Design and evaluation of an adaptive icon toolbar
As information systems become increasingly important in many different domains, the potential to adapt them to individual users and their needs also becomes more important. Adaptive user interfaces offer many possible ways to adjust displays and improve procedures for a user's individual patterns of work. This paper describes an attempt to design an adaptive user interface in a computer environment familiar to many users. According to one classification of adaptive user interfaces, the adaptive bar described in this paper would be classified as a user-controlled self-adaptation system.At the user's convenience, the adaptive bar offers suggestions for adding or removing command icons, based on the frequency and probability of specific commands. It also implements these changes once the user has agreed to them. Beyond the adaptive bar, the general behavior of the whole user interface does not change, thereby allowing the user to maintain a clear general model of the system. This paper describes the decision-making algorithm implemented in the bar. It also describes the bar's self-adaptive behavior of displaying the frequency of each icon's use through the icon's size. Finally, we present some encouraging preliminary results of evaluations by users.

title: Issues in practical application of an adaptive interface
abstract: The authors have been developing a prototype sys[em for installation in an operationat business environment. During the development, a number of issues have been encountered. These include: ● constraints arising from placing prototypes in operational environments . lack of guidelines for selecting types of adaptation ● difficulty determining adaptation criteria ● difficulty obtaining necessary data from users ● lack of guidelines for making information display decisions ● problems in testing ‘real world’ interfaces These issues are not readily solved with more sophisticated adaptation algorithms; rather. they point out the need for CO1Iect ing more information from attempts to bring intelligent interfaces to complex business environments.

title: Building Trusted Components
abstract: The most attractive benefits of component-based development can only be realized if the components are of a level of quality much higher than run-of-the-mill application software. This presentation will review a set of techniques for producing and qualifying such components. It will conclude with a discussion proof issues and techniques for proving programs with extensive use of pointers, as O-O components often do. This is a fairly technical presentation that assumes good knowledge of O-O and component techniques and some prior exposure to formal techniques.

title: A Basis for the Constructive Approach to Programming
abstract: Although programming is a difficult and creative activity, useful strategies and heuristics exist for solving programming problems. We analyse some of the most fundamental and productive among them; their knowledge and conscious application should help the programmers in constructing programs, both by stimulating their thinking and by helping them to recognise classical situations. The precise framework for the. analysis is provided by the specification language Z. For editorial reasons the description in some sections of this paper has had to be curtailed.

title: Library Design