Abstract:

In this paper some experiences with General Instruction Language (GIL) implementation in classes are presented. Also, there is a special case of a student with Asperger syndrome, a disorder from autism spectrum, who has also been using GIL.

For a long time Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been a standard user interface on personal computers of any kind. For users, such interface is simplified and accelerated, but manuals accompanying different applications are rather complex. They look like a comic book with a lot of pictures and with a little bit of text, here and there. Due to the images, even for a simple sequence of actions, the manual can take up several MBytes.

It is difficult to follow the instructions that occupy most of the small screen and at the same time to apply them in the application which remains in the rest of the screen or is in the background. Overlapping screens and user´s attention to instruction - application - instruction - application ... are troublesome and frustrating, especially for a user, novice, as a typical student is.

Another problem arises during the teacher’s initial presentation of a task to be done during real – time, teaching / learning process in a computer laboratory. Some students would like to make notes on the sequence of activities: clicking, pulling or typing that the teacher performs in a fast pace. If the teacher slows down the presentation for the sake of making notes, the presentation will lose its dynamic because there is not a standard procedure for writing notes. That depends on a student and, being so, it is difficult to synchronize activities in the class.

GIL is developed as a tool for recording the sequence of instructions that represents the user manual for an application with a graphic user interface. The physical space for its application is a screen (desk top) of a personal computer, tablet PC or a smart phone. GIL instructions do not depend on the platform (hardware or operating system) but may vary if the GUI objects have different names. Instructions written in GIL are short enough so that their column width is 20% to 30% of the active width of the screen. Due to simplicity, it is easy to learn GIL and use it in making personal notes during the teacher’s presentation.

Keywords:

GIL, GUI, manual, notes.