Meeting Pearls 1/Meeting Pearls Vol 1 (1994).iso/installed_progs/text/faqs/ai-faq.expert.part1

Internet Message Format | 1994-05-15 | 48.6 KB

Subject: FAQ: Expert System Shells 1/1 [Monthly posting]
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.shells,news.answers,comp.answers
From: [e-mail] (Mark Kantrowitz)
Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 14:55:01 GMT

Archive-name: ai-faq/expert/part1
Last-Modified: Thu May 12 22:56:19 1994 by Mark Kantrowitz
Version: 1.19

;;; ****************************************************************
;;; Expert System Shells *******************************************
;;; ****************************************************************
;;; Written by Mark Kantrowitz
;;; expert_1.faq -- 49953 bytes

This post contains the Expert System Shells FAQ.

If you think of questions that are appropriate for this FAQ, or would
like to improve an answer, please send email to us at [e-mail].

CONTRIBUTIONS to this summary should be sent to [e-mail].
Companies wishing to expand their entries should send product
summaries no longer than the RTworks or CLIPs entries, and should
focus on features and facts. Hype and vague generalizations will be removed.

*** Copyright:

Copyright (c) 1992-94 by Mark Kantrowitz. All rights reserved.

This FAQ may be freely redistributed in its entirety without
modification provided that this copyright notice is not removed.  It
may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents
(e.g., published for sale on CD-ROM, floppy disks, books, magazines,
or other print form) without the prior written permission of the
copyright holder.  Permission is expressly granted for this document
to be made available for file transfer from installations offering
unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet.

This article is provided AS IS without any express or implied warranty.

*** Topics Covered:

  [1-1]  Introduction
  [1-2]  Other Sources of Information
  [1-3]  Bibliography of Expert Systems books, introductions,
         documentation, periodicals, and conference proceedings.
  [1-4]  Note about 'Real-Time' expert systems
  [1-5]  Free/Cheap Expert System Shells
  [1-6]  Commercial Expert System Shells
  [1-A]  Acknowledgements

Search for [#] to get to question number # quickly.

*** Recent changes:

;;; 1.18:
;;; 14-MAR-94 mk    Updated DYNACLIPS entry in part 6 to reflect version 2.
;;; 18-MAR-94 mk    Renamed part 6 of the AI FAQ to become this FAQ. Moved
;;;                 parts of the AI FAQ that were appropriate for this FAQ
;;;                 from the AI FAQ to this FAQ.
;;; 22-MAR-94 mk    Added email addresses for Gensym.
;;;
;;; 1.19:
;;; 15-APR-94 mk    Added entry on WindExS to [1-5].
;;; 20-APR-94 mk    Added OPS83 entry and updated RAL entry.
;;; 22-APR-94 mk    Updated ftp information for ftp.gmd.de.
;;; 22-APR-94 mk    Dynaclips v3 now available.
;;; 12-MAY-94 mk    Added entry on RT-Expert to [1-5].

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Subject: [1-1]  Introduction

Certain questions and topics come up frequently in the various network
discussion groups devoted to and related to Expert Systems. This
file/article is an attempt to gather these questions and their answers
into a convenient reference for AI researchers, students, and
practitioners. It is posted on a monthly basis. The hope is that this
will cut down on the user time and network bandwidth used to post,
read and respond to the same questions over and over, as well as
providing education by answering questions some readers may not even
have thought to ask.

Currently this FAQ is a primarily a list of free and commercial expert
system shells, but other questions and answers will be added as they
arise.

The latest version of this file is available by anonymous FTP from
   ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/pubs/faqs/ai/expert_1.faq  [128.2.206.173]
using username "anonymous" and password "name@host" (substitute your
email address) or via AFS in the Andrew File System directory
   /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai-repository/ai/pubs/faqs/ai/expert_1.faq

You can also obtain a copy of the FAQ by sending a message to
[e-mail] with
   Send ESS FAQ
in the message body.

The FAQ postings are also archived in the periodic posting archive on
   rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/expert/ [18.70.0.209]
If you do not have anonymous ftp access, you can access the archive by
mail server as well.  Send an E-mail message to [e-mail]
with "help" and "index" in the body on separate lines for more
information.

