Abstract: A new television controller has been developed, incorporating hardware and software in a manner never before used in such a system. The user interface may be programmed to meet the marketing requirements of each individual television manufacturer; the circuit interface is very flexible, imposing few restraints on the circuit designer. This is particularly true ofthe D-A Converter circuit. A key feature of the concept is its ,,upwards compatible\" nature. New features and innovations maybe added on thebus system toenhance the currently envisaged operating modes.

Abstract: : The conventional approaches to the structuring of data bases provided in contemporary data base management systems are in many ways unsatisfactory for modelling data base application environments. The features they provide are too low-level, computer-oriented, are representational to allow the semantics of a data base to be directly expressed in its structure. The semantic data model (SDM) has been designed as a natural application modelling mechanism that can capture and express the structure of an application environment. The features of the SDM correspond to the principal intentional structures naturally occurring in contemporary data base applications. The SDM provides a rich but limited vocabulary of data structure types and primitive operations, striking a balance between semantic expressibility and the control of complexity. Furthermore, facilities for expressing derived (conceptually redundant) information are an essential part of the SDM; derived information is as prominent in the description of an SDM data base as is primitive data. The SDM is designed to enhance the effectiveness and usability of data base systems. There are many data base management systems in use today which represent a considerable investment on the parts of their developers and users; the SDM can be effectively used in conjunction with these existing data base systems to enhance their effectiveness and usability.

Abstract: This paper describes the design of the user interface of a text editor named Occam with the goal of communicating by example the process of user-interface design. An attempt is made to induce principles; where that attempt falls, the raw details are presented. First Occam Itself Is described, and then aspects of its user Interface are used to exemplify (1) power versus ease of learning, (2) the use of prototypes and user feedback, (3) the importance of planning and (4) error detection and handling.

Abstract: : The Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Navy are currently conducting an experiment to evaluate the operational use and organizational impact of a computer-aided message handling system. An important aspect of this experiment was to design a system with sufficient security controls to enable it to process messages at multiple levels of classification. An equally important aspect of the experiment was for the system to exhibit a rich user interface that was judged easy to learn and use. Herein we present the security aspects of the design for the SIGMA Message Processing System, the system chosen for the experiment. In Section 2 a description of the SIGMA Message Processing System is given. Section 3 provides background and discusses the kernel approach to multilevel security. The authors describe in Section 4 several security problems encountered in the design. Section 5 presents the design of the SIGMA message service. The additional features that the kernel must provide to support SIGMA efficiently are documented in Section 6. Finally, a summary is provided to highlight the paper's main points.

Abstract: : SID (System for Incremental Development) is a computer system for incrementally designing and verifying large, complex programs. It executes commands, proposes actions, answers questions, and accepts and reasons about new or changed information. SID has three main, distinctive characteristics: (1) it provides several useful incremental capabilities, including the ability to respond to changes by ensuring that the final problem solution is consistent and by keeping intact still-valid work without complete reprocessing; (2) its user interface has the ability to guide the user through the design and verification and to engage in an interactive English dialog about the potential effects of changes; (3) it supports a substantial programming language which includes features for generating run-time checks, stating concurrent processes and shared data, and developing data abstractions. SID has been used to completely design and verify several programs. Volume 2 (appendix) contains a transcript of a session with SID in which a simple message switching network that allows secure, asynchronous message transfer among a fixed number of users in incrementally developed.

Abstract: In the following paper, I will discuss the parallels between computer music systems and a particular model of human memory. It would be of great methodological significance if one could use general features which define human information processing in formulating guidelines for the design of user-interfaces for computer music tasks. As I will try to show, interface design is ultimately concerned with establishing alternative possibilities to human memory transaction, i.e., by sparing the need to remember everything at every level of composition. Interactive composition involves a variety of tasks and a variety of kinds of knowledge. This paper analyzes this task environment towards the goal of establishing guidelines for memories and representations appropriate to these various kinds of compositional knowledge.

Abstract: A machine-independent FORTRAN implementation of the GSPC proposed standard is presented. DIGRAF (Device Independent GRAphics from FORTRAN) has been designed to closely parallel level-3 of the 'CORE' system. The present implementation allows portability to any computer with a FORTRAN compiler and a word length of at least 16-bits.Several CORE system design issues are discussed from the implementor's viewpoint. A breakdown of the functional modules reinforces the portability aspects. Special features of the user interface are presented. A storage structure for retained segments is presented with a review of the memory management alternatives. The device-dependent interface for two common classes of devices is discussed. Finally, the design and data structure techniques used to implement several CORE functions is presented.

