Re: call for comments on publishing task models spec

Hello,

I think I agree with Gerrit on all the top-level comments, and this
has made me realise what was the nature of the problem with the unary
operator I mentioned in the telcon last week.

As it is, the metamodel does not clearly separate the nature of the
tasks from their structuring. Hence, it adheres to the CTT syntax, but
would render it difficult to adapt it to different syntaxes, say HTA,
where this separation is explicit.

I attach a fragment of the task model which I think would make this
clearer, without changing the semantics (modulo Gerrit's comments and
mine from yesterday). Also, I propose to see Interaction and System
(modulo the discussion whether we need User and Abstraction tasks) as
categories of tasks, rather than subtypes.

I remember that there was a discussion in Pisa (regarding whether to
consider actors performing the tasks) to avoid constraints in the
metamodel, with a view to translation to XML. However I think this
should not limit ourselves in this respect, as we can express them as
validity constraints on XML documents.

Sorry for coming up at the last moment, but  I have realised the
nature of my doubts only now

Hope it helps

best

paolo

2012/7/19 Gerrit Meixner <Gerrit.Meixner@dfki.de>:
> Hi Dave,
>
> here are my suggestions which can be discussed (together with all other
> suggestions) during the telephone conference today.
>
> Abstract:
> - in my opinion there's a need to give our task model specification which
> ("...can be used as the basis for interchange of Task Models between
> different user interface development tools") a new name to show that we're
> developing an interchange language.
> --> e.g., Task Model Interchange Format (TMIF)
>
> Section 1:
> - "The purpose of this document is to define a standard for interchange of
> task models, and provides an updated definition of the widely adopted
> ConcurTaskTrees (CTT) notation."
> --> I would like to write that the standard is based on CTT and integrates
> the most important concepts also from other task modeling languages we have
> considered (e.g., during our 1st F2F meeting)
> - Figure 1: I would like to exchange the figure with a more neutral figure,
> i.e. e.g., removing the icons to visualize the different task types.
>
> Section 3:
> - "This section defines a normative meta-model for the CTT notation."
> --> In my opinion this is wrong. We don't define a normative meta-model for
> the CTT notation, the aim is to define a meta-model for the new language
> (which is based on CTT).
>
> Section 3.1
> - As mentioned and discussed earlier I would like to remove the
> Suspend-Resume operator.
>
> Section 3.2
> - As mentioned and discussed earlier there is no need to have a user task in
> the specification. A user task does not change or influences the UI.
>
> Section 3.3
> - I would like to specify the task type "Selection" in more detail, e.g.,
> the user interacts with the system to select one or more items from a range
> of given ones (it is important that there are already given items available)
> - The task type "Edit" it too vague. Here you have 2 possibilities: 1) the
> user interacts with the system to make relative changes to an existing value
> or item and 2) the user interacts with the system to enter an absolute
> value, overwriting previous values.
>   Therefore I would like to split up the task type "Edit" into 1) "change"
> and 2) "enter"
> - zooming and filtering are just special cases of the trigger task type.
> Both are just functions which will be executed by the system to change the
> UI. The overlaying task type is the "control" task type.
> - The task type "DetailsRequest" should be renamed to a more general type
> e.g., "inform".
>
> Section 3.5
> - We have pre- and post-conditions. What about invariants? E.g., invariants
> are important for the microwave. It will only work if the door of it is
> closed. The same would fit e.g., for industrial robots which are normally in
> a cage to protect humans. If the cage is manually opened the current working
> task must be stopped because the invariant (cage closed is false).
>
> Best regards
> Gerrit
>
> ========================
> Dr.-Ing. Gerrit Meixner
> Head of the Human-Machine-Interaction group
>
> German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
> Innovative Factory Systems (IFS)
> Trippstadter Strasse 122
> 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
>
> Tel./Fax/E-Mail/Web
> +49 (0) 631 / 205 75 3415
> +49 (0) 631 / 205 37 05
> Gerrit.Meixner@dfki.de
> http://www.dfki.de
> ========================
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> Amtsgericht Kaiserslautern, HRB 2313
> ========================
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Dave Raggett [mailto:dsr@w3.org]
> Gesendet: Montag, 16. Juli 2012 20:08
> An: public-mbui@w3.org
> Betreff: call for comments on publishing task models spec
>
> This is a call for comments on publishing the following document as a First
> Public Working Draft:
>
>   http://www.w3.org/2011/mbui/drafts/task-models/
>
> My aim is to ask for a formal resolution in this week's MBUI telecon to
> publish the document.
>
> p.s. this was derived from the Google Doc, although it took quite a bit of
> work!
> --
> Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett
>
>
>
>



-- 
Paolo Bottoni

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Email: bottoni@di.uniroma1.it

Website: http://w3.uniroma1.it/dipinfo/scheda_docente.asp?cognome=Bottoni&nome=Paolo

Phone: +39 06 49918426

Fax: + 39 06 8541842



Important conferences:

http://www.etaps.org/

http://www.diagrams-conference.org/2012/

http://vlhcc2012.di.unisa.it/

http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/icgt2012/

http://www.dsmforum.org/events/GMLD12/