An automatically generated HTML version of this FAQ is accessible by
WWW as part of the AI-related FAQs Mosaic page. The URL for this
resource is
   http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/Groups/AI/html/faqs/top.html
The direct URL for the Expert Systems FAQ is
   http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/Groups/AI/html/faqs/ai/expert/top.html

If you need to cite the FAQ for some reason, use the following format:
   Mark Kantrowitz, "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about
   Expert System Shells", comp.ai.shells, <month>, <year>,
   ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/pubs/faqs/ai/expert_?.faq, [e-mail].

----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: [1-2]  Other Sources of Information

In addition to the free expert system shells listed below, the Prolog
Resource Guide lists a variety of Prolog implementations and products.
In addition to being backward-chaining systems, many prolog
implementations provide support for forward-chaining rules and other
expert systems requirements. For example, Amziod sells
Dennis Merritt's book, "Building Expert Systems in Prolog",
Springer-Verlag, 1989, for $47 (with disk containing source code for $82).

The July/August 1992 issue of PC AI magazine includes their annual
product guide for expert systems and related tools.  The December 1992
issue of AI Expert Magazine, pages 42-49, contains an Expert System
Resource Guide. The February 1991 issue of IEEE Computer has an
article about Expert System Tools. Another article of possible
interest is "Selection Criteria for Expert System Shells: A
Socio-Technical Framework", by Anthony C. Stylianou, Gregory R. Madey,
and Robert D.  Smith, CACM 35(10):30-48, October 1992.

The AI FAQ contains pointers to other resources that may be of
interest to readers of this FAQ. If you can't find the information
you're looking for here, try looking in the AI FAQ. The AI FAQ is
posted monthly to the newsgroup comp.ai and is also available from the
anonymous ftp locations mentioned above.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: [1-3] Bibliography of Expert Systems books, introductions,
               documentation, periodicals, and conference proceedings.

This section contains a list of key references and introductions about
Production Systems, Expert Systems, and Match Algorithms. For other
AI-related books, see part 4 of the AI FAQ.

Overviews:

   Bruce G. Buchanan and Edward H. Shortliffe, "Rule-Based Expert
   Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming
   Project", Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1985. The Davis and King
   paper (chapter 4, "An overview of production systems") provides
   a good overview.

   Frederick Hayes-Roth, "The knowledge based expert system: A tutorial",
   IEEE Computer 17(9):11-28, 1984.

   Bruce G. Buchanan and R.O. Duda, "Principles of Rule-Based Systems",
   Tech Report HPP-82-14, 1982. (Discusses the design of expert
   systems, including representation, inference, and uncertainty
   management. Examples from numerous specific systems, and discusses
   which problems are suitable for attack by rule-based systems.)

   Joseph Giarratano and Gary Riley, "Expert Systems Principles and
   Practice", PWS Publishing (20 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116-4324
   1-800-842-3636), 1993, 644 pages, ISBN 0-534-93744-6, $53.94.
     [This is the second edition of "Expert Systems: Principles and
      Programming" and comes with an MS-DOS CLIPS 6.0 interpreter.]

General AI books with extensive coverage of expert systems:

   Firebaugh, Morris W., "Artificial Intelligence: A Knowledge-Based
   Approach", PWS-Kent, Massachusetts, 1989.  ISBN 0-87835-325-9

OPS5:

   Charles L. Forgy, "OPS5 User's Manual", Technical Report
   CMU-CS-81-135, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer
   Science, Pittsburgh, PA 1981.

   Thomad Cooper and Nancy Wogrin, "Rule-based Programming with OPS5",
   Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1988, ISBN 0-934613-51-6, $49.95.

Match Algorithms:

   RETE:
      Charles L. Forgy, "RETE: A fast algorithm for the many
      pattern/many object pattern match problem", Artificial
      Intelligence 19(1):17-37, September 1982.

   TREAT:
      Daniel P. Miranker, "TREAT: A better match algorithm for AI
      production systems". In Proceedings of the Sixth National
      Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-87), pages 42-47,
      August 1987.

