Abstract: Workspaces provided by an object-based user interface appear to share windows and other display objects. Each workspace's data structure includes, for each window in that workspace, a linking data structure called a placement which links to the display system object which provides that window, which may be a display system object in a preexisting window system. The placement also contains display characteristics of the window when displayed in that workspace, such as position and size. Therefore, a display system object can be linked to several workspaces by a placement in each of the workspaces' data structures, and the window it provides to each of those workspaces can have unique display characteristics, yet appear to the user to be the same window or versions of the same window. As a result, the workspaces appear to be sharing a window. Workspaces can also appear to share a window if each workspace's data structure includes data linking to another workspace with a placement to the shared window. The user can invoke a switch between workspaces by selecting a display object called a door, and a back door to the previous workspace is created automatically so that the user is not trapped in a workspace. A display system object providing a window to a workspace being left remains active so that when that workspace is reentered, the window will have the same contents as when it disappeared. Also, the placements of a workspace are updated so that when the workspace is reentered its windows are organized the same as when the user left that workspace. The user can enter an overview display which shows a representation of each workspace and the windows it contains so that the user can navigate to any workspace from the overview.

Abstract: Medicine is an ideal domain for hypertext applications and research. Implementing a popular medical handbook in hypertext underscores the need to study hypertext in the context of full-text document retrieval, machine learning, and user interface issues.

Abstract: Adapted for use in hotels, hospitals, and similar environments, the disclosed system allows numerous system users to operate user terminals at any of a plurality of locations to access a common library of audio-video data contained on a collection of record items such as, video tape cartridges, stored in a housing located at a remote central location. Using a computer controlled filer, the system retrieves a data record item from an array of housing storage sites at each user's request, loading the same into one of a plurality of playback devices also located at the central location, from which the audio video signal is directed to the user's terminal for readout. Each user may also access local television, radio, satellite video, and any other optional signal source connected to the system. System software running on a system supervisor computer processes user requests and controls the filer and the play back devices, while customized software that runs on each user terminal provides a user interface for interacting with the system supervisor computer. A multifrequency signal modulator and combiner system allows tuning of each user terminal to the signal from a particular play back device.

Abstract: When creating highly-interactive, Direct Manipulation interfaces, one of the most difficult design and implementation tasks is handling the mouse and other input devices. Peridot, a new User Interface Management System, addresses this problem by allowing the user interface designer to demonstrate how the input devices should be handled by giving an example of the interface in action. The designer uses sample values for parameters, and the system automatically infers the general operation and creates the code. After an interaction is specified, it can immediately be executed and edited. This promotes extremely rapid prototyping since it is very easy to design, implement and modify mouse-based interfaces. Peridot also supports additional input devices such as touch tablets, as well as multiple input devices operating in parallel (such as one in each hand) in a natural, easy to specify manner. This is implemented using active values, which are like variables except that the objects that depend on active values are updated immediately whenever they change. Active values are a straightforward and efficient mechanism for implementing dynamic interactions.

Abstract: A user interface is represented on the display screen in the form of metaphoric objects, called icons, with which the user can interact by changing the input focus to a designated object by visually pointed to it via the input means, which thereafter permits manipulation of the designated object or interaction with data input/output relative to the designated object. This input means is also used to initially change the input focus to either the allocated emulating processor screen portion or to the remaining portion of the central processor display screen prior to interaction with the metaphoric objects in a selected screen portion, the change of the input focus causing subsequent user input via the input means to be directed to the selected screen portion until interrupted by a change in focus input to the other of the screen portions by the user via the input means. An icon may be a representation of a virtual object, such as a virtual floppy disk, that is accessible in either the host system world or in the emulating processor world even though the virtual floppy disk may have a filing system alien to the host system world.

Abstract: User interfaces based on mice, bitmap displays and windows are becoming commonplace, and there are guidelines on how such interfaces should function [Apple 85]. As a consequence, there is a growing expectation that all programs, no matter how trivial or how complicated, should present a graphically elegant and sophisticated user interface.

Abstract: ET++ is an object-oriented application framework implemented in C++ for a UNIX† environment and a conventional window system. The architecture of ET++ is based on MacApp and integrates a rich collection of user interface building blocks as well as basic data structures to form a homogeneous and extensible system. The paper describes the graphic model and its underlying abstract window system interface, shows composite objects as a substrate for declarative layout specification of complex dialogs, and presents a model for editable text allowing the integration of arbitrary interaction objects.

Abstract: Expert systems are probably the predominant area of artificial intelligence (AI) since the technology has a wide degree of application today. Expert systems function primarily on the concept of 'if - then -' rules. For example, if the soil water content for a particular crop is at a critical water level and there is no anticipated rainfall for several days, then irrigate. One of the unique characteristics of expert systems is the ability to arrive at a decision without complete information and then justify the decision. The decision may even have a certainty level associated with it. This paper discusses expert system components including the knowledge base, the inference engine, user interface, and knowledge acuisition, advantages and disadvantages of expert systems.

