Guide to expert system building tools for microcomputers

164 Pages·1991·7.9 MB·English

by  Dabrowski, Christopher E.

NIST Special Publication 500-188
Computer
Systems Guide Expert System
to
Technology
Building Tools for
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National Instituteof
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Christopher E. Dabrowski
Nisr EHzabeth N. Fong
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NIST Special Publication 500-188
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Guide Expert System
to
Building Tools for
Microcomputers
Christopher E. Dabrowski
EHzabeth N. Fong
Computer Systems Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
July 1991
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Robert A. Mosbacher, Secretary
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS
AND TECHNOLOGY
John W. Lyons, Director
Reports on Computer Systems Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a unique responsibility for computer
systenns technology within the Federal government. NIST's Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) devel-
ops standards and guidelines, provides technical assistance, and conducts research for computers and
related telecommunications systems to achieve more effective utilization of Federal information technol-
ogy resources. CSL's responsibilities include development of technical, management, physical, and ad-
ministrative standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of sensitive unclassified
information processed in Federal computers. CSL assists agencies in developing security plans and in
improving computer security awareness training. This Special Publication 500 series reports CSL re-
search and guidelines to Federal agencies as well as to organizations in industry, government, and
academia.
National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 500-188
Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Spec. Publ. 500-188, 147 pages (July 1991)
CODEN: NSPUE2
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1991
PREFACE
The Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) (formerly the Institute
for Computer Sciences and Technology (ICST)) within the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a mission under
Public Law 89-306 (Brooks Act) to promote the "economic and
efficient purchase, lease, maintenance, operation, and utilization
of automatic data processing equipment by Federal departments and
agencies." When a potentially valuable technology first appears,
CSL may be involved in research and evaluation. Later on,
standardization of the results of this research, in cooperation
with voluntary industry standards bodies, may best serve Federal
interests. Finally, CSL helps Federal agencies make practical use
of existing standards and technology through consulting services
and the development of supporting guidelines and software.
This report provides system managers, planners, and potential
expert system developers with a readable description of expert
system building tools for the microcomputer environment. Certain
commercial software products and companies are identified in this
report. Such identification does not imply recommendation or
endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
nor does it imply that the products identified are necessarily the
best available for the purpose.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The technical work for this report was done through extensive
review of published literature and hands-on analysis of commercial
expert system building tools. We would like to thank the vendors
for their cooperation and for their donation of these tools to the
CSL Knowledge-Based Systems Laboratory.
We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of David
Jefferson, Steven Ray, Daniel Benigni, Joseph Collica, and Bruce
Rosen, of NIST who reviewed earlier versions of this paper and
provided valuable advice. Candy Leatherman and Jennifer Lindeman
proofread the document and helped with preparing figures and
tables. Special thanks is also due to Steven Oxman, whose advice
in preparing the final version of this report was particularly
valuable. We also wish to express appreciation to Kenneth Reddy
who provided programming assistance during the analysis and
evaluation of tools.
v

ABSTRACT
Microcomputer-based expert system building tools
(microcomputer-based ESBTs) sometimes known as expert system
,
shells, are software packages for development of expert systems
that run on microcomputers. This report provides system managers,
planners, and potential expert system developers with a readable
description of ESBTs for microcomputers including a detailed
description of specific tool features and the capabilities they
support. The technical content of this report is based on analysis
of commercially available ESBTs. However, individual commercial
products are not described, compared, or ranked.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; expert system; expert system
building tool; expert system shell; inference; knowledge base;
knowledge-based system; knowledge engineering; knowledge
representation; microcomputer; object-oriented programming;
production rule.
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