THE DESIGN OF A GENERAL-PURPOSE COMMAND INTERPRETER FOR GRAPHICAL MAN-MACHINE COMMUNICATION TO BE BUILT ON TOP OF A GKS

Abstract

A model of a general purpose graphical command interpreter (KI) is presented. It is based on the graphical kernel system (GKS) and provides the user with the most common set of commands for solving graphical problems in a dialogue process. Functions for dialogue leading, echoing, error and help messages, editing, and correcting data support interactive working. GKS is demonstrated to be a most suitable graphical basis system for the requirements of the command interpreter. This paper attends to the problems of man-machine communication. Tasks of an operator (as the user or controller of the system) and of an author (as the definator of the application system) as well as the system support of both of them are considered. To adapt the system to the various requirements, tools for extension are provided.