mike@mfgfoc.UUCP (Mike Thompson) (08/19/88)
I have just graduated with a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering and I am finding that I am extremely interested in A.I. and Expert Systems. Unfortunately, my education did not touch on any of these areas (which I think is almost a crime these days) so I guess I am going to have to take the initiative, and teach myself. The company I now work for could benefit from somebody knowledgeable in this area and my manager is encouraging me to learn an AI language by offering to pay for any classes I take from a local college. I have three question which I hope one of you can answer: 1. I have an IBM/XT at home with the newest version of TURBO PROLOG. Can I use this system to gain an understanding of AI applications such as expert systems? If so, what books can help me? I have not seen Turbo Prolog mentioned in this newsgroup and I fear that it is considered by experts to be a toy Prolog or an implementation so neutered as to be worthless. 2. Does anyone know of classes offered in my area (I live in Los Altos, California) at local colleges which would teach me Prolog? I have already checked local community colleges, but their classes are only on languages such as Fortran, Cobal, Pascal or 'C'. Would I be better taking a more general class on AI instead of a specific language? Should I consider Lisp over Prolog? (It came with GNU Emacs and is available on my Unix system at work.) 3. What is the best way to get introduced to the AI field? I'm I taking the right approach? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Mike Thompson --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael P. Thompson FOCUS Semiconductor Systems, Inc. net: (sun!daver!mfgfoc!engfoc!mike) 570 Maude Court att: (408) 738-0600 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA
hartung@nprdc.arpa (Jeff Hartung) (08/21/88)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.lang.prolog,comp.lang.lisp Subject: AI Ph.D programs Summary: What's around? Expires: References: <398@mfgfoc.UUCP> Sender: Reply-To: hartung@nprdc.arpa (Jeff Hartung) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego Keywords: AI University Ph.D Programs I received this request from a co-worker and thought I might get some useful information for her by posting it to comp.ai. Any help is much appreciated. Please respond directly to her via e-mail. Her address is: ARPA - greebler@nprdc.arpa UUCP - !ucsd!nprdc!greebler Thanks in advance, --Jeff Hartung-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From greebler@nprdc.arpa Fri Aug 19 18:32:11 1988 Received: by sdics.ICS scf2.7vax; Fri, 19 Aug 88 18:32:09 PDT Received: by nprdc.arpa (5.54/ 1.1) id AA02640; Fri, 19 Aug 88 18:34:48 PDT Received: by pacific.ARPA (5.54/4.7) id AA03462; Fri, 19 Aug 88 18:34:57 PDT From: greebler@nprdc.arpa (Carol Greebler) Message-Id: <8808200134.AA03462@pacific.ARPA> Date: 19 August 1988 1834-PDT (Friday) To: hartung@nprdc.arpa Subject: ai Reply-To: greebler@nprdc.arpa I have a friend who is interested in a PhD program in AI. Do you know who at UCSD or NPRDC (or elsewhere) I could get some info on schools or jobs on AI. He wants to find out where the best places to go. Thanks Carol
johnwe (John Weber, Celtic sysmom) (08/23/88)
In article <398@mfgfoc.UUCP> mike@mfgfoc.UUCP (Mike Thompson) writes: <...> >I have three question which I hope one of you can answer: > >1. I have an IBM/XT at home with the newest version of TURBO PROLOG. >Can I use this system to gain an understanding of AI applications >such as expert systems? If so, what books can help me? I have not >seen Turbo Prolog mentioned in this newsgroup and I fear that >it is considered by experts to be a toy Prolog or an implementation >so neutered as to be worthless. (Creak... Damn, this asbestos suit is getting stiff... ZIP! Humm... Enough nitrogen. Hisssss... POP! Foosh...) My exerence with Turbo "Prolog" was extermely negative. It may be a useful language, but I kinda doubt it. It doesn't support such things as asserting predicates into the data base, the syntax isn't C&M, and it is strongly typed. It is also extremely slow. (Click.) If you can get a hold of C-Prolog or SB-prolog, they are quite acceptable and useful implementations. These are for UN*X. Arity Prolog is a good commercial prolog for the IBM PCish boxes. >2. Does anyone know of classes offered in my area (I live in Los Altos, >California) at local colleges which would teach me Prolog? I have already >checked local community colleges, but their classes are only on >languages such as Fortran, Cobal, Pascal or 'C'. Would I be better taking >a more general class on AI instead of a specific language? Should I >consider Lisp over Prolog? (It came with GNU Emacs and is available on >my Unix system at work.) Lisp and Prolog address different language issues, and are both good and useful languages. Prolog is quite different from most "normal" languages, and may pose certain learning difficulties. My personal favorite Lisps are Kyoto Common Lisp and MIT C-Scheme. They are for UN*X, again. There is a Scheme dialect for Macs, but I've never played with it. Microsoft has a Lisp for MS-DOS (supposedly it is Common Lisp, but again, I haven't played with it). Emacs Lisp is useful in the context of Emacs, but I don't think it would make a good way to learn lisp. I personally like Lisp more than I like Prolog, but that is a taste thing. Lisp can also be much faster. Oh, are you on a 4.