00100	\CCOMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH
00200	
00300		This project involves research in three areas of computer science -
00400	the man-machine interface, the creation, maintenance and retrieval of
00500	data bases, and interaction between programs in different computers.
00600	
00700	1. \F1The man-machine interface\F0. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence
00800	Laboratory has accumulated much experience in designing and using
00900	programs that interact with users at terminals.  Programs from which we
01000	have learned include: the time-sharing system itself, text editors,
01100	message sending and receiving systems, on-line desk calculator simulators,
01200	interpreters like LISP, several variants of our news service program,
01300	spelling checkers, file directory editors,
01400	a program for charging purchases in our commissary and making
01500	the vending machine give out food,
01600	and many others.  The users of
01700	these programs include experienced programmers, beginning programmers,
01800	secretaries experienced in operating our editors etc., and temporary
01900	secretaries that have to operate them with 15 minutes instruction.
02000	One may use a program constantly or only a few times a year.  Many people
02100	do jobs by and for which there is an available program simply because the
02200	the find it inconvenient to learn or relearn how to use the relevant
02300	program (or even an unfamiliar feature of a program they use constantly).
02400	
02500	These problems will never go away completely, but the problems they provide
02600	can be minimized by a proper style of man-machine interaction.  We have
02700	made a number of discoveries about this some of which are perhaps
02800	counter-intuitive and don't yet get wide assent among designers of
02900	interactive programs.  \F1First\F0, 
03000	in so far as possible, interaction should be on one level rather than
03100	hierarchical, i.e. in a program with modes and submodes, the user often
03200	forgets what mode he is in, what mode the various facilities require,
03300	and even when he remembers, he often finds himself in the wrong mode.
03400	\F1Second\F0,