Keep talking—Performance effectiveness with continuous voice recognition for spreadsheet users

The performance of spreadsheet users was compared for two modes of input to the computer—keyboard and continuous voice recognition (CVR)—for subjects classified by their decision style. In addition, the data for this experiment was compared to results of a similar experiment that used a discrete word recognition system. Dependent measures were task completion time, accuracy, keystroke count, correction count, and user confidence for spreadsheet tasks. Results, using a speaker-dependent continuous voice recognizer, showed that for both simple data input and more complex analytical problems, subjects did not perform more effectively using CVR compared to keyboard. In addition, a subject's decision style was found not to interact with CVR for an effect on performance. Compared to earlier discrete word recognition results, CVR tended to shorten the time to complete a spreadsheet analysis task.     

Keep talking—Performance effectiveness with continuous voice recognition for spreadsheet users

The performance of spreadsheet users was compared for two modes of input to the computer—keyboard and continuous voice recognition (CVR)—for subjects classified by their decision style. In addition, the data for this experiment was compared to results of a similar experiment that used a discrete word recognition system. Dependent measures were task completion time, accuracy, keystroke count, correction count, and user confidence for spreadsheet tasks. Results, using a speaker-dependent continuous voice recognizer, showed that for both simple data input and more complex analytical problems, subjects did not perform more effectively using CVR compared to keyboard. In addition, a subject's decision style was found not to interact with CVR for an effect on performance. Compared to earlier discrete word recognition results, CVR tended to shorten the time to complete a spreadsheet analysis task.     

Atomizer: A dynamic atomicity checker for multithreaded programs

Ensuring the correctness of multithreaded programs is difficult, due to the potential for unexpected interactions between concurrent threads. Much previous work has focused on detecting race conditions, but the absence of race conditions does not by itself prevent undesired interactions between threads.A more fundamental noninterference property is atomicity. A method is atomic if its execution is not affected by and does not interfere with concurrently-executing threads. Atomic methods can be understood according to their sequential semantics, which significantly simplifies both formal and informal correctness arguments.This paper presents a dynamic analysis for detecting atomicity violations. This analysis combines ideas from both Lipton’s theory of reduction and earlier dynamic race detectors. Experience with a prototype checker for multithreaded Java code demonstrates that this approach is effective for detecting errors due to unintended interactions between threads. In particular, our atomicity checker detects errors that would be missed by standard race detectors. Our experimental results also indicate that the majority of methods in our benchmarks are atomic, indicating that atomicity is a standard methodology in multithreaded programming.     

OFMC: A symbolic model checker for security protocols

We present the on-the-fly model checker OFMC, a tool that combines two ideas for analyzing security protocols based on lazy, demand-driven search. The first is the use of lazy data types as a simple way of building efficient on-the-fly model checkers for protocols with very large, or even infinite, state spaces. The second is the integration of symbolic techniques and optimizations for modeling a lazy Dolev–Yao intruder whose actions are generated in a demand-driven way. We present both techniques, along with optimizations and proofs of correctness and completeness.Our tool is state of the art in terms of both coverage and performance. For example, it finds all known attacks and discovers a new one in a test suite of 38 protocols from the Clark/Jacob library in a few seconds of CPU time for the entire suite. We also give examples demonstrating how our tool scales to, and finds errors in, large industrial-strength protocols.     

A new grammar checker

CorrecText, from Houghton-Mifflin, is a significant advance in grammar checkers, because it uses a full parse of sentences in its analysis. Though limited by the fact that many English sentences are syntactically ambiguous, the program can find many errors in grammar, style, and usage. Still, questions remain about where and how it can be useful. It is not terribly useful on final versions of good prose; the makers assert that it is more useful on unedited prose, where there are many inadvertent errors. An empirical study of much unedited prose would not only verify this assertion, but would help improve the program.     

A new grammar checker

CorrecText, from Houghton-Mifflin, is a significant advance in grammar checkers, because it uses a full parse of sentences in its analysis. Though limited by the fact that many English sentences are syntactically ambiguous, the program can find many errors in grammar, style, and usage. Still, questions remain about where and how it can be useful. It is not terribly useful on final versions of good prose; the makers assert that it is more useful on unedited prose, where there are many inadvertent errors. An empirical study of much unedited prose would not only verify this assertion, but would help improve the program. David N. Dobrin has run a consulting firm, Lexicom, since 1985, and specializes in software, software manuals and warning labels. He was formerly Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written numerous articles on computers and writing, and his book, Writing and Technique, has been published by the National Council of Teachers of English.     

