Cooper 27
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

Agenda
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Command Line Interfaces
Sequential Hierarchical Menus
The Lotus 1-2-3 Interface
Drop-down and Pop-up Menus
Menus Today
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

Command Line Interfaces
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1970’s era mainframes used batch processing
– Punch cards
– JCL
Early minicomputers
– Command line
– Real time interface
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

Sequential Hierarchical Menus
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Lists of choices
Each choice brings up another list
Removed the requirement to memorize commands
Somewhat tedious to step through
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

The Lotus 1-2-3 Interface
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Visible hierarchical menus
Allowed user to remain in visible program area while accessing commands
Allowed direct entry of commands
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

Drop-down and Pop-up Menus
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Overlaps and obscures screen
Leaves original screen untouched
Helped flatter hierarchies
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

Menus Today
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Modified by two new idioms
– Direct manipulation
– Toolbars
Menu commands
– Provide better descriptions
– Allows easy cancellation of commands
– Facilitates learning
– Include shortcuts
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu

Questions & Discussion
William H. Bowers – whb108@psu.edu