Icons as a visual editing tool

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1984.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-67).This thesis describes a system for scripting and editing graphic procedures with graphic representations or "icons." The icons are small bitmap images that carry with them information about spatial placement, list placement, and pointers to procedures. Icons have been created and connected to a series of image transformation procedures. Two interactive graphic software packages have been written, one for producing icons and one for scripting with icons. Icons can be created in two ways: (1) making bitmaps from frame buffer images and (2) drawing by grid filling. Scripts can be created in two ways: (1) by storyboa~ding icons or (2) by playing out a sequence of graphics and recording the list of events. Scripts can be edited, saved, re-edited, and played upon request. The software takes advantage of the ease with which computers can produce simplified, symmetrical, 1-bit images and, by its structure, sets examples of iconic interaction. All interaction is done with puck, tablet, menus, and visual cues. Some pre-writing or picture-writing forms are described. A historical overview of computer icons is presented, using several key systems as examples.by Dorothy J. Shamonsky.M.S.V.S

Magnifying the ordinary: genre mixture and humour in the TV series 'Chuck'

Chuck is an American television series about a "normal" guy who works at the Buy More. His life changes dramatically when he becomes the most important person for the USA intelligence. This gives rise to a conflict between civilian and spy life. The analysis involves a multimodal account (cf. Lorenzo-Dus 2009) of the aesthetics (Cardwell 2005) of the second season that illustrates how the series establishes a parallelism between Chuck's life as a spy and that of his colleagues at the Buy More. By combining elements from different genres (Altman 1988) it portrays a rather "different from what may be the expected-representation" (Kress and van Leeuwen 2001:10) of the routine at the workplace (Armstrong 2005), thus depicting a rare humorous magnification of the ordinary life of a group of ordinary citizens with an ordinary job (cf. Beeden and Bruin 2011

IICADS--integrated interactive computer aided design system

This research has three goals. The first goal is to develop a software interface (supervisor) to support and control a variety of interactive subsystem modules; thus eliminating manual scheduling of interactive jobs. The second goal is to develop a common methodology for interactive subsystem design. The third goal is to develop a linear systems analysis package using the facilities developed under the first two goals. A software interface (supervisor) to support and control a variety of interactive subsystem modules is described. The supervisor operates under the constraints of a large multiprogramming variable task operating system as opposed to a time sharing system. The supervisor not only eliminates the manual scheduling of interactive jobs, but also provides interactive users with a powerful dynamic linking mechanism. The supervisor permits the access of disk stored interactive modules in a random fashion. A methodology for developing interactive subsystems is presented. The problems of communicating between different high level languages are investigated and solutions are presented. In particular, a problem oriented language, interactive translator, is implemented using PL/1. The graphics service routines for this translator are coded in FORTRAN and ASSEMBLER languages. The techniques for adding graphics routines to existing programs, especially simulation languages, are formalized. A computer aided design program to assist in the initial phases of linear systems design is described. This program, developed for use at an on-line graphics terminal, allows the designer to describe a linear system in standard control engineering terms, and experiment with design alternatives during initial creative design phases --Abstract, pages ii-iii

Code choice and code-switching in Swiss-German internet relay chat rooms

In the German-speaking regions of Switzerland, dialect is spoken by all social groups in most communicative situations, Standard German being used only when prescribed. Swiss dialects rarely appeared in written form before the 1980s, apart from the genre of dialect literature. Due to the growing acceptance of informal writing styles in many European languages, dialect is increasingly employed for written personal communication, in particular in computer-mediated communication (CMC). In Swiss Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms, varieties of German are used side by side as all chatters have a command of both standard and dialectal varieties. Depending on the channel, the proportion of dialectal contributions can be as high as 90 percent. The choice of a particular variety depends on both individual preference and on the predominant variety used within a specific thread. In this paper I take a quantitative approach to language variation in IRC and demonstrate how such an approach can help embed qualitative research on code-switching in CMC

Computer aids for the design of large scale integrated circuits.

The work described in this thesis is concerned with the development of CADIC (Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits), a suite of computer programs which allows the user to design integrated circuit layouts at the geometric level. Initially, a review of existing computer aids to integrated circuit design is carried out. Advantages and disadvantages of each computer aid is discused, and the approach taken by CADIC justified in the light of the review. The hardware associated with a design aid can greatly influence its performance and useability. For this reason, a critical review of available graphic terminals is also undertaken. The requirements, logistics, and operation of CADIC is then discussed in detail. CADIC provides a consise range of features to aid in the design and testing of integrated circuit layouts. The most important features are however CADIC's high efficiency in processing layout data, and the implementation of complete on-line design rule checking. Utilization of these features allows CADIC to substantially reduce the lengthy design turnaround time normally associated with manual design aids. Finally, the performance of CADIC is presented. Analysis of the results show that CADIC is very efficient at data processing, especially when small sections of the layout are considered. CADIC can also perform complete on-line design rule checking well within the time it takes the designer to start adding the next shape