Object Management

The Common Desktop Environment captures some object-oriented system attributes without being dependent upon a completely object-oriented infrastructure. The desktop provides graphic onscreen images that the user can pick up and move about, dropping them anywhere it makes semantic sense. These are viewed as objects by the user. The File Manager promotes the object abstraction by providing a graphical way to browse and modify file and directory objects within the file system. It also provides a GUI to invoke actions. When the user selects a file, the actions that are defined for the selected type of file are presented to the user.

Objects managed by desktop-based applications do not have to be file-based; in-memory buffers can represent desktop objects, too. The Common Desktop Environment Mailer handles Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) messages by displaying attachments to a message as icons in a scrollable panel. These are objects that behave just like file-based objects during activities such as drag and drop. The user can drag between the File Manager and the Mailer. Applications that use drag and drop should maintain this important user model by supporting both file-based and buffer-based objects. The desktop drag-and-drop API and protocol make this straightforward.