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Showing papers on "Graphical user interface published in 1986"


Journal ArticleDOI
Austin Henderson1, Stuart K. Card1
TL;DR: Rooms is a window manager that overcomes small screen size by exploiting the statistics of window access, dividing the user's workspace into a suite of virtual workspaces with transitions among them.
Abstract: A key constraint on the effectiveness of window-based human-computer interfaces is that the display screen is too small for many applications. This results in “window thrashing,” in which the user must expend considerable effort to keep desired windows visible. Rooms is a window manager that overcomes small screen size by exploiting the statistics of window access, dividing the user's workspace into a suite of virtual workspaces with transitions among them. Mechanisms are described for solving the problems of navigation and simultaneous access to separated information that arise from multiple workspaces.

608 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Object-oriented techniques for constraint representation and satisfaction are presented, and a range of examples that demonstrate the practical use of static and temporal constraints for such purposes is presented.
Abstract: A constraint describes a relation that must be maintained. Constraints provide a useful mechanism to aid in the construction of interactive graphical user interfaces. They can be used to maintain consistency between data and a view of the data, to maintain consistency among multiple views, to specify layout, and to specify relations between events and responses for describing animations of interactive systems and event-driven simulations. Object-oriented techniques for constraint representation and satisfaction are presented, and a range of examples that demonstrate the practical use of static and temporal constraints for such purposes is presented. These examples include animations of algorithms and physics simulations, and constructing user-interface elements such as file browsers, views onto statistical data, and an interactive monitor or a simulated operating system.

224 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
31 Aug 1986
TL;DR: Peridot as discussed by the authors uses rule-based inferencing so no programming by the designer is required, and direct manipulation techniques are used to create Direct Manipulation interfaces, which can make full use of a mouse and other input devices.
Abstract: It is very time-consuming and expensive to create the graphical, highly-interactive styles of user interfaces that are increasingly common. User Interface Management Systems (UIMSs) attempt to make the creation of user interfaces easier, but most existing UIMSs cannot create the low-level interaction techniques (pop-up pull-down and fixed menus, on-screen "light buttons", scroll-bars, elaborate feedback mechanisms and animations, etc.) that are frequently used. This paper describes Peridot, a system that automatically creates the code for these user interfaces while the designer demonstrates to the system how the interface should look and work. Peridot uses rule-based inferencing so no programming by the designer is required, and Direct Manipulation techniques are used to create Direct Manipulation interfaces, which can make full use of a mouse and other input devices. This allows extremely rapid prototyping of user interfaces.

145 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The ability to package portions of the specification of user interfaces into components that can be reused in the construction of many interfaces, and the ability to change an application's user interface without impacting the implementation of the functionality are crucial.
Abstract: Constructing graphical user interfaces for interactive applications is a difficult and time consuming task, typically requiring extensive programming and experimentation with many prototypes Thus, the ability to package portions of the specification of user interfaces into components that can be reused in the construction of many interfaces, and the ability to change an application's user interface without impacting the implementation of the functionality are crucial These abilities can be realized in the measure that the dependencies between the implementation of an application's functionality and the user interface can be minimized

25 citations


01 May 1986
TL;DR: This chapter surveys some of the presuppositions of the approach to interface design, describes the tools the authors have built to assist in the construction of graphical interfaces, and discusses the conclusions they have drawn from their experiences in graphical interface design.
Abstract: : The dynamic graphical display of the state of complex systems has immense potential value for mediating the development of richer understandings of process as well as for providing more effective mechanisms of interaction For the past few years we have been involved in the development of a set of software tools to assist in the construction of interfaces to simulations and real-time systems These tools have been used extensively in the development of an interactive inspectable simulation-based instructional system, Steamer Underlying our efforts are three interrelated research activities: formulating a theory of interface design, understanding the effectiveness of interactive graphical representational systems, and implementing systems based on these developing theoretical notions The dialectic between these activities has been very valuable for us as cognitive scientists and as system builders In this chapter, we survey some of the presuppositions of our approach to interface design, describe the tools we have built to assist in the construction of graphical interfaces, and discuss the conclusions we have drawn from our experiences in graphical interface design (Author)

20 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 May 1986
TL;DR: The control panel interface is integrated into the framework of an interactive programming environment for graphics and image processing applications, and is an important feature of the overall interface design.
Abstract: This paper describes a graphical interface for application programs. The interface is based on the notion of a control panel. A control panel contains a browsable list of an application's parameters and a set of functions to control the application's execution. A variety of graphical knobs and gauges may be associated with any or all of the parameters to permit fine-grain execution control, including animation of an application's output. The control panel interface is integrated into the framework of an interactive programming environment for graphics and image processing applications. This integration is an important feature of the overall interface design.

10 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper describes a development environment for parallel scientific code that uses Percolation Scheduling, a transformational system for parallelism extraction, and an interactive profiling system to give the user control over the parallelization process while reducing the burdensome details of architecture, correctness-preservation and synchronization.

