Natural Language User Interfaces

Natural Language User Interfaces (LUI) are a type of computer human interface where linguistic phenomenon such as verbs, phrases, and clauses act as UI controls for creating, selecting, and modifying data in software applications.

Command-line interface

A command-line interface allows the user to interact with the computer by typing in commandscommand: a directive given to a computer program. The computer displays a prompt, the user keys in the command and presses enter or return.

Menu

A list of commands or options from which you can choose. Most applications now have a menu-driven component. You can choose an item from the menu by highlighting it and then pressing the Enter or Return key, or by simply pointing to the item with a mouse and clicking one of the mouse buttons.

The antithesis of a menu-driven program is a command-driven system, in which you must explicitly enter the command you want rather than choose from a list of possible commands. Menu-driven systems are simpler and easier to learn but are generally not as flexible as command-driven systems, which lend themselves more naturally to interaction with programs.

There are several different types of menus:
# pop-up menu: A menu that appears temporarily when you click the mouse button on a selection. Once you make a selection from a pop-up menu, the menu usually disappears.
# cascading menu: A submenu that opens when you select a choice from another menu.
# pull-down menu : A special type of pop-up menu that appears directly beneath the command you selected.
# moving-bar menu : A menu in which options are highlighted by a bar that you can move from one item to another. Most menus are moving-bar menus.
# menu bar : A menu arranged horizontally. Each menu option is generally associated with another pull-down menu that appears when you make a selection.
# tear-off menu : A pop-up menu that you can move around the screen like a window.

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Forms

A formatted document containing blank fields that users can fill in with data. With paper forms, it is usually necessary for someone to transfer the data from the paper to a computer database, where the results can then be statistically analyzed. Some OCR systems can do this automatically, but they're generally limited to forms containing just check boxes. They can't handle handwritten text.

Electronic forms solve this problem by entirely skipping the paper stage. Instead, the form appears on the user's display screen and the user fills it in by selecting options with a pointing device or typing in text from the computer keyboard. The data is then sent directly to a forms processing application, which enters the information into a database.

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Graphical user interface

A graphical user interface (GUI) is a type of user interface item that allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing,such as computers; hard-held device such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment with images rather than text commands. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.

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Utility software

Utility software is a kind of system software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer. A single piece of utility software is usually called a utility or tool.

Utility software should be contrasted with application software, which allows users to do things like creating text documents, playing games, listening to music or surfing the web. Rather than providing these kinds of user-oriented or output-oriented functionality, utility software usually focuses on how the computer infrastructure (including the computer hardware, operating system, application software and data storage) operates. Due to this focus, utilities are often rather technical and targeted at people with an advanced level of computer knowledge.

Most utilities are highly specialized and designed to perform only a single task or a small range of tasks. However, there are also some utility suites that combine several features in one software. Most major operating systems come with several pre-installed utilities.

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Some Examples of utility software are:

Disk formatting-to divide up the surface of a disk into more easily manageable sectors.

File handling- to manage the files that are stored on a computer software system

File compression- utilities output a shorter stream or a smaller file when provided with a stream or file.

Virus checker- used to check any files on or entering the system for viruses.

Hardware drivers- used to control communication between computer and pheriperals.

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Network operating system

A networking operating system is an operating system that contains components and programs that allow a computer on a network to serve requests from other computers for data and provide access to other resources such as printer and file systems.

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Multi-tasking operating system

An operating system that is capable of allowing multiple software processes to run at the same time. Below are some examples of multitasking operating systems.
-UNIX
-WINDOWS 2000

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Multi-user operating system

A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computer's resources simultaneously. The operating system must make sure that the requirements of the various users are balanced, and that each of the programs they are using has sufficient and separate resources so that a problem with one user doesn't affect the entire community of users. Unix, VMS and mainframe operating systems, such as MVS, are examples of multi-user operating systems.

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Single-user operating system

A single user operating system is usually restricted to only allowing one user at a time log in and use the system. These types of systems are optimized for a personal desktop experience, not for multiple users of the system at the same time.

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Single-user, single task - As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computers is a good example of a modern single-user, single-task operating system.
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Single-user, multi-tasking - This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers today. Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS platforms are both examples of operating systems that will let a single user have several programs in operation at the same time. For example, it's entirely possible for a Windows user to be writing a note in a word processor while downloading a file from the Internet while printing the text of an e-mail message.

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Real-time operating system

Real-time operating systems are used to control machinery, scientific instruments and industrial systems. An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability, and no end-user utilities, since the system will be a "sealed box" when delivered for use. A very important part of an RTOS is managing the resources of the computer so that a particular operation executes in precisely the same amount of time, every time it occurs. In a complex machine, having a part move more quickly just because system resources are available may be just as catastrophic as having it not move at all because the system is busy.

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Real-time processing is widely use, for example in the medical diagnostic or exam technologies like MRI's, echocardiograms, etc, doppler weather monitoring and air traffic control systems.

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Batch operating system

Batch: Jobs with similar needs are batched together and run through the computer as a group, by an operator or automatic job sequencer. Performance is increased by attempting to keep CPU and I/O devices busy at all times through buffering, off-line operation, spooling, and multiprogramming.

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An example of batch processing is the way that credit card companies process billing. The customer does not receive a bill for each separate credit card purchase but one monthly bill for all of that month’s purchases. The bill is created through batch processing, where all of the data are collected and held until the bill is processed as a batch at the end of the billing cycle.

Other example is Payroll - when a company calculates the wages for its workforce and prints payslips.

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The purpose of an operating system

An operating system is the framework that allows you to communicate with computer hardware in an interactive way. Without this, you would not be able to tell the computer to do anything and it would have any instructions to follow. This is why it is important for a computer to have an operating system .In early days without OS so much problems where faced like accessing or getting output it takes two days. To make it much more efficient OS is used.

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