We present a geometric problem that arises in browsing and
solve it in constant time per query without using exhaustive tables.
This result has practical application in "query previewers" which have
been developed and user-tested at the Human--Computer Interface Lab at
U. Maryland. Unfortunately, we prove that several closely related
problems require exhaustive tables, no matter how much time we allow
per query.
Joint work with Ben Shneiderman, Egemen Tanin, and Catherine Plaisant