SPECIFYING PROCEDURES TO OFFICE SYSTEMS

This paper surveys current practice, research, and future prospects for communicating procedures to office computer systems, placing special emphasis on robustness and suitability for the casual user. Users of existing systems who have to specify procedures must generally resort to some kind of command language. Explicit forms programming languages, perhaps based on ideas of logic programming which suppress control structure, offer better prospects. In the more distant future, knowledge-based techniques utilizing models of office semantics may address the more general issues of problem-solving in the office. Programming by example is a promising method for specifying procedures but presents difficulties with editing, conditionals, iteration, variables and data structures. These can be partially overcome by using several example sequences or having users provide control information explicitly through a well-engineered interactive interface.

[1]  W. B. Gevarter,et al.  Oomputers: Expert systems: Limited but powerful: Using a collection of facts, rules of thumb, and methods of applying those rules and making inferences, a new type of computer system is emerging , 1983, IEEE Spectrum.

[2]  Gerald R. Barber,et al.  Supporting organizational problem solving with a work station , 1988, TOIS.

[3]  Dennis Tsichritzis,et al.  Form management , 1982, CACM.

[4]  Ian H. Witten,et al.  CONCEPT LEARNING: A PRACTICAL TOOL FOR KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION? , 1987 .

[5]  Rodney N. Cuff.  On casual users , 1980 .

[6]  Georg Raeder.  A Survey of Current Graphical Programming Techniques , 1985, Computer.

[7]  Richard Ennals.  Teaching Logic as a Computer Language in Schools , 1982, ICLP.

[8]  Moshé M. Zloof.  QBE/OBE: A Language for Office and Business Automation , 1981, Computer.

[9]  William F. Clocksin,et al.  Programming in Prolog , 1981, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[10]  William A. Woods,et al.  Computational Linguistics Transition Network Grammars for Natural Language Analysis , 2022 .

[11]  Robert P. Nix,et al.  Editing by example , 1984 .

[12]  Frederick Hayes-Roth,et al.  Building expert systems , 1983, Advanced book program.

[13]  Lucy Suchman.  Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication , 1987 .

[14]  R. Allan.  Busy robots spur productivity , 1979, IEEE Spectrum.

[15]  Moshé M. Zloof.  A Language for Office and Business Automation , 1979, Data Base Design Techniques II.

[16]  Lucy A. Suchman,et al.  Office procedure as practical action: models of work and system design , 1983, TOIS.

[17]  Nan C. Shu.  Formal: A Forms-Oriented, Visual-Directed Application Development System , 1985, Computer.

[18]  K. M. Haugan.  Spray Painting Robots , 1974 .

[19]  Tom Brock,et al.  The Industrial Robot , 1983 .

[20]  Harold Thimbleby.  Ease of use - the ultimate deception , 1986 .

[21]  David Canfield Smith,et al.  Pygmalion: A COMPUTER PROGRAM TO Model and Stimulate Creative Thought , 1975 .

[22]  Carl H. Smith,et al.  Inductive Inference: Theory and Methods , 1983, CSUR.

[23]  Tom M. Mitchell,et al.  Generalization as Search , 2002 .

[24]  Moshé M. Zloof.  Query-by-Example: A Data Base Language , 1977, IBM Syst. J..

[25]  Patrick Henry Winston,et al.  Learning structural descriptions from examples , 1970 .

[26]  Harold W. Thimbleby,et al.  Equal Opportunity Interactive Systems , 1986, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[27]  Kurt VanLehn,et al.  Felicity conditions for human skill acquisition: validating an ai-based theory , 1983 .

[28]  J B Long,et al.  People and computers: designing for usability , 1986 .

[29]  E. Mark Gold,et al.  Language Identification in the Limit , 1967, Inf. Control..

[30]  T. Kaczmarek,et al.  The Consul/CUE interface: An integrated interactive environment , 1983, CHI '83.

[31]  Daniel C. Halbert,et al.  Programming by Example , 2010, Encyclopedia of Machine Learning.

[32]  Bruce Anderson,et al.  Programming in the home of the future , 1980 .

[33]  Brian R. Gaines,et al.  Behaviour/structure transformations under uncertainty , 1976 .

[34]  B. A. Myers,et al.  Visual programming, programming by example, and program visualization: a taxonomy , 1986, CHI '86.

[35]  Ian H. Witten,et al.  User interfaces for office systems , 1985 .

[36]  Ian H. Witten.  PROGRAMMING BY EXAMPLE FOR THE CASUAL USER: A CASE STUDY , 1981 .

[37]  Jay S. Kunin.  Analysis and specification of office procedures , 1982 .

[38]  Bruce A MacDonald.  Designing teachable robots , 1984 .

[39]  Alison Lee,et al.  Enhancing the usability of an Office Information System through direct manipulation , 1983, CHI '83.

[40]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages , 1983, Computer.

[41]  Peter M. Andreae.  Justified generalization: acquiring procedures from examples , 1984 .

[42]  Peter M. Andreae,et al.  Constraint Limited Generalization: Acquiring Procedures From Examples , 1984, AAAI.

[43]  Patrick Henry Winston,et al.  The psychology of computer vision , 1976, Pattern Recognit..