User Interface Management and Design: Proceedings of the Workshop on User Interface Management Systems and Environments Lisbon, Portugal, June 4–6, 1990

316 Pages·1991·11.49 MB·English

by  F. Robert A. Hopgood, David A. Duce, Paul J. W. ten Hagen (auth.), M. Rui Gomes, John R. Lee (eds.)

EurographicSeminars
Tutorials and Perspectives in Computer Graphics [5
Edited by W. T. Hewitt, R. Gnatz, and D. A. Duce
D. A. Duce M. R. Gomes
F. R.A.Hopgood IR.Lee (Eds.)
User
Interface Management
and Design
Proceedings of the Workshop
on User Interface Management Systems
and Environments
Lisbon, Portugal, June 4-6, 1990
With 117 Figures
Springer-Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg New York
London Paris Tokyo
Hong Kong Barcelona
EurographicSeminars
Edited by W. T. Hewitt, R. Gnatz, and D. A. Duce
for EUROGRAPHICS -
The European Association for Computer Graphics
P.O. Box 16, CH-1288 Aire-Ia-Ville, Switzerland
Volume Editors
David A. Duce
F. Robert A. Hopgood
Informatics Department
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OXll OQX, U.K.
M.RuiGomes
Rua Alves Redol, 9-20
P-1017 Lisboa Codex, Portugal
John R.Lee
EdCAAD, University of Edinburgh
Department of Architecture
20 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EHIIJZ, u.K.
Organizer of the Workshop
Graphics and Interaction in ESPRIT
Technical Interest Group
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Workshop on User Interface Management Systems and Environments (1990: Lisbon,
Portugal). User interface management and design: proceedings of the Workshop on User
Interface Management Systems and Environments, Lisbon, Portugal, June 4-6, 19901
D.A.Duce ... [etal.J p. cm.
(EurographicSeminars)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-76285-7 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-76283-3
DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-76283-3
1. User interfaces (Computer systems) - Congresses. I. Title. II. Series.
QA76.9.U83W67 1991 005.1 - dc20 90-23984 CIP
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© 1991 EUROGRAPHICS The European Association for Computer Graphics
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1991
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Preface
This volume is a record of the Workshop on User Interface Management Systems and
Environments held at INESC, Lisbon, Portugal, between 4 and 6 June 1990. The main
impetus for the workshop came from the Graphics and Interaction in ESPRIT Technical
Interest Group of the European Community ESPRIT Programme. The Graphics and Interac-
tion in ESPRIT Technical Interest Group arose from a meeting of researchers held in Brussels
in May 1988, which identified a number of technical areas of common interest across a
significant number of ESPRIT I and ESPRIT II projects. It was recognized that there was a
need to share information on such activities between projects, to disseminate results from the
projects to the world at large, and for projects to be aware of related activities elsewhere in
the world. The need for a Technical Interest Group was confirmed at a meeting held during
ESPRIT Technical Week in November 1989, attended by over 50 representatives from
ESPRIT projects and the Commission of the European Communities.
Information exchange sessions were organized during the EUROGRAPHICS '89 confer-
ence, with the intention of disseminating information from ESPRIT projects to the wider
research and development community, both in Europe and beyond.
The present workshop, organized by the EUROGRAPHICS Association and its Por-
tuguese Chapter in conjunction with the Technical Interest Group, arose from the common
interests in User Interface Management Systems, identified by a number of ESPRIT I and
ESPRIT II projects, at the workshop in May 1988. Several ESPRIT I projects were con-
cerned with developing or using the ideas of User Interface Management Systems (UIMS).
Several of the foundational concepts in UIMS were established at the workshop held in
Seeheim in November 1983 (User Interface Management Systems, edited by G.E. Pfaff,
EurographicSeminars, Springer-Verlag). In the intervening six years, the development of
windowing systems, object-oriented methodologies and AI-inspired techniques have pro-
ceeded on a scale which was hard to anticipate at that time. The ideas in the Seeheim model
are beginning to show their age.
Several workshops organized by ACM Siggraph have addressed the topic of interactive
systems, and it was felt that it would be timely to organize a workshop in 1990 to re-examine
the basic notion of a User Interface Management System, to question its continued appropri-
ateness in the context of current, and probable future, systems, entailing a proper attempt to
relate it to the newer paradigm of "user interface development environment", and an assess-
ment of the impact of "knowledge engineering" (both in the interface and in the application)
on interaction strategies.
