shellreq@informatik.uni-kl.de (Bernd Bachmann DFKI) (11/14/89)
Because the market for expert system shells is not very transparent,
comp.ai.shells wants to perform a shell survey. The survey should give
an overview of the currently available shells; it may also serve as a
database of expert system shells if there are incremental updates, as
we intend.
The survey will be technically performed with the aid of the form
given after the "--- cut here ---" line. We will post the answers to
the newsgroup comp.ai.shells separately for each shell. In order to
guarantee equal conditions for everybody the following rules will be
strictly applied to the mailed answers. For every shell description
offending against the rules we will cut the text or even reply with a
"Not postable in the present form, please revise" standard message.
If you know about shells whose distributor has no access to the USENET
newsgroup comp.ai.shells, we would appreciate if you could post it for
her/him. If there is no chance to post it to comp.ai.shells, the
filled out form should be sent to:
DFKI (ARC-TEC)
Bernd Bachmann
Postfach 2080
D-6750 Kaiserslautern
West Germany
comments: shellreq@uklirb.uucp
postings: shell@uklirb.uucp
There are a few non-optional fields, which need to be filled out in
any case. The keywords of optional fields are enclosed in square
brackets, e.g. "[SYSTEM INTERFACES]:". The upper bound, existing for
some entries, on the number of lines or items are written in
parentheses after the keyword, e.g. "[REFERENCES (3 items)]:". A line
must not exceed 78 characters: the lines of asterisks, enclosing the
form below, indicate the length.
CLASSIFICATION SCHEME FOR EXPERT SYSTEM SHELLS
----------------------------------------------
NAME/VERSION: The name and current version (important for updates) of
the expert system shell.
PRESENT STATUS: experimental, prototype, product, etc.
COST: The cost of the shell, if any, in US$ (also university discounts
can be interesting).
CONTACT: The complete address of a person or an institution authorized
to provide more information about the shell (also e-mail address, if
available).
AVAILABILITY: Description of how the shell is delivered and who has
access to it (e.g. via ftp, only universities, unrestricted etc.).
INTENDED USERS: end users, knowledge engineers, AI programmers, etc.
DOMAIN/CATEGORY(IES): The shell may be especially designed for special
knowledge domains or task categories. Domains could be
mechanical/electrical engineering, medicine, office, etc., or
subdomains of these fields. Categories include planning, diagnosis,
simulation, or configuration.
REPRESENTATION FORMALISMS: The three most important representation
formalisms should be described here in short statements. Only 6 LINES
of text will be accepted.
BASE LANGUAGE: The programming language (version) the shell is
implemented in.
OS/HARDWARE: The (minimal) hardware and operating system the shell
(development and delivery version) is running on.
SYSTEM INTERFACES: Interfaces to, e.g. other programming languages,
database systems, or networking software.
USER INTERFACES: graphics standard tools, special graphics toolkits,
menu-oriented interaction, tabular forms, etc.
SHORT DESCRIPTION: Special features which are not covered by other
entries should be mentioned here. e.g. explanation component,
acquisition tools, support for 'deep' modeling (causal, temporal,
spatial), etc. Only 15 LINES of text will be accepted.
COMPATIBILITY: Can knowledge bases, developed in this shell, be ported
to other shells or environments: Are there tools for transforming
knowledge bases to any kind of canonical form?
EFFICIENCY: What is the performance of any benchmark system running in
the shell? Can expert systems, after development in the shell, be made
more efficient for delivery, using transformation techniques,
compilers, etc.?
NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS: How many copies of the shells have been
installed OUTSIDE the laboratory of the shell developers.
APPLICATIONS: Are there any large applications already implemented in
the shell? Only 3 ITEMS in 12 LINES of text will be accepted. (You may
give e-mail addresses of users who implemented reference
applications.)
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS: What (future) improvements are in sight?
RELATED WORK: How does this shell fit in a family of shells? By which
other shells is this one influenced. Which one(s) is/are closest to
it?
REFERENCES: If scientific papers are published on the shell, they
should be listed here. Only 3 ITEMS will be accepted. For reference
purposes we would appreciate if you would send a copy of these papers
to the address given above. Simultaneously, you can e-mail all your
shell references to our shellreq address in BibTex or REFER input
format for later posting in a separate bibliography on expert system
shells.
------------------------------ cut here --------------------------------------
******************************************************************************
NAME/VERSION:
PRESENT STATUS:
[COST]:
CONTACT:
AVAILABILITY:
[INTENDED USERS]:
[DOMAIN/CATEGORY(IES)]:
REPRESENTATION FORMALISMS (3 items, 6 lines):
BASE LANGUAGE:
OS/HARDWARE:
[SYSTEM INTERFACES]:
[USER INTERFACES]:
[SHORT DESCRIPTION (15 lines)]:
[COMPATIBILITY]:
[EFFICIENCY]:
[NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS]:
[APPLICATIONS (3 items, 12 lines)]:
[FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS]:
[RELATED WORK]:
[REFERENCES (3 items)]:
******************************************************************************