In France, a working group at AFUU – L’Association Francaise des Utilisateurs d’Unix et des Systemes Ouverts – has been beavering away doing some research on how it might be possible to get a single graphical user interface standard going. It thinks that a sensible way would be to standardise on windows, icons, menus, and command box style via agreement on specific languages – such as C, C++ – for all interfaces, with re-usable source code modules, rather than on specific products. Looking at the way the international bodies like the IEEE and X/Open Co Ltd have failed to define even a basic set of standards because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, AFUU believes an international body of graphical interface users is what is needed to get some momentum going, a global organisation that can represent user requirements to the graphical interface providers.
