Specification Tools and Implementation Techniques

Within the last few years, more and more research work has been invested in the area of man-machine communication. This is a natural consequence of the ongoing demand for improved man-machine-interfaces of a growing user community. Reviewing the history of computing starting with batch processing steps of improvement have been the fixed dialogue, offering the user on-line editing, testing and computing, and the programmable dialogue, allowing the system’s programmer or expert user to adjust the dialogue to applications1 and users’ requirements. Today’s efforts aim at systems capable to adjust the dialogue structure themselves to user characteristics. It is assumed that a successful solution to this problem would increase acceptance and efficiency of computer usage.