ADM — a dialog manager

ADM is a system for developing user interfaces. We call it a dialog manager; it is similar to what others call a “User Interface Management System” 8. Although ADM is still being developed, it has been used to construct several applications. A dialog manager divides an application into an “interaction handler,” which interacts with the user, and an “underlying application,” which processes user commands and data. With ADM the application designer writes the underlying application in a conventional programming language and defines the interface between interaction handler and underlying application in terms of “tasks,” things the user can do, and “states,” sets of tasks that are active at one time. The user interface designer defines the interaction handler in terms of “presentation techniques,” which present tasks to the user, and “structuring techniques,” which describe screen layout. Design decisions made for ADM include using a precompiled, declarative dialog description, a flexible division between interaction handler and underlying application, allowing either interaction handler or underlying application to maintain control, and the inclusion of help and error support.