From: dtalmage@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells
Subject: Summary: free/cheap expert system shells
Date: 5 Oct 92 09:15:36 -0400
Distribution: world
Organization: Georgetown University

In <mumble> I asked for pointers to free or cheap expert system 
shells.  I asked specifically about ops83.  I didn't specify the platform.

People suggested I look into CLIPS; a free one by Michael Pazzani 
and his students; VP Expert; CParaOPS5; YAPS; and EXSYS.  You'll find a
little blurb about each one below.

Many people were kind enough to send me suggestions by e-mail.  My 
thanks to:
Michael Pazzani <pazzani@pan.ICS.UCI.EDU>
sierhuis@nynexst.com (Maarten Sierhuis)
fpaterra@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Frank Paterra - CTA)
nash@cs.nps.navy.mil (David Nash)
eeidsmoe@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Eric Eidsmoe)
shirley@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Bill Shirley [CSC])
Wenjie Wang <u925870@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au>
mcclanah@dlgeo.cr.usgs.gov (Pat McClanahan)
Anurag Acharya <acha@DRAVIDO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU>
salbrech@valhalla.eecs.nwu.edu (Steve Albrecht)
steve.rainwater@ocitor.fidonet.org (Steve Rainwater)
brian@galileo.jsc.nasa.gov (Brian Donnell)
liz@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Liz Allen)
Hal Waters <hlw%babar@rti.rti.org>
Alicia Lee Salomon <salomon@seas.gwu.edu>

ops83 is apparently a commercial product that costs beaucoup bucks.


Michael Pazzani <pazzane@pan.ICS.UIC.EDU> offered one that he and his 
students wrote for the Mac.  He also suggested TYMCIN if I had LISP.


eeidsmoe@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Eric Eidsmoe) suggested VP Expert for IBM PC's 
by WordTech Systems.  About a year ago it cost $349.  It supports 
rules and demons, has a customizable UI and can talk to various 
other programs.  You can call WordTech Systems at 1-800-228-3295.


A bunch of people suggested CLIPS.  You can get it from COSMIC, from 
an AI CD (publication pending), or by anonymous FTP. 

For info about the AI CD-ROM, write to 
>ai-cdrom@ocitor.fidonet.org
>(ask for Usenet special discount price $59)

<mcclanah@dlgeo.cr.usgs.gov> says:
>If you are a government entity or a government contractor you can
>get CLIPS for free directly from NASA, otherwise you must purchase
>it from Cosmic.  Cosmic can be reached at service@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu
>and tell them you are interested in CLIPS.

"CLIPS, the C Language Integrated Production System, is a complete
environment for developing expert systems -- programs which are
specifically intended to model human expertise or knowledge.  It
is designed to allow artificial intelligence research,
development, and delivery on conventional computers.  CLIPS 5.1
provides a cohesive tool for handling a wide variety of knowledge
with support for three different programming paradigms:
rule-based, object-oriented, and procedural.  Rule-based
programming allows knowledge to be represented as heuristics, or
"rules-of-thumb" which specify a set of actions to be performed
for a given situation.  This was the primary programming paradigm
supported by prior versions of CLIPS.  Object-oriented
programming allows complex systems to be modeled as modular
components (which can be easily reused to model other systems or
create new components).  The procedural programming capabilities
provided by CLIPS 5.1 allow CLIPS to represent knowledge in ways
similar to those allowed in languages such as C, Pascal, Ada and
LISP.  Using CLIPS 5.1, one can develop expert system software
using only rule-based programming, only object-oriented
programming, only procedural programming, or combinations of the
three."

The addresses for COSMIC are:
]> COSMIC
]> The University of Georgia
]> 382 East Broad Street
]> Athens, GA  30602
]> Phone: (404) 542-3265
]> FAX: (404) 542-4807
]> Internet: service@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu (128.192.14.4)
]> 
]> There is a CLIPS list server available at COSMIC.
]> Send mail to listserv@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu
]> (128.192.14.4) with the message SUBSCRIBE CLIPS-LIST.

You can ask questions of the COSMIC people by mailing to
service@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu

COSMIC's "Pricing is somewhat complicated:"  It ranges from $100 to $200 for 
an update of CLIPS.  For first-time buyers, it's between $140 and $350.
It's not clear, though, whether you get CLIPS or just the documentation
for your $140 or whether you get any documentation when you buy the source
code for $350.  There is a 50% educational discount when you buy the 
source for unfunded research/instruction.


Anurag Acharya <acha@DRAVIDO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU> writes:
>CParaOPS5 is a compiled version of OPS5. It consists of an OPS5 to C compiler
>and a runtime library. Both of these are written in C. It can be
>configured to run on vanilla Unix boxes, Encore multimaxen running
>Mach or Umax, multiprocessor Vaxen running Mach and Sequent running Dynix. 
>When setup in the uniprocessor configuration, both the compiler and the 
>executables generated for the programs can be run under any version of Unix.

> The system is reasonably stable. It is in regular use here at Carnegie Mellon 
> and several other sites in US, Europe, Australia, Japan and India.

>CParaOPS5 version 5.4 is available for anonymous ftp on dravido.soar.cs.cmu.edu
>[128.2.220.26]. The distribution is in  file 
>/usr/nemo/cparaops5/CParaOPS5-5.4.tar.Z which is less than half a meg in size.
The manual is manual.ps.Z


 
liz@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Liz Allen) wrote to tell me about YAPS:
>We sell a tool called YAPS which runs under Common Lisp, including
>Macintosh Common Lisp.  The Macintosh version sells for $395 until the
>end of September (the introductory price) and for $445 after that.
>This would qualify for the 40% academic use discount, so your cost
>would be $237.  Volume discounts would be applicable if the University
>were buying it.

They're planning a DOS port to run under Saphire CL.

>YAPS gives you a powerful tool for building intelligent software
>including expert systems and other programs using rule-based knowledge
>representations.  The YAPS library provides a CLOS (Common Lisp Object
>System) class which you can use to create instances, or can mix into
>his own classes and create instances of those.  Then rules and facts
>about an instance can be associated with the instance.  This is an
>intuitive way to modularize rules.  Instead of one large knowledgebase
>with many rules which are hard to debug and maintain, the programmer
>creates smaller knowledgebases which are modular and more efficient.
>This makes YAPS ideal for developing and maintaining large rule-based
>systems.

>YAPS also makes it easier to build hybrid expert systems which include
>rule-based programming.  Most expert system tools make building hybrid
>systems difficult because the tool forces the programmer to code in a
>particular way, and limits how the tool can be controlled.  In contrast,
>in YAPS actions for rules are simply Lisp code, and a YAPS knowledgebase
>can be run easily under program control.  Thus YAPS knowledgebases can
>be treated as modules which can interact easily with other modules,
>making hybrid systems straightforward.



Hal Waters <hlw%babar@rti.rti.org> suggested I contact
>Contact:	Production Systems Technologies, Inc.
>		5001 Baum Boulevard
>		Pittsburgh, PA  15213
>		(412) 683-4000



Alicia Lee Salomon <salomon@seas.gwu.edu> wrote to say:
>I got a 50-rule version of EXSYS from Mike Eskow in New
>Mexico for $25 (w/ student discount) but they had a full-fledged version
>(for PC) for about $300 (w/ discount I think).  Call them at
>505/256-8356.