Abstract: User psychology interface analysis and specification theoretical approaches dialogue design presentation design data entry interfaces data display and data retrieval interfaces development of human-computer interfaces

Abstract: Traditionally, interactive applications have been difficult to build, modify and extend. These integrated applications provide bounded bounded functionality, have a single thread of control and a fixed user interface that must anticipate everything the user will need.Current workstations allow several processes to share the screen. With proper communication between processes, it is possible to escape previous models for application development and evolution.ConMan is a high-level visual language we use on an IRIS workstation that lets users dynamically build and modify graphics applications. To do this, a system designer disintegrates complex applications into modular components. By interactively connecting simple components, the user constructs a complete graphics application that matches the needs of a task. A connection manager controls the flow of data between individual components. As a result, we replace the usual user-machine dialog with a dynamic live performance that is orchestrated by the user.

Abstract: An application program automatically creates and presents a customized user interface. This is done by determining a set of operations which is appropriate for the current user based on various relevant characteristics of the user. The application program presents only the specified operations in the menus, icons, application bars or other interface components of the application program.

Abstract: New software engineering techniques and the necessity to improve the user interface in increasingly interactive software environments have led to a change in traditional software development methods. Methodologies for improvement of the interface design, an overview of the human factors element, and cost/benefit aspects are explored.

Abstract: A taxonomy for the user-visible parts of window managers is presented. It is noted that there are actually very few significant differences, and the differences can be classified in a taxonomy with fairly limited branching. This taxonomy should be useful in evaluating various window managers, and it will also serve as a guide for the issues that need to be addressed by designers if future window-manager user interfaces. The advantages and disadvantages of the various options are presented. >

Abstract: For intelligent interactive systems to communicate with humans in a natural manner, they must have knowledge about the system users. This paper explores the role of user modeling in such systems. It begins with a characterization of what a user model is and how it can be used. The types of information that a user model may be required to keep about a user are then identified and discussed. User models themselves can vary greatly depending on the requirements of the situation and the implementation, so several dimensions along which they can be classified are presented. Since acquiring the knowledge for a user model is a fundamental problem in user modeling, a section is devoted to this topic. Next, the benefits and costs of implementing a user modeling component for a system are weighed in light of several aspects of the interaction requirements that may be imposed by the system. Finally, the current state of research in user modeling is summarized, and future research topics that must be addressed in order to achieve powerful, general user modeling systems are assessed.

Abstract: The Rapport multimedia conferencing system supports interactive, real-time, distributed conferences among two or more people. Executing on personal workstations interconnected by data and voice networks, Rapport provides basic mechanisms to create, manage, and terminate conferences. The authors focus on the Rapport software, which is a three-level hierarchy comprised of the user interface, conference server, and system levels. The user interface level provides humans and other programs with access to the Rapport system. Maintaining consistent views of the conference for all the participants, the conference server level coordinates the activities of the conferees and provides basic protocols for exchanging information and control during a conference. The system level includes window management service and drivers for the hardware required to transmit data in the various media. >

Abstract: The authors have designed a testbed system that creates a series of automatically generated panels that depict in chronological order the important events in the history of a users session with Chimera, a graphical editor. The authors' system heuristically determines the contents of each panel and the actions that it illustrates. The user can scroll through the sequence of panels, reviewing actions at different levels of detail, and selectively undoing, modifying, and redoing previous actions. >

Abstract: The author proposes that the formality of specifications and designs be developed together in box structures with many sponsor and user interfaces. Box structures of data abstractions allow the stepwise refinement and verification of hierarchical system designs from their specifications at formal and informal levels. He discusses the features and advantages of the approach. He used a navigation and weather buoy case study and gives a detailed, step-by-step application of the method. >

Abstract: An augmented and ⧸ or tree representation of logic programs is presented as the basis for an advanced graphical tracing and debugging facility for PROLOG. An extension of our earlier work on “retrospective zooming”, this representation offers several distinct advantages over existing tracing and debugging facilities: (1) it naturally incorporates traditional and ⧸ or trees and Byrd box models (call⧸exit⧸fail⧸redo procedural models) as special cases; (2) it can be run in slow-motion, close-up mode for novices or high-speed, long-distance mode for experts with no attendant conceptual change; (3) it serves as the uniform basis for textbook material, video-based teaching material, and an advanced user interface for experienced PROLOG programmers; (4) it tells the truth about clause head matching and deals correctly with the cut. One of the key insights underlying the work is the realization that it is possible to display an execution space of several thousand nodes in a meaningful way on a modern graphics workstation. By enhancing and ⧸ or trees to include “status boxes” rather than simple “nodes”, it is possible to display both a long-distance view of execution and the full details of clause-head matching. Graphical “collapsing” techniques enable the model to deal with user-defined abstractions, higher-order predicates such as setof, and definite-clause grammars. The current implementation runs on modern graphics workstations and is written in PROLOG.

