Removed the last paragraph, because it contained inapropriate style.

Transparency (computing) originally referred to internal coding techniques to make the main application logic 'transparent', i.e. clear, by removing the detail of resource or device management logic, say, from the main problem solving logic. In many ways the concept was very similar to 'encapsulation', the called routines obscured their funcions from the application and allowed device independence and many other similar abstractions. Refer to IBM and Honeywell programming mannuals - cicra 1969.

Is this doublethink?

I believe most of this article to be the opposite of accurate...

So far, in my dealings in computer science and engineering, "transparency" has been referred to as a property that a process or piece of software has when its internal workings are exposed; i.e., the proverbial walls of the box containing the software are transparent so that the inside can be seen. A transparent application is a glass box or white box, as opposed to a black box.

The following is the first paragraph of the article, with "transparency" replaced by "opacity":

In human-computer interaction, computer opacity is an aspect of user friendliness which relieves the user of the need to worry about technical details (like installation, updating, downloading or device drivers). For instance, a program that automatically detects the monitor resolution is more opaque compared to one that asks the user to enter it manually.

It makes more sense this way, because an opaque program would hide the details from the user, but a transparent one would not.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether this is a mere foible of terminology or the person who originated this article had the wrong idea. Either way, the current content is unfortunate. 208.58.69.100 14:55, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]