Shells in an Interactive System

In considering the process of interaction between the user and the machine, a frequently used communication medium is the command interpreter which mediates between the user and the operating system. It provides access to all the utilities in the system-revision control systems, time based schedulers, compilers, mail handlers, and other application programs. We confine our interests to command interpreters in an interactive system where the window system is the front end to the various application programs and the command interpreter is an application program that the user can access. We seek to replace the traditional command interpreter with a shell that permits the user to specify frequently executed actions in a simpler manner. By looking at the most frequently executed commands we can see what commands can be eliminated in the environment of a workstation with advanced input devices and display techniques. If a command cannot be eliminated or replaced we seek to provide an improved interface both globally and specific to a command. Another motivation is that the interface remain user-oriented. An aid towards providing a user-oriented interface is dynamic tracking of a user's pattern of usage. By keeping track of a user's usage pattern we can build an interface that evolves with and is specific to the user.