Lambda the Ultimate

inactiveTopic Tools for rules
started 5/17/2003; 10:26:59 AM - last post 5/22/2003; 12:40:29 AM
Ehud Lamm - Tools for rules  blueArrow
5/17/2003; 10:26:59 AM (reads: 1615, responses: 5)
Tools for rules
The dust was thick on my copy of the 1985 Clocksin and Mellish classic, Programming Prolog. But Ted Neward, author of the forthcoming book Effective Enterprise Java, brought it all rushing back: expert systems, declarative rules engines, predicate calculus, backward- vs. forward-chaining evaluation.

Jon Udell shares some thoughts about rule based programming in the internet age.

Jon offers some related links on his weblog, while Phil Windley reflects on XSLT and declerative programming on his.


Posted to Logic/Declerative by Ehud Lamm on 5/17/03; 10:29:18 AM

Patrick Logan - Re: Tools for rules  blueArrow
5/17/2003; 11:08:58 AM (reads: 811, responses: 0)
More software and books listed at my weblog.

Danny - Re: Tools for rules  blueArrow
5/18/2003; 2:08:28 AM (reads: 764, responses: 0)
The Wine Agent is a Semantic Web application that uses rules expressed in the OWL ontology language and the JTP reasoner to choose the wine to go with your meal :

http://onto.stanford.edu:8080/wino/index.jsp

Noel Welsh - Re: Tools for rules  blueArrow
5/19/2003; 1:37:12 PM (reads: 614, responses: 0)

Will rules-based programming just create a different kind of mess? I doubt anyone really knows, but I'm glad we're gearing up to do the experiment. Sooner or later, something like this has to work.

I was taught that expert systems have scalability problems over about 1000 rules. It's a shame that utilising this experience doesn't seem to be on the agenda for those rediscovering expert systems. I just did a search and this paper (if anyone can find a copy) may be an interesting read in regards to scalability of expert systems. It appears that Bayesian networks have taken over from boolean logic programming as the modern expert system of choice. Is anyone of current research into the software engineering aspects of expert systems?

jeff putnam - Re: Tools for rules  blueArrow
5/21/2003; 7:12:57 PM (reads: 545, responses: 1)
I was just thinking about a possible project - designed to help automate some problems involved in wilderness search and rescue - and ended up with several places that a rule based subsystem would have been a good thing.

First - there's a lot of paperwork involved and its not easy to keep straight. A rule based system could help decide which forms were required this time and help generate them - it could also prompt for information that is needed for one set of forms but not another.

Second - there's a lot of experience built up - both around the country and the world and locally that can help to guide a search effort. Much of this is easily adaptable to a rule based system : "Alzheimers patients tend to ....", "If a hunter is lost on Bald Peak or that area, they most frequently come down Potter's Creek"

Third - The first thing you get to do when you run a search is do a lost person interview - and the information needed can be extensive. A rule based system could help prompt the interviewer (usually a Search and Rescue person, but sometimes a law enforcement officer who happens to be nearby) to get all the relevant information and ensure that nothing gets missed.

And there were a couple other minor areas as well.

Most of these areas are relatively small, involving dozens to a hundred or so rules. But in some ways its just those areas that are the most fruitful - rule based systems tend to be robust in those situations and small numbers of rules phrased as rules rather than procedural code are much easier to read and keep track of.

Ehud Lamm - Re: Tools for rules  blueArrow
5/22/2003; 12:40:29 AM (reads: 566, responses: 0)
This raises the issue of embedded rule-based languages hosted inside general purpose programming languages. As you might expect, there are several Lisp based examples of this approach.