A model checker for linear time temporal logic

This report describes the design and implementation of a model checker for linear time temporal logic. The model checker uses a depth-first search algorithm that attempts to find a minimal satisfying model and uses as little space as possible during the checking procedure. The depth-first nature of the algorithm enables the model checker to be used where space is at a premium.This work was supported both by Alvey under grant PRJ/SE/054 (SERC grant GR/D/57942) and by ESPRIT under Basic Research Action 3096 (SPEC).     

Arabic GramCheck: a grammar checker for Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language that is rich in its morphology and syntax. The very numerous and complex grammar rules of the language may be confusing for the average user of a word processor. In this paper, we report our attempt at developing a grammar checker program for Modern Standard Arabic, called Arabic GramCheck. Arabic GramCheck can help the average user by checking his/her writing for certain common grammatical errors; it describes the problem for him/her and offers suggestions for improvement. The use of the Arabic grammatical checker can increase productivity and improve the quality of the text for anyone who writes Arabic. Arabic GramCheck has been successfully implemented using SICStus Prolog on an IBM PC. The current implementation covers a well‐formed subset of Arabic and focuses on people trying to write in a formal style. Successful tests have been performed using a set of Arabic sentences. It is concluded that the approach is promising by observing the results as compared to the output of a commercially available Arabic grammar checker. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiencing OptiqueVQS: a multi-paradigm and ontology-based visual query system for end users

Data access in an enterprise setting is a determining factor for value creation processes, such as sense-making, decision-making, and intelligence analysis. Particularly, in an enterprise setting, intuitive data access tools that directly engage domain experts with data could substantially increase competitiveness and profitability. In this respect, the use of ontologies as a natural communication medium between end users and computers has emerged as a prominent approach. To this end, this article introduces a novel ontology-based visual query system, named OptiqueVQS, for end users. OptiqueVQS is built on a powerful and scalable data access platform and has a user-centric design supported by a widget-based flexible and extensible architecture allowing multiple coordinated representation and interaction paradigms to be employed. The results of a usability experiment performed with non-expert users suggest that OptiqueVQS provides a decent level of expressivity and high usability and hence is quite promising.     

Capital equipment justification: A spreadsheet application template

In many organizations the industrial engineering group has the responsibility of preparing the request for capital funds for new product introduction, new equipment purchase or expansion of existing plant facilities. Much of the time required to develop the capital equipment request is devoted to gathering background data on product costs, market share, machinery/equipment costs, and expenses associated with launching the project. Once the background data has been gathered, the industrial engineer is then faced with the difficult task of sorting, arranging and performing multitudes of calculations on the data in order that the end product will resemble a snapshot of the financial impact that the acceptance of the project will have on the firm.

This process can take hours or days, depending on the level of detail required. Once the final results have been obtained, a management review of the analysis might indicate that mistakes in the raw data have been made, product sales estimates were too high or cost estimates for products were too low. This causes the industrial engineer to essentially recompile the data set in order to obtain accurate results.

Until the advent of microcomputers, preparation of a detailed capital equipment justification request for introducing new products could take much of the industrial engineers time. However, with the evolution of microcomputer spreadsheet programs, the industrial engineer has found a powerful tool which can manage the vast volume of data often present in capital investment analysis, by eliminating the drudgery of performing hundreds of hand calculations.     

A multiattribute spreadsheet model for manufacturing technology justification

This paper presents a multiattribute spreadsheet models for the justification of manufacturing technology. The model includes interactive macro modules for AHP, Utility Model, and System Value Model.     

Measuring the learnability of spreadsheets in inexperienced users and those with previous spreadsheet experience

The issues of 'usability' and 'learnability' are assuming an increasingly important role for both the designers of software and their prospective customers. Objective measures of the interaction between system and user are important for the development of software that is both easy to learn and pleasurable to use. In this study we apply a set of five measures to evaluate users' interactions with spreadsheet software, and to compare two spreadsheet packages. We tested 16 people with no previous experience of spreadsheets and 16 with experience of spreadsheets generally though not of the spreadsheet we gave them. Half were allocated to learn Excel and half to learn Wingz, running on Apple Macintosh computers. A standard task was constructed to assess understanding of the basic concepts involved in the use of • spreadsheets. Users' previous experience of spreadsheet use was the most salient factor in the scores achieved on the task. The brand of spreadsheet had no significant effect on task performance. Implications for designers of software and users of spreadsheet packages are discussed.     

A spreadsheet model for integrating stratigraphic and lithofacies maps

Past methods of integrating different types of stratigraphic and lithofacies maps relied on the superimposition of isolines, which were difficult to interpret. By normalizing the data of various basemaps so that each has the same range of values, compound dimensionless values are obtained which assist in the recognition and interpretation of trends. Data processing is performed easily on a spreadsheet, which has the advantage that the effect of weighting the different maps can be observed immediately.