History of IFIP Working Group 2.7/13.4

The start of IFIP WG2.7

In summer 1974, IFIP’s TC2 organized a Working Conference on Command Languages in Frostavallen (Sweden).

As result of this working conference, IFIP started WG 2.7 Operating System Interfaces in fall 1975 with the scope of investigating the user interface with operating systems which include:

  1. The characteristics of data and control information passed across the boundaries between functional portions of the computing systems.
  2. The protocol utilized in transmitting and receiving the information described above.
  3. The functional characteristics of the services provided across the interface.
  4. The technical and functional characteristics of the control mechanism utilized across the interface.

The following people were the founding members of WG2.7:

  • D.W. Barron (Univ. of Southampton)
  • David Beech (IBM United Kingdom Lab.)
  • R.M. Cowan (Burroughs Corporation)
  • Ingemar Dahlstrand (Lunds Datacentral)
  • Phil Enslow (European Research Office)
  • Christian Gram (Danmarks Tekniske Højskole)
  • Friedrich Hertweck (Chair: Max-Planck-Institute Munich)
  • D. A. Jardine (Queen’s Univ. Kingston, Ontario))
  • John Mc. Keehan (IBM, Palo Alto)
  • P. Schicker (Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology)
  • E.H. Sibley (Univ. of Maryland)
  • Claus Unger (Univ. of Stuttgart)
  • Herman Weegenar (Centraal Beheer-CEA, Netherlands)

Historically the focus of the combined Working Group 2.7(13.4) has been on understanding the process behind developing user interfaces for software systems. In 1992 IFIP decided a new arrangement allowing working groups to be associated with more than one Technical Committee. In 1993 TC.13 received a formal request from WG2.7 for this direct link. WG 2.7(13.4) was established as the first WG under this new arrangement to be affiliated also to another TC. Amongst the WG2.7(13.4) activities there was the book Design Principles for Interactive Systems developed collectively by the WG and published in 1996.