tailieunhanh - Báo cáo khoa học: "NATURAL VS. PRECISE CONCISE LANGUAGES FOR HUMAN OPERATION OF COMPUTERS: RESEARCH ISSUES AND EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES"

This paper raises concerns that natural language front ends for computer systems can limit a researcher's scope of thinking, yield inappropriately complex systems, and exaggerate public fear of computers. Alternative modes of computer use are suggested and the role of psychologically oriented controlled experimentation is emphasized. Research methods and recent experimental results are briefly reviewed. | NATURAL VS. PRECISE CONCISE LANGUAGES FOR HUMAN OPERATION OF COMPUTERS RESEARCH ISSUES AND EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES Ben Shnelderman Department of Computer Science University of Maryland College Park MD. This paper raises concerns that natural language front ends for computer systems can limit a researcher s scope of thinking yield Inappropriately complex systems and exaggerate public fear of computers. Alternative modes of computer use are suggested and the role of psychologically oriented controlled experimentation is anphasized. Research methods and recent experimental results are briefly reviewed. 1. INTRODUCTION The capacity of sophisticated modern computers to manipulate and display symbols offers remarkable opportunities for natural language communication among people. Text editing systems are used to generate business or personal letters scientific research papers newspaper articles or other textual data. Newer word processing electronic mall and computer teleconferencing systems are used to format distribute and share textual data. Traditional record keeping systems for payroll credit verification inventory medical services insurance or student grades contain natural language textual data In these cases the computer Is used as a communication medium between humans which may involve Intermediate stages where the computer is used as a tool for data manipulation. Humans enter the data In natural language form or with codes which represent pieces of text part number Instead of a description course number Instead of a title etc. . The computer Is used to store the data In an internal form incomprehensible to most humans to make updates or transformations and to output It In a form which humans can read easily. These systems should act in a comprehensible tool-like manner in which system responses satisfy user expectations. Several researchers have commented on the Importance of letting the user be In control 1 avoiding acausallty 2 promoting the personal worth of