Some Thoughts on a Uniform Generic Command Interface
Balachander Krishnamurthy · Purdue e-Pubs (Purdue University System) · 1985
We study the usefulness of having a uniform command iil.terface with the help of generic commands. Generic commands are a sman set of commands that are available globally and cause the right action to be perlormed in the right place. These commands result in the user having to remember only a. basic set cf natural commands. The choice of key bindings to the generic comma.nds is under the control of the user while the generic commands themselves are bound to in~erface functions by the interface programmer. Greater flexibility with more customization is thus obtained. We consider generic commands as a generalized Do What I Mean [DWTh1j mechanism. Local abbreviations and global flags, over which the user has control, are also considered in the context of generic commands. The concept of generic commands is examined on a system-wide basis.