A uniform model of interaction in interactive systems
Abstract
An interactive system consists of input devices, a window manager, and a set of application programs. The window manager demultiplexes the input generated by the user via the devices and directs it to the application programs, which are processes associated with distinct physical regions called windows. The output from the processes is handled similarly by the window manager. We investigate a uniform model of interaction in interactive systems in a distributed environment consisting of personal workstations and backend processors. Our goal is to build a uniform, yet customizable and extensible interface to the application programs while speeding up interactive operations. A prototype interactive system implementation of our model, UNCLE, is discussed. As a closer look at an application program, we investigate the role of a shell (command interpreter) in an interactive system. Users execute a few commands a large percentage of the time and thus would benefit by a user-specific interface that can be generated by keeping track of individual usage patterns. We modified a command interpreter and gathered usage data from a large number of users representing different user populations. The results of this experiment along with our conclusions are presented. Finally, we consider the process of interaction in general and the role of automation. Our philosophy of automation is that the user should never have to do anything that can be deduced by the system. We view the user's interaction with the system as a series of events that arise both naturally and by explicit user intervention. These events have associated actions to be taken and we suggest identification of the classes of events and automation of the corresponding actions. The design and construction of Omicron, a scheduling tool, is presented as an implementation of our view on automation.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Korb, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Computer science
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