Yes, it is time for another installment of Lubbock OnLine's obligatory Copland feature. The information presented here comes almost solely from Apple sources, so it should be accurate. The main source document for these articles is the Copland WWDC materials released by Apple. The topic of a huge system overhaul is rather daunting, and there is a ton of information to sift through, so it will be presented in installments. This month's installment concerns the Apple's new help system. Last issue's installment was on the changes to the user interface.
  But first, for those that missed it,
here is a brief overview of System 8.
First of all, the developmental name of
System 8 is Copland, after the American
composer Aaron Copland pictured to the
left. Apple is reworking the core of the
Mac OS in Copland to provide users with
improved performance. Some of these
changes, according to Apple, include
preemptive task scheduling, memory
protection for critical system code and
data, improved virtual memory, a shared, dynamically loaded, file-mapped version of the Mac OS, a concurrent and more flexible File Manager, and a higher per-
formance, concurrent I/O architecture. Copland includes as standard features OpenDoc, QuickDraw, QuickDraw GX, QuickDraw 3D, Open Transport, and PowerTalk. Copland will also greatly improve the performance of PowerPC-based computers because the OS and Toolbox will be completely rewritten using PPC native code.
While all of these things are important, this installment deals with the transformation of AppleGuide into a system for helping users achieve their goals instead of teaching them merely how to manipulate applications and system software. Since most computers don't come right out and tell you what they're capable of, you usually have to spend time exploring the user environment. Since most user don't have the time for a full exploration, they overlook what would actually be time-saving features of the operating system. Having put those feature in for a reason, Apple wants to make them as easy to find and understand as possible. That's where the Apple help system comes into play.
Apple Guide in System 7.5, the Copland Assistance Manager, and related Copland features improve the Mac's user interface, making it a cooperative partner that actively helps get work done, instead of a purely passive tool. Rather than focusing on how to manipulate applications, users should be able to focus on how to accomplish their goals.
Copland will provide integrated support for active assistance, which will extend the capabilities of Apple Guide to assist the user actively. For example, active assistance makes it possible for Apple Guide to ask complicated questions to the user and make decisions based on the answers.
The Copland Assistance Manager, the controlling force behind the new help system, supports two additional capabilities that underlie active assistance for accomplishing everyday goals. The first, called automation, is the ability to create a sequence of actions, or task, in a form that can be used to control operations automatically. This would be an extension of the macro programs of old. The second, called delegation, is the ability to trigger tasks at a specified time or when a specified event occurs. Delegation allows the computer to be productive even when the user is not present.
Some of the Copland features that support automation and delegation include Quick Assist, AppleGuide 3.0, Task Lister, and some changes to the Finder. Quick Assist provides user-defined key combinations that, as long as the specified keys are pressed, enable balloons or context-sensitive access to AppleGuide files. It seems to be intended as a built-in macro device for AppleGuide alone. AppleGuide 3.0 includes enhanced access and presentation windows, improved support for performing actions on the user’s behalf, and support for interview sequences that collect information about the user’s goals. Task Lister is an application for viewing and managing automated tasks. Finally, the Finder objects related to assistance include a new Assistance folder and a new kind of file for storing information related to automated tasks.
The new Apple Guide 3.0 access window will give a list of questions, problems, and tasks determined by the author of the guide file . Users can view potential topics with the aid of the Topics, Index, and Look For buttons and select the topic that best fits their needs, just as they could in earlier versions of Apple Guide. Apple Guide 3.0 also provides two buttons at the bottom of the Apple Guide access window that will allow users to select from the types of assistance available for the selected task. The Guide Me button will initiate step-by-step instructions with coachmarking and context checking provided for each step. This is the style of instruction provided by Apple Guide in System 7.5. It is appropriate when users want to learn how to accomplish a task.
The other button, Do It For Me, leads the user through a path that provides as much automation as possible, streamlining the steps required to complete the task. As the user moves between panels in an Apple Guide presentation window, Apple Guide automates as many steps as possible and takes the user directly to key interface elements when user input is required.
 
Above is the Assistants menu, which is available from the new Apple Guide 3.0. The Assistants menu item provides access to specific kinds of high-level active assistance that also vary according to the context. When a user chooses Assistants from the Assistance menu, a window like that shown above displays the assistants available for the current context. The user can view brief descriptions of each assistant and click the Assist Me button to initiate the one that’s currently selected. The assistant then creates a Task, or set of ordered operations, and a list of defining characteristics of the task. These include user notification, time schedules, and more. We'll talk about tasks more in a minute.
The last window presented by an assistant includes an Action Items button and a Go Ahead button. Since some assistants don’t create tasks, clicking Go Ahead simply initiates the actions the assistant was already designed to perform. In this case the Action Items button is dimmed. For assistants that are programmable, clicking Go Ahead creates and schedules one or more tasks and clicking Action Items presents a list of those tasks.
Assistants provide the foundation for a new secondary human interface which will allow users to easily instruct the computer perform specific actions, without having to know the intricacies involved. Instead, assistants make decisions on the user’s behalf and use the application’s primary human interface—its menus, windows, tools, and so on—to execute those decisions. In some respects this provides more flexibility than the primary interface. Users still have the option of dealing directly with the primary interface, by using the Task Lister application below.
Copland will provide a variety of ready-made Apple assistants to help users with common, high-level goals. Those under consideration include assistants for installing software, sorting mail, performing housekeeping chores such as backups and virus checks, and establishing network connections. Naturally, third-party assistants are expected.
 
Of course, it would be annoying to always have to go through assistants in order to create new tasks. The Task Lister application solves that problem. A demo shot is shown above. It will allow users to view, duplicate, change, enable, disable, and remove the tasks that are currently available to the system. Task Lister also lets users modify the details of conditions, actions, and notifications for individual tasks. However, users are more likely to begin setting up tasks with the aid of assistants, which can make many detailed decisions about individual tasks on behalf of the user.
Next issue, we will be discussing changes to the operating system kernel. It's really not quite as bad as it sounds. The main items under discussion will be preemptive multitasking and protected memory.
I would once again like to thank Austin Shoemaker for providing some of the Copland graphics from his excellent Copland Info home page at <http://www.netline.net/~austin/cops/cops.html>.
