Direct Manipulation Tools for UNIX Workstations (First Draft)

Direct manipulation is one approach to the creation of software which can make use of the high resolution graphics and pointing device available on a workstation like a Sun 3. A direct manipulation tool is typically used to manipulate a complex system like, for example, a le system, and works by presenting a graphical image of the system which the user can manipulate in order to manipulate the system itself. The paper starts o by discussing direct manipulation in general terms and then goes on to describe three examples of direct manipulation tools which were written at the University of Kent. The tools described are a le system editor, a graphical debugger and a front end to SCCS. The remaining sections of the paper discuss the implementation of direct manipulation tools, outline some of the user interface techniques that are applicable, and suggest a few systems which may be amenable to the direct manipulation approach.