Abstract: The system and method provides a user interface tool for simultaneously selecting a menu item and a value, from a range of values, for the menu item. The user interface tool is referred to as a valuator menu, since it allows both the selection of a value from a range of values, and the selection of a menu item from a menu list. As a user moves a cursor over a menu of selectable items on a screen display, the item underneath the cursor is highlighted. In addition, as the user moves the cursor within the highlighted menu item, a value relative to the position of the cursor within that menu item is displayed. This valuator value is dynamically updated as the cursor position changes within the menu item. When the user performs an input selection, i.e. through a mouse button or a keyboard interaction, both the selected menu item and the value, relative to the cursor position, are simultaneously returned to the application program running on the data processing system.

Abstract: The X11 Window System defines a network protocol [6] for communication between a graphics server and an application. The X library [3] provides a procedural interface to the protocol.The X toolkit [4] is an object-oriented construction kit built on top of the X library. The toolkit is used to write user interface components (“widgets”), to organize a set of widget instances into a complete user interface, and to link a user interface with the functionality provided by an application.This paper describes the capabilities and structure of the X toolkit from three viewpoints: application developer, widget writer, and application user. We discuss the toolkit's mechanisms to address inefficiencies caused by the separation of application and server, and by the extensive user configurability of toolkit-based applications. We point out some drawbacks to using the toolkit, and briefly describe the tools being developed to overcome these problems.

Abstract: Intelligent advisory interfaces will afford new approaches to help and training problems, however little is known about the usability of such facilities. This recent study indicates that although intelligent help can support users, there are also specific potential problems.

Abstract: Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) systems require a database system that must let designers logically associate documentation and source code, make annotations to record explanations and assumptions, and manage different versions of the software. The author reports the development of a database, Neptune, which demonstrates that hypertext provides an appropriate data model for CASE systems. Hypertext is a medium-grained, entity-relationship-like data model that lets information be structured arbitrarily and keeps a complete version history of both information and structure. Neptune achieves application independence by using a layered system architecture; at the bottom is a transaction-based server, the Hypertext Abstract Machine, and layered above it are applications and the user interface. The use of Neptune in the Dynamic Design CASE environment is discussed. >

Abstract: Software tools that support the design and development of interactive computing systems are an exciting possibility. The potential pay-off is great: user interface management systems, for example, promise not only to speed the process of specifying, implementing and maintaining user interface code, but also to guide the content of the user interfaces they support. As for any tool intended for human use, however, the success of software design tools will hinge on a thorough understanding of the problems they seek to address—design as it is practiced in the real world.

Abstract: A knowledge base which defines a user-computer interface is described. The knowledge base serves as input to a user interface management system, which implements the user interface. However, the knowledge base represents user interface design knowledge at a level of abstraction higher than is typical of user interface management systems. In particular, it represents objects, actions, attributes of objects, an object class hierarchy, and pre- and post-conditions on the actions. The knowledge base can be algorithmically transformed into a number of functionally equivalent interfaces, each of which is slightly different from the original interface. The transformed interface definition can be input to the UIMS, providing a way to quickly experiment with a family of related interfaces.

Abstract: Customized screens are generated in accordance with the invention for interfacing with an application program in an information processing system. During a panel definition phase when a panel designer creates a customized panel, panel actions are selected from a default list of panel operations and commands, including searching, adding, changing or deleting data from a database, showing long fields, blanking out a panel, displaying a prior panel, and printing. The actions are specified in a pop-up window during panel definition. Mnemonics and function keys may be specified for each action. The invention dynamically creates pull-down windows based on the actions specified which become part of the panel interface available to the run time user from an application action bar. Users may select actions to interact with the panel in like manner to interaction with other portions of the application user interface by means of cursor selection, input of the action number, mnemonics, or activation of a function key. Also during panel design a custom word or phrase for the panel action may be specified for subsequent display in the pull-down windows during run time. A mode such as Add data or Change data is specified for each selected panel action item during panel definition. During panel run time, and after selection of an execution mode, panel actions pull-down windows previously thereby designed may be displayed. A list of only those panel actions previously selected in the panel actions design pop-up window corresponding to the execution mode selected appears.

Abstract: A multiprocessor system comprises concurrent display of video data reflecting the operation of two processors in discrete portions of a single display screen with a user interface adapted for interaction with both processors. One processor controls the entire display while allocating a portion of the display screen for the use of the other processor which processor emulates a target processor system, for example, the IBM PC. To fully emulate another target processor system requires emulation of its screen facility and abstractions used in the display operations of the targeted system. The one processor is a general purpose host computer system having a central processor with real resources including I/O devices, main memory, a video display for displaying information on the display screen of the display and user input means, e.g. a keyboard and a mouse, to the host computer to provide input to the display screen. Also included in the system is at least one emulating computer having a processor emulating the target processor unit with interface means for emulating the previously identified real resources for the emulating processor including means in the host system responsive to the input/output of the emulating processor for sharing of the central processor real resources by the emulating processor.