The Expert Assistance System for the NBS Network Access Machine

摘要

The Expert Assistance System (EAS) was developed at the National Bureau of Standards' as a prototype to assist network users. Network users are faced with the problem of learning different procedures in order to access similar services on different host systems. A great deal of research has been precipitated by the desire to simplify network usage and many tools have been developed to assist the network user. The EAS addresses the problem of building procedures for an intermediary machine. The EAS automatically generates procedures by recording an interaction between a user and network system and then translating this interaction into the commands required for execution on the intermediary machine. Development of the EAS was facilitated by the existence of an intermediary machine at the National Bureau of Standards--the NBS Network Access Machine (AM). This report briefly describes the motivation for the development of a network assistance technique, discusses the design and implementation of the EAS at NBS, and then concludes with a view of future enhancements to the current EAS. The context for the description of the EAS is the NBS NAM; however the concepts are applicable to the general field of network user assistance.