Detecting and modelling users' beliefs about Unix
Jada Lewis, P.M. Ross · 1988
Users of the Unix operating system have misconceptions about Unix commands, make errors in specifying commands, and have incomplete knowledge of the domain. The authors' approach is to infer users' intentions from the commands that they issue, and use this information to detect their problems. An active chart parser generates all possible parses according to a grammar of typical plans that users follow. The points when the user might need advice are detected from a heuristic analysis of the chart, and the goal that he is attempting to achieve is inferred. This goal is verified against a STRIPS-like model of the user's beliefs about Unix commands, which determines the misconceptions and errors that the user could possess. This model of the user's 'command beliefs' is specific to an individual, and is dynamically altered as the session progresses to account for the user commands.