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18-507: ViewSheet supports spreadsheets of up to 255 by 255 cells in size. Each cell can contain a number, formula or text label. Cells are referred to as slots in the official Acornsoft documentation. The program is supplied with a keyboard card listing the various commands, which on the BBC Micro is placed under the clear plastic strip above the function keys. The spreadsheet is entered by typing *SHEET . All BBC Micro screen modes are supported, and

36-423: A fundamental part of usability design. An example of a design maneuver is reducing the viscosity of a notation by adding abstraction mechanisms. This can be done by incorporating style sheets , an abstraction that represent the common styling attributes of items in a document, to a notation where each item in a document has defined its own individual style. After this design maneuver is made, an editor that changes

54-469: A key element (the icon and pointer elements), and therefore are GUIs, the reverse is not true. Some GUIs are not based in windows, icons, menus, and pointers. For example, most mobile phones represent actions as icons and menus, but often do not rely on a conventional pointer or containerized windows to host program interactions. WIMP interaction was developed at Xerox PARC (see Xerox Alto , developed in 1973) and popularized with Apple 's introduction of

72-544: A saved spreadsheet. ViewSheet takes advantage of a second 6502 processor, which triples the amount of memory available for spreadsheets, assuming the default screen mode is used (mode 3). ViewSheet was reviewed by Gordon Taylor in the January 1985 edition of A&B computing and a book ViewSheet and Viewstore: A Dabhand Guide by Graham Bell was published by Dabs Press in 1989. David Brown, in his review for The Micro User states that ViewSheet "succeeds in providing all

90-476: A style of interaction using these elements of the user interface . Other expansions are sometimes used, such as substituting "mouse" and "mice" for menus, or "pull-down menu" and "pointing" for pointer. Though the acronym has fallen into disuse, it has often been likened to the term graphical user interface (GUI) . Any interface that uses graphics can be called a GUI, and WIMP systems derive from such systems. However, while all WIMP systems use graphics as

108-460: Is best served by a different trade-off in the usability on each dimension. For example, a high viscosity (resistance to change) is harmful for modification and exploration activities, but less severe for the one-off tasks performed in transcription and incrementation. A design maneuver is a change made by the designer in the notation design, to alter its position within a particular dimension. Dimensions are created to be pairwise independent, so that

126-588: Is limited by two dimensions, and consequently doesn't account for the pressure applied when using a physical writing utility. Pressure-sensitive graphics tablets are often used to overcome this limitation. Another issue with WIMP-style user interfaces is that many implementations put users with disabilities at a disadvantage. For example, visually impaired users may have difficulty using applications when alternative text-based interfaces are not made available. People with motor impairments , such as Parkinson's disease , may not be able to navigate devices precisely using

144-468: The Macintosh in 1984, which added the concepts of the "menu bar" and extended window management. The WIMP interface has the following components: This style of system improves human–computer interaction ( HCI ) by emulating real-world interactions and providing greater ease of use for non-technical people. Because programs contained by a WIMP interface subsequently rely on the same core input methods,

162-537: The usability of an existing information artifact , or as heuristics to guide the design of a new one, and are useful in Human-Computer Interaction design. Cognitive dimensions are designed to provide a lightweight approach to analyse the quality of a design, rather than an in-depth, detailed description. They provide a common vocabulary for discussing many factors in notation, UI or programming language design. Also, cognitive dimensions help in exploring

180-820: The background and foreground colours can be changed by use of Ctrl-S,n,n,0,0,0 key sequences. The program supports user-defined windows that can display cells from various different parts of the spreadsheet within the same screen. This is useful in lieu of a WIMP environment, as it saves the user the inconvenience of moving back and forth around the spreadsheet to view cells which are far apart from each other. ViewSheet supports saving of spreadsheets to both disk and tape and printing to both serial and parallel printers. These operations are performed in command mode , which also allows changing various options such as VDU settings and screen resolution. The program also integrates with Acornsoft's View word processor, allowing mixing of spreadsheet data and word processor text within

198-441: The basic spreadsheet functions in a well presented package". Although, he also cites several shortcomings of the program, writing "In conclusion, Viewsheet's major failing is to provide adequate facilities for textual labelling." and finishes by noting "Acornsoft is capable of producing better programs". WIMP (computing) In human–computer interaction , WIMP stands for " windows , icons , menus , pointer ", denoting

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216-415: The design can be altered in one dimension while keeping a second one constant. But this usually results in a trade-off between dimensions. A modification increasing the usability of the notation in one dimension (while keeping a second one constant) will typically reduce its usability in a third dimension. This reflects an assumption in the framework that there is no perfect interface and that trade-offs are

234-406: The interactions throughout the system are standardized. This consistency allows users' skills to carry from one application to another. Some human–computer interaction researchers consider WIMP to be ill-suited for multiple applications, especially those requiring precise human input or more than three dimensions of input. Drawing and writing are example of these limitations; a traditional pointer

252-564: The interface "three-dimensional" by adding visual depth through the use of monocular cues , and even combining depth with physics. The latter resulted in the development of BumpTop desktop and its acquisition and release by Google . Consistency (user interfaces) Cognitive dimensions or cognitive dimensions of notations are design principles for notations , user interfaces and programming languages , described by researcher Thomas R.G. Green and further researched with Marian Petre . The dimensions can be used to evaluate

270-439: The same element?), indexing (are there elements to guide finding a specific part?), synopsis (" Gestalt view " of the whole annotated structure) or unevenness (some creation paths are easier than others, which bias the expressed ideas in a developed artifact). The authors identify four main user activities with interactive artifacts: incrementation [creation], transcription , modification and exploratory design . Each activity

288-417: The same printout. There's also a built-in facility for generating character-based bar charts. Cells can be left or right justified and formatted according to a user specified layout. Numeric values are stored internally as five-byte floating point numbers. The ViewSheet file format is documented on page 128 of the supplied user guide, which also contains an example BBC BASIC program to print out values from

306-483: The space of possible designs through design maneuvers , changes intended to improve the design along one dimension. Thomas Green originally defined 14 cognitive dimensions: In addition to the above, new dimensions are sometimes proposed in the HCI research field, with different levels of adoption and refinement. Such candidate dimensions include creative ambiguity (does the notation encourage interpreting several meanings of

324-506: The traditional mouse pointer for input. To overcome these barriers, researchers continue to explore ways to make modern computer systems more accessible. Recent developments in artificial intelligence , specifically machine learning , have opened new doors for accessibility in technology, or assistive technology . Multiple studies have explored the possibilities of moving past the WIMP interface , such as using reality-based interaction, making

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