SHEBS@UTAH-20.ARPA (09/27/84)
From: Stan Shebs <SHEBS@UTAH-20.ARPA>
Has anyone else become bothered by the recent apparent equation between
window packages and expert system tools? The recent spiel on Teknowledge's
M.1 takes care to mention that it provides windows (along with other features).
However, other vendors (for instance all of those at the recent AAAI) seem
to emphasize their window and menu capabilities at the expense of actual
reasoning capacity. Recent papers on expert systems at both AAAIs and IJCAIs
include the obligatory picture of a screen with all the capabilities being
shown at once (even if they're not really related to the paper's content).
What's going on?
Does a window system really have something substantial to offer expert systems
development? If so, what is it? Ultra-high bandwidth for display, so that
the system doesn't have to decide what the user wants to see - it just shows
everything? Do people get entranced by all the pretty pictures? Ease of
managing multiple processes (what expert system tools can even employ multiple
communicating processes)? We've got zillions of machines with window systems
around here, but they seem supremely irrelevant to the process of expert
system development (perhaps because I tend to regard a system that requires
only low-bandwidth communication to be more inherently intelligent - it has
to do more inference to supply missing information). Can anyone give a solid
justification for windows being an essential part of an expert systems tool?
(Please no one say anything about it being easier to sell tools with flashy
graphics...)
stan shebsDIETTERICH@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (09/28/84)
From: Tom Dietterich <DIETTERICH@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> Reply to Sheb's flames: No there is no direct relationship between window systems and expert systems. However, the goal of these vendors is to sell software systems that make it easy to CONSTRUCT, DEBUG, and USE expert systems. We know that high bandwidth between programmer and program makes it easier to construct and maintain a program. Similarly, high bandwidth (properly employed) makes it easier to use a program. The goal is to reduce the cognitive load on the user/programmer, not to strive for maximizing the cognitive load on the program. Good software is 90% interface and 10% intelligence. --Tom
jbn@wdl1.UUCP (jbn ) (10/02/84)
I've noticed this lately too; I've also seen the claim that ``windows were developed ten years ago by the AI community'', but the early Alto effort at PARC, which I saw demonstrated in 1975 by Allen Kay, was not AI-oriented; they were working primarily on improved user interfaces, including window systems. John Nagle