The format of the workshop was to spend the first half-day with presentations from a
number of invited speakers. The aim was to highlight the major outstanding issues. The
workshop participants then split into four groups. Membership of the groups was determined
prior to the workshop on the basis of position papers submitted and the topic of each group
may not have been fully representative of the interests of the group's members. Papers
accepted by the Organizing Committee were briefly presented in the groups as a prelude to
discussion. As a further stimulus to discussion, each working group was given a list of key
questions for that area. Full papers and lists of questions were circulated to all participants
VI
for study in advance of the worlcshop. Plenary sessions helped to keep the individual groups
infonned of progress in the other groups. A closing plenary session was held on the third day
to hear final working group repons and agree the conclusions of the workshop.
Pan I of this volume contains the three invited papers, repons of the four working groups
and the final conclusions of the workshop.
The remaining pans contain the papers accepted by the Organizing Committee which
were presented at the workshop. These are organized by the working group in which each
was presented.
The Organizing Committee, A. Conway (UK), D.A. Duce (UK), M. Rui Gomes (P),
P.J.W. ten Hagen (NL), F.R.A. Hopgood (UK), A.C. Kilgour (UK), H. Kuhlmann (FRG), D.
Morin (F), B. Servolle (F), G. Pfaff (FRG), chaired by J.R. Lee (UK); was responsible for the
work prior to the workshop and special thanks are due to them, panicularly David Duce for
organizing the administration.
Panicular thanks are due to Mario Rui Gomes and his colleagues at INESC who handled
all the local arrangements for the workshop, especially Ana Freitas who provided secretarial
suppon for the workshop. We also wish to express our thanks to Karel De Vriendt of DG
xm of the Commission of the European Communities for his suppon of the activity.
Mention must also be made of Nuno da Camara Pereira, whose restaurant, Novital,and
Fado music, provided the setting for the workshop Dinner and much fruitful discussion.
However, the success of the workshop was due to the panicipants and we express sincere
thanks to all who gave of their time in preparing papers and attending the workshop.
Lisbon, June 1990 D.A. Duce
M.R.Gomes
F.R.A. Hopgood
J.R. Lee
Table of Contents
Part I Invited Presentations, Discussions and Conclusions............................................... 1
Invited Presentations
1. Critique of the Seeheim Model............................................. ......................................... 3
p. J. W. ten Hagen
2. The Reference Model of Computer Graphics ................................................................ 7
G. Faconti
3. The Architectural Bases of Design Re-use .................................................................... 15
G. Cockton
Working Group Discussions
4. Concepts, Methods, Methodologies Working Group .................................................... 35
5. Current Practice Working Group ................................................................................... 51
6. Multi-media and Visual Programming .......................................................................... 57
7. Toolkits, Environments and the Object Oriented Paradigm .......................................... 61
Workslwp Conclusions
8. Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 65
Part IT Concepts, Models and Methodologies ................................................................... 69
9. Some Comments on the Future of User Interface Tools ................................................ 71
J. GroUmann, C. Rumpf
10. Modelling User Interface Software................................................................................ 87
N. V. Carlsen, N.J. Christensen
11. GMENUS: An Ada Concurrent User Interface Management System. .......................... 101
M. Martinez, B. Villalobos, P. de Miguel
12. Usability Engineering and User Interface Management ................................................ 113
R. Gimnich
13. Designing the Next Generation ofUIMSs ...................................................................... 123
F. Shevlin, F. Neelamkavil
14. Intelligent Interfaces and UIMS ..................................................................................... 135
J.Lee
15. Assembling a User Interface out of Communicating Processes .................................... 145
P.l W. ten Hagen, D. Soede
VIII
Part ill Current Practice .................................................................................................... 151
16. IUICE - An Interactive User Interface Construction Environment ............................ 153
P.Sturm
17. Dialogue Specification for Knowledge Based Systems ................................................. 169
C.Hayball
18. SYSECA's Experience in DIMS for Industrial Applications ........................................ 179
J. Bangratz, E. Le Thieis
19. The Growth of a MOSAIC ............................................................................................. 195
D. Svan{Es, A. Thomassen
20. A Framework for Integrating DIMS and User Task Models in the
Design of User Interfaces ............................................................................................... 203
P. Johnson, K. Drake, S. Wilson
21. PROMETHEUS: A System for Programming Graphical User Interfaces .................... 217
D.Ehmke
Part IV Visual Programming, Multi-Media and UI Generators ..................................... 229
22. An Environment for User Interface Development Based on the AT N and
Petri Nets Notations ....................................................................................................... 231
M. Bordegoni, U. Cugini, M. Motta, C. Rizzi
23. Creating Interaction Primitives ...................................................................................... 247
L.Larsson
Part V Toolkits, Environments and the 00 Paradigm .................................................... 255
24. The Composite Object User Interface Architecture ...................................................... 257
RD. Hill, M. Herrmann
25. An Overview of GINA - the Generic Interactive Application ....................................... 273
M. Spenke, C. Beilken
26. The Use of OPEN LOOK/Motif GUI Standards for Applications in
Control Systems Design ................................................................................................. 295
HA. Barker, M. Chen, P.W. Grant, C.P. Jobling, A. Parkman, P. Townsend
27. The OO-AGES Model- An Overview .......................................................................... 307
MR. Gomes and J.CL. Fernandes
List of Participants ............................................................................................................... 323
Part I
Invited Presentations, Discussions and Conclusions
Chapter 1
Critique of the Seeheim Model
Paul l.W. ten Hagen
1.1 Introduction
The Seeheim Model will be discussed under the three headings:
(1) what is the Seeheim Model;
(2) critique of the Model;
(3) critique of the divergencies from the Model.