Abstract: Soon, system architects will treat all system components– hardware as well as software, user interfaces as well as data bases–as structural or architectural elements.

Abstract: A user oriented computer system is a computer system specifically designed to meet the users' requirements. With the advances in solid state technology and the emergence of microprocessors, system designers are able to design specialized systems to satisfy the users' requirements. This trend has led to an era of user oriented design. However, current approaches to the design of computer systems and their evaluation, unfortunately, are based primarily on experience and intuition. The specification, design, implementation, and evaluation of large embedded computer systems, such as the air traffic control systems, the patient monitoring systems and the ballistic missile defense systems (BMD) , are very expensive, difficult to test adequately, slow to deploy, and difficult to adapt to changing requirements. 1 The major cause of these problems is the largeness of the systems. The activities of the systems are so varied and so complex that they are beyond the grasp of a single individual. For example, the BMD systems include, besides the data processing subsystem, the radar and missile subsystems. Each of these subsystems requires special expertise to design, implement, and enhance its operations. As a result, each subsystem is usually developed and maintained by a group of experts who have little knowledge of the other subsystems. This produces great difficulties in synchronizing and optimizing the development process. One common problem has been that some final decisions on primitives (essential system characteristics) are made in one subsystem, generally without considering the overall system requirements. These early commitments bias the development process and force and restrict the choices of the other primitives to accommodate them, which, in tum, impose undue constraints on design freedom and reduce the flexibility during integrating and interfacing the system. As a result, the development process is more expensive and time consuming than it should be, and the design that is obtained is usually far from optimum. Another problem faced in the development of large computer systems is the ever changing system environment. When the system application changes or the technology changes, the system has to be modified to adapt to the changes. However, more too often, systems are designed

Abstract: We reason in this paper that many queries in general database systems are best-match in nature: to a user, some records are more useful than others, and when the best records cannot be found or when there are not a sufficient number of them, the next best records should be retrieved. The heterogeneity of general databases will require different treatment on such queries than that in some special-purpose systems where the concept of best-match has been exploited. Language features are proposed to augment typical query languages in order to accommodate best-match querying. This is intended as another effort toward the design of convenient, expressive user interface to facilitate decision making via database systems.

Abstract: : A secure data management system that achieves a multilevel capability for building and accessing relations has been implemented to run on the Secure UNIX Operating System for the DEC PDP-11/45 The secure DMS is an adaptation of INGRES This paper addresses the effect of multilevel security on the design of the INGRES data base system and its user interface, including implementation details and an evaluation of the system

Abstract: The researchers at the Langley Research Center Flight Simulation Computing System are provided with an advanced real-time digital simulation capability. This capability is controlled at the user interface level by the Real Time Simulation Supervisor. The Supervisor is a group of subprograms loaded with a simulation application program. The Supervisor provides the interface between the application program and the operating system, and coordinates input and output to and from the simulation hardware. The Supervisor also performs various utility functions as required by a simulation application program.

Abstract: After discussing requirements for an 'ideal' user interface for a database management system, two case studies are considered. One is a database for a graphics-oriented design application, and the second is a high security database system. Since the second case study's architecture incorporates many of the 'ideal' interface requirements, it is used as a paradigm for transforming the design of the other system so as to approach this idealized interface. The results of this recasting are then evaluated.

Abstract: The development of computer programs, called agents, that act as man-machine interfaces for computer users are described. These programs are written in RITA: the Rule-directed Interactive Transaction Agent system, and are organized as sets of IF-THEN rules or “production systems.” The programs, or “personal computer agents,” are divided into two main categories: those that interface the user to computer systems he wishes to use and those that interact with the user to acquire the knowledge needed to create these interface programs. The relationship between the interface program and the knowledge acquisition program is that of parent-offspring. Three types of parent-offspring RITA agent pairs are described: (1) an exemplary programming agent that watches a user perform an arbitrary series of operations on the computer and then writes a program (a task agent) to perform the same task; (2) a tutoring agent that watches an expert demonstrate the use of an interactive computer language or local operating system and then creates a teaching agent that can, help naive users become familiar with the language or system demonstrated by the expert; and (3) a reactivemessage creating agent which elicits text from a user (the sender) and from it creates a new RITA agent which is a reactive message. The reactive message is sent to some other user (the recipient) who interacts with it. During the course of the interaction a record of the recipient's responses is sent back to the sender.