Moving decision points outward from applications and utilities and into command level

Abstract

The user command interface of an operating system has come to be regarded as the outermost level in a layered hierarchy. In keeping with this view one should attempt to move decision points outward from the lower operating layers, so that all required actions can be defined at command level. That will allow the description of those actions in a form that matches the form of other commands normally entered from the keyboard, so that only a minimal amount of programming skill will be required. An example of this strategy is developed for implementation under generic MSDOS (Microsoft) and RT11 (Digital Equipment Corporation).