AN INTERACTIVE COMPUTER TERMINAL INTERFACE WHICH PREDICTS USER ENTRIES
Abstract
Typical dialogues with interactive computer systems contain
a great deal of redundancy. Consider the string of characters typed by the user
as a behaviour sequence which is presented to the system. It will
usually have some repetition because of minor user errors. If the
dialogue is with a command interpreter there will be redundancy due to
frequent use of a small subset of the possible commands, re-typing
of command names and incorrectly given arguments, and so on. If English
text is being entered there will be the statistical redundancy of the
language. Program text is usually even more redundant because of the
restricted set of keywords and identifier names.
This paper describes the operation and sketches the design and
construction of a terminal interface to an operating system (Unix (1)) which is
intended to aid the interactive user by reducing the amount he has to
type. It works by predicting the entries that he is about to make. Predictions
are displayed in reverse video on the VDU terminal, and the user has the
option of accepting correct predictions as though he had typed them
himself. Incorrect predictions can be eradicated by simply typing over
them; thus the user may ignore the predictions and continue typing normally if
he does not wish to disturb his keying rhythm. In all cases the display
looks as though he had typed the whole entry himself.
Description
Keywords
Computer Science