The aim is to show that the original Seeheim Model still has merit and many of the criticisms
are due to an over-simplification of what the Model contains or a preoccupation with prob-
lems associated with current practices.
1.2 Seeheim Model
The basic diagram of the Seeheim Model that is frequently quoted is shown in figure 1.
Dialogue Application
USER
Control Interface
I
I
I I I
: 1.1- :
~ - -- --<-- - -LJ---- -<- --- ~
Figure 1: The Seeheim Model
The Model aimed to categorize the parts of the interface such that the designer of an Applica-
tion Interface can describe what is going on between the user and the application program.
The Model addressed three questions related to user interface descriptions:
(1) Specification;
(2) Human Factors;
(3) Classification or Notations.
1.2.1 Specification
From a specification view, the three parts can be described as:
(1) Presentation: responsible for the external to internal mapping of basic symbols. The
device dependent input from the user is translated to a set of basic symbols (sometimes
called tokens). To specify a dialogue, these basic symbols have to be defined.
4
(2) Dialogue Control: responsible for defining the structure of the dialogue between the
user and the application program. It is responsible for routing the basic symbols to the
appropriate part of the application. As this may vary in time, there is a need for internal
state information which is updated by the Dialogue Control component The dialogue
itself is likely to have a syntax. The description of that syntax is likely to require inter-
nal state information also.
(3) Application Interface: this is a representation of the application from the viewpoint of
the user interface. It defines the semantics of the application in terms of the data objects
relevant to the user interface and the processes that can be initiated by the user interface.
It is responsible for the communication between the user interface and the application in
the form required by the application.
From the application's point-of-view, the UlMS is responsible for anything that the applica-
tion wants to sub-contract. Examples are imposing constraints on the input from the user,
defining the feedback required, low-level checking of the dialogue and other tasks that need
to be moved to the User Interface for performance.
1.3 Human Factors
From the Human Factors view, the separation into components may be useful in giving
design guidelines and in evaluation from a human factors point-of-view.
(1) Presentation: the key issue addressed is the name space for application objects and con-
cepts. The Human Factors issues relate to the design of the symbol space accessed by
the user, any structure imposed on that space and the effects of interactions between
symbols.
(2) Dialogue Control: the key issue addressed is command and dialogue structure. The
dialogue structure must fit the user model of the application. Any natural chunking from
the user and application view must be exploited. There must be a good mapping from
the user's view of the system to the application's view.
(3) Application Interface: this needs to be based on the user's model of the application. It
must match the tasks that the user wishes to perform with the operations performed by
the application.
1.4 Notations
Many classification schemes exist in UlMS. For each part of the Seeheim Model, several are
required:
(1) Presentation: output notations must deal at least with text and graphics primitives. In
the future this will need to be extended to media primitives. As hardware becomes more
complex, the need for adequate abstractions becomes more important. Similar problems
exist in the input area.
(2) Dialogue Control: this is the part that has been most highly developed so far with three
major categories: state/transitions, grammars and events/handlers. All have notational
peculiarities with different strengths and weaknesses. The major argument against states
and transitions is that for non-trivial applications, they become much too complex.
However, suitable techniques for defining sub-transitions can solve many of the prob-
lems. The grammar systems are the ones that have been looked at most intensely both
before and after Seeheim. The usual complaint is that it can only handle directed graphs.
However affixes to grammars allow much more flexibility. The adherents of the