A framework for choosing a database query language
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
Communications of the ACM
Human factors comparison of a procedural and a nonprocedural query language
ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS)
Improving the human factors aspect of database interactions
ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS)
Natural command names and initial learning: a study of text-editing terms
Communications of the ACM
Optimization criteria for checkpoint placement
Communications of the ACM
User performance considerations in DBMS selection
SIGMOD '77 Proceedings of the 1977 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data
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The purpose of this study was to determine whether providing menus and postactive feedback of command-level syntax can facilitate the acquisition of formal language skills by novice learners. Two groups of students, one of which received training in a menu version of dBASE III Plus and the other of which received instruction in a command version, were asked to complete data base file maintenance and query tasks. Measures comparing the performance of the two groups on a post-test were completion of tasks, number of syntactical errors, and number of semantic errors.According to the results, students learning the command version of dBASE III Plus were able to accomplish more tasks successfully than students using the menu version with postactive feedback of command syntax. In addition, the group using the menu driven made more syntactic errors than the group using the command version. The difference between the number of semantic errors made by members of the two groups was not significant. The researchers made several recommendations for instruction and for further research.