2. A method of executing an operation on a computer system in response to high level information entered in the computer system, the method comprising the following steps: recognizing as objects pieces of information entered on a display screen of the computer system, the objects each having a recognized object type, the object types recognized by the computer system including at least persons, shapes, and times; creating a set of objects from the information entered in the computer system, the set describing possible computer operations; comparing the object type of at least one of the objects in the set of objects so created with a plurality of task templates stored in the computer system, the task templates defining operations that can be performed with the computer system, the templates also having a plurality of associated preconditions; identifying one or more of said task templates having a precondition corresponding to an object type of at least one of the objects in said set; selecting a single task template from among the one or more task templates identified in the previous step by finding the task template having the best agreement with regard to the object types of all text or graphics objects in the set; and executing the task associated with the single task template if the preconditions associated with that template have been determined.
9. The method of claim 2 wherein the computer system is a pen-based computer system and the information entered on the display screen is input by the interaction of a pen with a display screen of the computer system.