greenberg@calgary.UUCP (Saul Greenberg) (04/07/85)
Gary Perlman requested abstracts to be posted in this group. Sounds like
a good idea! Here's a paper which synthesises parallelism, workbenches,
and personalization in an interface.
Interactive end-user creation of workbench hierarchies
within a window system
Abstract -- Conventional command-language interfaces to interactive computer
systems do not support the problem-solving behaviour of users in a natural
way. They supply a single view into a sequential stream of actions; whereas
people normally juggle many activities concurrently, switching rapidly from
one to another. They provide a wide and flat command structure which is
fixed and insensitive to the context of the dialogue. They offer little
opportunity for personalization, while people differ radically in what
they do and how they prefer to do it.
This paper describes an experimental interface which supports parallel
activity through user-defined extensions to a basic command interface.
Windows provide multiple independent views into the system. Workbenches
supplant the flat command structure. A specialized direct-manipulation
editor allows easy creation and maintenance of workbenches by novice
and expert alike. Users are encouraged to create their own informational
support environments and to alter them as their activity dictates.
The scheme complements the normal command interface and utilities can be
invoked in whichever way seems most natural.
Greenberg, S. and Witten, I.H (1985) "Interactive end-user creation
of workbench hierarchies within a window interface"
To appear in Proc Canadian Information Processing Society National
Conference, Montreal, Quebec June
The paper is also available by writing:
Saul Greenberg or Ian Witten
Human-machine systems laboratory
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive N.W.
Calgary, Alberta
CANADA T2N 1N4