WORK PROCEEDS .
ALL FIVE OF THE ABOVE TOPIC AREAS ARE BRIEFLY DESCRIBED BELOW , BUT ONLY THE TWO WHICH ARE PLANNED TO START IN YEAR 1 ( NAMELY AND ) HAVE PROGRAMME OUTLINES INCLUDED .
. IMPLEMENTATION LANGUAGES AND ENVIRONMENTS
DESCRIPTION
EVALUATION OF , RECOMMENDATIONS ON , AND EXTENSION OF , CANDIDATE IMPLEMENTATION LANGUAGES FOR TOOLS OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME AND AS TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERS ENGAGED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF KBS APPLICATIONS . THIS SHOULD INCLUDE LANGUAGES FOR KNOWLEDGE MODELLING AND FOR SPECIFICATION/DESIGN PROTOTYPING OF KBS COMPONENTS . LATER WORK SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON ESTABLISHING STANDARDS , WHICH MANUFACTURERS WILL THEN TREAT AS A SAFE BASE FOR SIGNIFICANT HARDWARE INVESTMENT . AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF LANGUAGE EVALUATION IS THE RICHNESS AND UTILITY OF THEIR EMBEDDED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS . IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING COMMON TOOLS PROGRAMME WILL ADDRESS PORTABILITY .
PROGRAMME AND INTERMEDIATE OBJECTIVES
YEARS 1 TO 3 :
- IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE CANDIDATE LANGUAGES ( FOR EXAMPLE , SMALLTALK , LISP , PROLOG , POPLOG ) ENVIRONMENTS AND ARCHITECTURES .
YEARS 4 AND 5 :
- PUBLISH CRITIQUES AND RECOMMEND CHANGES E . G . LANGUAGE EXTENSIONS TO EXPLOIT PARALLELISM ;
- PROCURE EXTENSIONS/CHANGES .
YEARS 5 AND 6 :
- ISSUE GUIDELINES TO ESPRIT ;
- MAKE REFERENCE LANGUAGE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE .
. COMPILERS AND INTERPRETERS
THE OBJECTIVE IS THE SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERPRETERS/COMPILERS FOR THE VARIOUS KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATIONS AND MANIPULATION METHODS DEVELOPED FROM 3.1.3 AND .
. KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND MANIPULATION
FOLLOWING EARLY WORK ON KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION ( 3.1.3 ) , EXPERIENCE FROM EARLY APPLICATIONS AND STUDIES OF KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING MEASURES ( 3.1.1 ) , AND STUDIES OF DIALOGUE ( 3.1.2 ) , THE NEEDS FOR METHODS AND TOOLS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRACTICE OF THE KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING SKILL WILL BECOME CLEAR . THE ENVIRONMENT FOR KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND MANIPULATION WILL OF COURSE BE COMPLETELY INTERACTIVE , AND BE AIDED WITH GRAPHICS . WORK IN THIS AREA WILL INCLUDE :
- KNOWLEDGE EDITING , UPDATING AND RETRIEVAL ,
- KRS PROOF CHECKERS ,
- KNOWLEDGE DICTIONARY SYSTEMS ,
- KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORMATION ( DIFFERENT VIEWS OF COMMON KNOWLEDGE ) ,
- KNOWLEDGE ABSTRACTION FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES ,
- KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION/PROCESS ANALYSIS ,
- GUIDE AND TUTOR FOR KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING ITSELF ,
- KBS DISTRIBUTION AND AUTOMATED KNOWLEDGE MAINTENANCE ,
- MMI TOOL KITS .
THIS DEVELOPING SET OF CAPABILITIES SHOULD BE INTEGRATED INTO RECOMMENDED " EUROPEAN " TOOL KITS FOR HANDLING KNOWLEDGE .
. ADVANCED GENERATION KBS APPLICATIONS
THIS PROJECT WILL COVER THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED EXPERT AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS INCORPORATING LEARNING , APPROXIMATE AND META-REASONING WITH COMMON-SENSE CAPABILITIES . KBS APPLICATIONS WILL HAVE TO BE EXPLOITED BY NON-SPECIALISTS WHO WILL EXPECT FROM THESE SYSTEMS NOT ONLY FORMAL AND APPROXIMATE REASONING PROCESSES , BUT ALSO COMMON-SENSE REASONING PROCESSES SIMILAR IN EFFECT TO THOSE OF HUMANS .
MANY APPLICATIONS WHERE REASONING IS NEEDED INVOLVE SOME KIND OF APPROXIMATE REASONING . FOR INSTANCE , APPLICATIONS OF MODELLING WHERE QUALITATIVE HEURISTICS CHARACTERIZE