The Computer User as Toolsmith

The Use, Reuse and Organization of Computer-Based Tools

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Hardcover | 14 June 1993

At a Glance

Hardcover
204 Pages

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25.4 x 17.78 x 1.27

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Computing environments that furnish a large set of tools (such as editors, mail programs and language processors) are difficult to use, primarily because there is no means of organizing the tools so that they are at hand when needed. Because of the dearth of knowledge of how users behave when issuing commands to general purpose computer systems, user support facilities are ad-hoc designs that do not support natural work habits. The Computer User as Toolsmith, first published in 1993, describes several empirical studies from which the author has developed a computer version of a handyman's workbench that would help users with their online activities. For the practitioner and interface designer, the guidelines and principles offered here are directly applicable to the rational design of new systems and the modernization of old ones. For the researcher and graduate student, the book offers a wealth of analysis and interpretation of data, as well as a survey of research techniques.

Industry Reviews

"...thoughtfully and carefully written. It is well referenced, with over 100 citations. The author describes in clear and precise detail how he took his initial premises about tools and their reuse, and developed a research and analysis program to test them." G.R. Mayforth, Computing Reviews

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Non-Fiction Computing & I.T.Computer Science Human-Computer Interaction Operating Systems UNIX Graphical & Digital Media Applications Information Technology General Issue Ethical & Social Aspects of IT

List of figures
List of tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments and dedication
Introduction	p. 1
Using physical tools	p. 1
Soft tools in general-purpose computing environments	p. 4
Outline	p. 8
Studying UNIX	p. 11
Choosing UNIX	p. 11
Techniques for analyzing activities of UNIX users	p. 16
Data collection for the current study	p. 21
Using commands in UNIX	p. 26
Frequency distributions of commands for large groups	p. 26
Usage frequency of particular commands between groups	p. 27
Frequency distributions and command overlap between individuals	p. 30
Growth of the command vocabulary	p. 32
Relations in command sequences	p. 34
Techniques for reusing activities	p. 40
History mechanisms	p. 41
Adaptive systems	p. 52
Reuse through programming by example	p. 59
Recurrent systems	p. 65
A definition of recurrent systems	p. 65
Recurrent systems in the non-computer world	p. 67
Recurrent systems in information retrieval	p. 73
UNIX csh as a recurrent system	p. 74
Reuse opportunities in UNIX csh - potential and actual	p. 84
Conditioning the distribution	p. 84
Actual use of UNIX history	p. 102
Principles, corroboration, and justification	p. 108
Principles and guidelines	p. 108
Corroboration	p. 112
Stepping back	p. 118
Concluding remarks	p. 121
Organizing activities through workspaces	p. 123
Relating activities	p. 124
Implications: suggestions workspaces	p. 127
Implementations	p. 131
A workspace system: description and issues	p. 141
The WORKBENCH system	p. 141
Pragmatic concerns and research questions	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 159
Argument of the book	p. 159
Contributions	p. 160
Looking to the future	p. 161
Appendix A: A sample trace	p. 164
Appendix B: Summary statistics for each subject	p. 169
References	p. 177
Author index	p. 183
Subject index	p. 185
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

The Computer User as Toolsmith

The Use, Reuse and Organization of Computer-Based Tools

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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