* BSD box? If so, there may be Franz Lisp floating around your bin directories. Sun also has a really good Lisp package (or so I'm told). I thought De Anza Jr. College offered an AI class which taught Lisp, but it's been a while since I took a class there. >3. What is the best way to get introduced to the AI field? I'm I >taking the right approach? Any comments would be appreciated. > >Thanks in advance. > No sweat. >Mike Thompson > >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Michael P. Thompson FOCUS Semiconductor Systems, Inc. >net: (sun!daver!mfgfoc!engfoc!mike) 570 Maude Court >att: (408) 738-0600 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA Please note: these are my own opinions, and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers. -- ############################################################################# # # # # "In the fields of Hell, # John Weber, ...!uunet!sco!johnwe # # where the grass grows high, # @ucscc.ucsc.EDU:johnwe@sco.COM # # are the graves of dreams, # # # allowed to die." -- Author unknown # Celtic sysmom with an ATTITUDE! # # # Any opinions expressed are my own # #############################################################################
todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) (08/24/88)
In article <952@scovert.sco.COM> johnwe (John Weber, Celtic sysmom) writes: >In article <398@mfgfoc.UUCP> mike@mfgfoc.UUCP (Mike Thompson) writes: >>1. I have an IBM/XT at home with the newest version of TURBO PROLOG. >>Can I use this system to gain an understanding of AI applications >>such as expert systems? If so, what books can help me? I have not > for UN*X. Arity Prolog is a good commercial prolog for > the IBM PCish boxes. I use, and like, Arity/Prolog a lot. I have both the interpreter and compiler. However, I would advise against trying to use it on a 4.77MHz IBM PC type box. For yucks, I loaded API 5.x on my aged PC when I received the most recent update. The latest version of Arity is very big and is very slow on a 4.77MHz PC. I found the speed to be almost acceptable on a 9.54MHz V30 based NEC Multispeed though. And, it is a viable development tool on a 10MHz 80286 based AT-clone. > Lisp and Prolog address different language issues, and are > both good and useful languages. ==> Prolog is quite different > from most "normal" languages, and may pose certain learning > difficulties. <== My personal favorite Lisps are Kyoto Common I think the same is said of LISP. I use both LISP and Prolog depending on what I am working on. My recollection is that Prolog was easier to learn and allowed me to do the things it does best very quickly (manipulate data in a database-like functions, pattern matching, etc.). I also found that when I needed to manipulate MIDI devices (Musical Interface for Digital Instruments), LISP felt very "natural" in that list-of-notes environment. I think that people who are surveying what is out there should at least investigate both LISP and Prolog and decide which language fits their needs best. In my case, it was both, depending on what I was doing. -- Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Faculty Development Program UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!todd ARPA: uhccux!todd@nosc.MIL BITNET: todd@uhccux INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU <==I'm told this rarely works
kbc@mdbs.UUCP (Kevin Castleberry) (09/01/88)
> Microsoft has a Lisp for MS-DOS (supposedly it is Common > Lisp, but again, I haven't played with it). Is this true? Microsoft has a lisp? Technical Support for mdbs products: KMAN (a relational db environment), GURU (an expert system development environment), MDBS III (a post-relational high performance dbs) (Our products run in VMS, UNIX, OS/2 and MSDOS.) is available by emailing to: support@mdbs.uucp or {rutgers,ihnp4,decvax,ucbvax}!pur-ee!mdbs!support The mdbs BBS can be reached at: (317) 447-6685 300/1200/2400 baud, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity Kevin Castleberry (kbc) Director of Customer Services Micro Data Base Systems Inc. P.O. Box 248 Lafayette, IN 47902 (317) 448-6187 For sales call: (800) 344-5832
todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) (09/03/88)
In article <984@mdbs.UUCP> kbc@mdbs.UUCP (Kevin Castleberry) writes: >> Microsoft has a Lisp for MS-DOS (supposedly it is Common >> Lisp, but again, I haven't played with it). >Is this true? Microsoft has a lisp? Yes, Microsoft has a Lisp they license from a firm in Honolulu called Soft WareHouse. Soft WareHouse sells the same product under the name muLISP-87. muLISP itself is NOT a Common Lisp. However, it comes with a support library (source code in Lisp included) that adds the Common Lisp functions to muLISP. They also have an optional incremental compiler (I think this option is $100 or so, I haven't bought it myself). muLISP is no replacement for a big expensive Lisp workstation. But, if you want a small, inexpensive, relatively speedy full Lisp development, I recommend you look at this package. It is small and fast enough to use on my 4.77MHz 8088-based Toshiba T-1000 when I feel like doing some Lisp programming away from my office in the shade of a tree. Soft WareHouse also has an interesting license. It reads "the software shall be run on at most five (5) computers residing in a single building or facility, under the control of END USER." Pretty reasonable, I think. -- Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Faculty Development Program UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!todd ARPA: uhccux!todd@nosc.MIL BITNET: todd@uhccux INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU <==I'm told this rarely works