Morphic is a direct-manipulation User Interface (UI) construction kit based on display trees. A Morphic interface is built out of graphical objects known as morphs (from the Greek word for form or thing), which allow for a great degree of flexibility and dynamicism.

Originally developed for the Self system, Morphic now finds its primary role in the Squeak Smalltalk implementation, where it takes the place of the original Model-view-controller (MVC) architecture as default. MVC is still available within Squeak if desired. Morphic is also used in Lively Kernel, an experimental UI toolkit from Sun Microsystems which is written in JavaScript and SVG.

The name "Morphic" has taken on a generally understood meaning of "allowing for a great degree of flexibility and dynamicism for change". This meaning could be ascribed to the vernacular influence of electronic gaming culture and software technology, taken as short form of "Metamorphic".

External links

• Open Directory page on the Morphic UI
• Lively Kernel from Sun Labs
• Morphic Within Squeak