The concept of "natural language edit controls" (NLECs) is introduced. NLECs are special-purpose devices within graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for inputting part of a user's query in natural language which, when combined with other GUI controls for inputting the remainder of the query, can be used to build the most effective interface for a particular application. NLECs require less grammatical and lexical information than the equivalent component of a traditional natural language interface; hence their customization and maintenance costs tend to be lower.

An abstraction mechanism for modeling the generation of entities from other entities is presented. It is shown to be useful for representing a wide range of generative processes, including those which are reversible, spontaneous, and involve multiple inputs and outputs. The mechanism is related to an earlier defined abstraction mechanism which represents the transitional behavior of existing entities. The model of generation is described in terms of an operational formalism with well-understood properties.>

It is argued that the dynamics of an application domain is best modeled as patterns of change in the entities that make up the domain. An abstraction mechanism for semantic data models is described which represents the transition of domain entities among entity classes. The model of transitions is related to a general computational formalism with well-understood properties. It is shown that the transition abstraction mechanism facilitates the accurate conceptual modeling of the static nature of the domain, assists in the design of database transactions, enables certain kinds of inference, and leads to the ability of a database to actively respond at a high level to low level updates of the data it contains.>