Showing papers on "Graphical user interface published in 1980"

Semantics vs. graphics - to show or not to show

Abstract: This paper describes a high-level graphical interface to databases which employs specialized knowledge about graphical symbols, the underlying database, and the database user's context in order to provide pictorial representations of data which is of concern to the user. The approach combines techniques of graphics and knowledge representation to provide more complete and more perspicuously organized answers to user queries. Techniques are presented for the representation and use of the semantic knowledge about the database contained in the data model. The knowledge of the data model allows the system to augment the response to a query with information which is relevant but not specifically requested. It also enables the data to be organized in a manner which reflects the relative importance of each of the entities and attributes within the context of the user's question. Thus the answer to the user's question is broadened in a meaningful way to provide the user with a more complete perspective of the information in the database.