A New Approach to Programming Man-Machine Interfaces

Robert H. Anderson, W. L. Sibley

ResearchPublished 1972

The application of recent developments in web languages and machine learning of heuristics to problems in programming a flexible interface mechanism between a user and an application program. This report considers an adaptive communicator interposed between an application program and a set of input/output devices. The communicator is coupled with these I/0 devices by programs that transform raw signals from them into low-level logical objects. The communicator is envisioned as a series of context-analysis systems, each having a separate context and set of operating rules, and communicating with each other by transmitting logical objects. The report concludes that: (1) A labeled directed graph, or web, is an appropriate database organization for man-machine interaction. (2) Web grammars, in the form of pattern-replacement rules, can be used to manipulate that database. (3) Pattern-replacement rules can be viewed as heuristics suitable for machine learning.

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  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Available
  • Year: 1972
  • Print Format: Paperback
  • Paperback Pages: 36
  • Paperback Price: $20.00
  • Document Number: R-876-ARPA

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Anderson, Robert H. and W. L. Sibley, A New Approach to Programming Man-Machine Interfaces, RAND Corporation, R-876-ARPA, 1972. As of September 20, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R0876.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Anderson, Robert H. and W. L. Sibley, A New Approach to Programming Man-Machine Interfaces. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1972. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R0876.html. Also available in print form.
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