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An empirical investigation of menu design in language-based editors

Published:01 November 1992Publication History
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Abstract

In program visualization some form of graphics is used to represent some aspect of a program. However, graphics are necessarily expensive with respect to “screen real estate”. Alternatives, therefore, may be required for presentation of certain concepts fundamental to the programmer's model of a program. For example, one graphical representation of a program, written in a block-structured language like Pascal or Modula-2, is the structure chart model of the hierarchical structure of the blocks or modules making up the program. This graphic may be the most appropriate but it may not be conveniently implemented as a menu and a means of “directly” selecting blocks of program code to view or edit. Such graphics are used extensively, for example, in the Garden environment developed at Brown University. An alternative is a text-based list of block names indented to summarize the program's structure. UQ1, a language-based editor developed at the University of Queensland, implements the concept in this manner. Both types of menu structure were examined and compared for efficiency in a direct manipulation style of interaction. In general, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in time taken by subjects to select items from either style of menu.

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          cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
          ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes  Volume 17, Issue 5
          Dec. 1992
          180 pages
          ISSN:0163-5948
          DOI:10.1145/142882
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            SDE 5: Proceedings of the fifth ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Software development environments
            November 1992
            180 pages
            ISBN:0897915542
            DOI:10.1145/142868
            • Chairman:
            • Ian Thomas

          Copyright © 1992 ACM

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          • Published: 1 November 1992

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