Describes a strategy for the design of social science software, concentrating particularly on the nature of packages, languages, data structures, and characteristics of procedures. (Author)

This paper presents a cognitive account of both the advantages and disadvantages of direct manipulation interfaces, i.e., the use of icons to manipulate and interact directly with data rather than writing programs or calling on a set of statistical subroutines. Two underlying phenomena that give rise to the sensation of directness are identified.…

The future of information resources management requires new approaches to implementing systems which will include a type of data base management that frees users to solve data processing problems logically by telling the system what they want, together with powerful non-procedural languages that will permit communication in simple, concise…

The changes in the relationship between the computer and user from that of an isolated productivity tool to than of an active collaborator in the acquisition, use, and creation of information, as well as a facilitator of human interaction are discussed. The four paradigms of computing are compared. (KR)