8 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 1986
TL;DR: This panel discussion should give many answers to this question: why has this set of techniques had so little impact on user interface design practice, despite its long history and promise?
Abstract: Recently there has been increasing attention to character recognition/graphical user interfaces under the name of “gesture input”. This technique actually has a long history: “sketch recognition” interfaces of 15 or more years ago were highly praised [Applicon 73], and user interfaces using handwriting input before the wide use of text keyboards were one of the first research goals in computer science [Bledsoe 59]. The underlying character and symbol recognition technologies have been a major research area in their own right since the early 1950s [Suen 80].The last two years have seen an upsurge in the number of developments in this area, both from commercial companies attempting to exploit new character and symbol recognition technologies, [CIC 85] [Pencept 84] [Cooper 82] and from researchers starting from fundamental questions in user interactions [Buxton 86] [Wolf 86]. However, one question still remains: “Why has this set of techniques had so little impact on user interface design practice, despite its long history and promise?” This panel discussion should give many answers to this question.Panelists include the leading commercial developers of handwriting input products, well-known researchers in the psychological aspects of graphical user interactions, and representatives of the research community for character recognition.The issue of supporting this type of interface is very timely: recent standardization efforts such as PHIGS and GKS for graphics interactions are known to have the unfortunate side effects of excluding some of the current user interface designs using this class of technology [10].

7 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
02 Nov 1986

5 citations


Book ChapterDOI
K T Huang1
01 Jun 1986
TL;DR: The design of a visual business graphical interface for office applications that provides a flexible interface between graphics applications and database and enables professionals who are non-programmers to generate the desired graphical presentation of data from database without the help of a professional programmer.
Abstract: Due to the relatively inexpensive availability of displays and printers, graphic interfaces are increasingly playing an important role in analyzing stored or computed data. The integration of graphical data presentation and computerized databases is thus becoming important for the professional end user. This paper describes the design of a visual business graphical interface for office applications. A visual programming approach for creating a business graphic query and generating business graphics is presented. It provides a flexible interface between graphics applications and database. The system enables professionals who are non-programmers to generate the desired graphical presentation of data from database without the help of a professional programmer.

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 1986
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a development environment for horizontal microcode using percolation scheduling, a transformational system for parallelism extraction, and an interactive profiling system to give the user control over the microcode compaction process while reducing the burdensome details of architecture, correctness preservation, and synchronization.
Abstract: This paper describes a development environment for horizontal microcode. The environment uses Percolation Scheduling, a transformational system for parallelism extraction, and an interactive profiling system to give the user control over the microcode compaction process while reducing the burdensome details of architecture, correctness preservation, and synchronization. Through a graphical interface the user suggests what should be done in parallel, while the system performs the actual changes using semantics-preserving transformations. If a request cannot be satisfied, the system reports the problem causing the failure. The user may then help eliminate the problem by supplying guidance or information not explicit in the code.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Oct 1986
TL;DR: This paper defines the concept of "windows" and describes its most common features and applicable operations, and investigates the utility and application of windowing and compares its features with those of existing user interfaces.
Abstract: A recent development in human-machine interfaces is the partitioning of a computer terminal screen into distinct "windows" of information. This paper defines the concept of "windows" and describes its most common features and applicable operations. It then investigates the utility and application of windowing and compares its features with those of existing user interfaces. The emphasis is on improving the human-machine interface.

Proceedings Article
01 Aug 1986


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 1986
TL;DR: The interface provides the user with a logical model of the database; this model typically being an abstraction of the actual database structure, and with an easy means of specifying a query through the use of a pointing device.
Abstract: A graphical database interface suitable for casual, naive users is described. It provides the user with a logical model of the database; this model typically being an abstraction of the actual database structure, and with an easy means of specifying a query through the use of a pointing device. The interface is a front-end processor and is logically separate from the database management system, it is thus possible to use it with any system.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: As the diversity and number of potential users of interactive computer systems increases, there is a greater awareness that the design of the user-machine interface is crucial for their efficiency and acceptability.
Abstract: As the diversity and number of potential users of interactive computer systems increases, there is a greater awareness that the design of the user-machine interface is crucial for their efficiency and acceptability. Systems designers often talk of the fundamental dilemma in dialogue design being the conflict between making an interface easy to use for novices and quick and sophisticated for expert users. This so-called "trade-off" has become so well established that one could be forgiven for believing that the form of dialogue either suits novices or expert users, but cannot cater for both.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1986
TL;DR: The evolution of database query languages are examined and the importance of the graphical interface taking in account the availability of new function alities and the users demand is emphasized.
Abstract: This paper is intended to highlight the evolution of interaction techniques between users and database systems. We examine the evolution of database query languages and emphasize the importance of the graphical interface taking in account the availability of new function alities and the users demand. Then, using examples in a medical environment, we present the characteristics of an interactive graphical language based on icons.

Journal ArticleDOI
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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1986
TL;DR: This paper discusses how user recovery and reversal, or Undo, is performed within a Higgens generated interface and a formal model of undo is used in an attempt to evaluate the power of the mechanism in order to compare it with other undo implementations.
Abstract: The Higgens user interface management system being developed at the University of Colorado allows an interface designer to rapidly construct graphical user interfaces based on a primarily non-procedural interface specification. This paper discusses how user recovery and reversal, or Undo, is performed within a Higgens generated interface. A special data model is developed which has unique properties which combine to provide an efficient environment for implementing an undo mechanism. New algorithms based on recent work in incremental attribute evaluation are used to efficiently implement both the generated interfaces as a whole, and the undo mechanism in particular. In addition, a formal model of undo is used in an attempt to evaluate the power of the mechanism in order to compare it with other undo implementations.