given window is determined from the positions and overlapped relations between the windows on the display screen, and display data is selectively applied to the visible region. The visible region is checked for crossing between an object window and another window making up a reference window on the screen, and if they cross each other, the object window is divided into subregions, while the subregion not overlapped with the reference window is regarded as a new object region, which is collated with another reference window and subdivided. This process of collation and division is repeated. A display output is thus applied sequentially to the subregions which are found to be a visible region.

In a multiwindow system in which a plurality of windows are set on a display screen at positions such that these windows partially overlap and the display priority and position of each window can be arbitrarily changed, when the operator instructs to change the display priority of the window, a check is automatically made to see if there exists the window which will be completely covered by the other windows having priorities higher than that of this window and will fully disappear from the screen if the display priority is changed or not. If such a window is found out, the display priority of this window is changed in the state in which this window is automatically shifted to the position where a part of this window can be seen on the screen, thereafter the window is displayed on the screen. The changing process of the display priority of the window and the automatic shifting process of the position of the window are controlled by referring to and correcting the contents of the window management tables in which the data indicative of the sizes, positions, display priorities, and the like of the respective windows is stored.

An interactive display terminal of the multiple overlapping window type is provided. Each of the windows is smaller in dimension than the overall display screen. One or more of the windows have an associated virtual distributed menu which is made up of a plurality of menu items respectively distributed about the periphery of the associated window but not displayed during normal operations. Cursor means and means for moving the cursor are also provided. The display terminal further includes apparatus which in response to the movement of the cursor across a selected region in a window periphery will effect the display of a selected menu item associated with the particular selected region. The overlapping windows are preferably rectangular in shape and the selected regions are adjacent to corners of the periphery. The menu items are distributed so as to be positioned adjacent to the respective region across which the cursor movement will result in the item display.