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From: wex@milano.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Abstract of Tech Report on Information Presentation (Display Layout)
Message-ID: <4981@milano.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Jul-87 14:23:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: milano.4981
Posted: Mon Jul 27 14:23:30 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jul-87 05:08:03 EDT
References: <1361@wanginst.EDU>
Sender: wex@milano.UUCP
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 31
Keywords: human factors user interface design page layout screen display

In article <1361@wanginst.EDU>, perlman@wanginst.EDU (Gary Perlman) writes:
> The goal of information layout is to physically display information to
> reinforce the underlying structure of the information.  In this paper,
> I describe an axiomatic model of information layout.  The model has
> three levels: (1) a device-independent representation for structured
> information

[I hope I haven't abstracted out too much context.]

Gary, I'm curious.  I can see how you could fairly easily achieve a
significant level of device independence, but how about
domain-dependence?

For example, there are dozens of "box & arrow"-type languages, each of
which uses slightly different representation based on the domain under
consideration.  EG: KR languages use arrows that go the opposite way
from those used in object-oriented inheritance graphs.

The information is similarly structured (boxes, arrows, hierarchies,
dependencies, etc.), but the representation is governed by the domain
of concern.

Comments welcomed.

-- 
Alan Wexelblat
ARPA: WEX@MCC.COM
UUCP: {seismo, harvard, gatech, pyramid, &c.}!sally!im4u!milano!wex

"Oh well, a touch of grey,
 Kinda suits you anyway."