operating system The appearance and function of a program's
extension for a textual command language used to control a
program.
Look and feel includes such things as the
icons used to
represent certain functions such as opening and closing files,
and position of windows; conventions for the meaning of
different buttons on a
mouse and keys on the keyboard; and
the appearance and operation of menus.
considered by many to be an important factor in the ease of
Because of the perceived importance of look and feel, there
have been several legal actions claiming breech of
copyrighton the look and feel of user interfaces, most notably by
action attempts to force suppliers to make their interfaces
inconsistent with those of other vendors' products. This can
only be bad for users and the industry as a whole.
(1995-03-03)