      Daniel P. Miranker, "TREAT: A New and Efficient Match Algorithm
      for AI Production Systems", Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1990,
      143 pages, ISBN 0-934613-71-0, $29.95.

   MatchBox:
      Mark Perlin, "The match box algorithm for parallel production
      system match", Technical Report CMU-CS-89-163, Carnegie Mellon
      University, School of Computer Science, Pittsburgh,
      Pennsylvania, May 1989.

   DRETE:
      Michael A. Kelly and Rudolph E. Seviora, "An evaluation of DRETE
      on CUPID for OPS5 matching", in Proceedings of the Eleventh
      International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-89),
      pages 84-90, Detroit MI, August 1989, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Journals -- Expert Systems:

   EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS
   Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0957-4174.
   Subscriptions: Institutions L85 ($155), Individuals L45 ($72).
   Pergamon Press Inc., 660 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591-5153,
   email [e-mail], or Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall,
   Oxford OX3 0BW, England.

   EXPERT SYSTEMS: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING
   Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0266-4720.
   Subscriptions: L85 ($110)
   Learned Information Ltd., Woodside, Hinksey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, UK.
   Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]

   INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EXPERT SYSTEMS
   Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0894-9077.
   Subscriptions: Institutions $135; Individuals $75. Outside the US add
   $10 for surface mail and $20 for airmail.
   JAI Press Inc., 55 Old Post Road -- No. 2, PO Box 1678, Greenwich, CT
   06836-1678.

   KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING REVIEW
   Published quarterly, ISSN 0269-8889.
   In the UK: Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building,
   Cambridge CB2 1BR, UK.
   In N. America: Cambridge University Press, Journals Department, 40 West
   20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: [1-4] Note about 'Real-Time' expert systems

Many "real-time" expert systems are 'soft' real-time systems, in that
they claim to be fast. A 'hard' real-time system would have features
that guarantee a response within a fixed amount of real-time (e.g.,
bounded computation, not just a fast match-recognize-act cycle).
Systems like G2 use event-driven processing (restricting certain rules
to execute only when specific WM elements change in a particular way)
as a method of limiting forward chaining.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: [1-5] Free/Cheap Expert System Shells

Remember, when ftping compressed or compacted files (.Z, .gz, .arc, .fit,
etc.) to use binary mode for retrieving the files.

Files that end with a .gz suffix were compressed with the patent-free
gzip (no relation to zip). Source for gzip is available from:
  prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/{gzip-1.2.3.shar,gzip-1.2.3.tar,gzip-1.2.3.msdos.exe}

If you do not have ftp access, you can FTP files by E-mail. Send a
message with the word "help" in the body to [e-mail].


FOCL      -- ics.uci.edu:pub/machine-learning-programs/
             Files: README and KR-FOCL-ES.cpt.hqx
      Contact: [e-mail]
      Expert System Shell and Machine Learning Program;
      A backward chaining rule interpreter with a graphical
          interface for the MAC.

SOAR      -- ftp.cs.cmu.edu:
          /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/soar/public/Soar5/ -- Lisp Version
          /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/soar/public/Soar6/ -- C Version
        Contact: [e-mail]
        Integrated Agent Architecture. Supports learning through chunking.

OPS5      -- ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/areas/expert/ops5/ops5.tar.gz

BABYLON-- ftp.gmd.de:/gmd/ai-research/Software/ [129.26.8.84]
      (BinHexed stuffit archive of Babylon)
      Development environment for expert systems.

MOBAL is a system for developing operational models of application
domains. It integrates a manual knowledge acquisition and inspection
environment, an inference engine, machine learning methods for
automated knowledge acquisition, and a knowledge revision tool. By
using MOBAL's knowledge acquisition environment, you can incrementally
develop a model of your domain in terms of logical facts and rules.
You can inspect the knowledge you have entered in text or graphics
windows, augment the knowledge, or change it at any time. The built-in
inference engine can immediately execute the rules you have entered to
show you the consequences of your inputs, or answer queries about the
current knowledge. MOBAL also builds a dynamic sort taxonomy from your
inputs. If you wish, you can use machine learning methods to
automatically discover additional rules based on the facts that you
have entered, or to form new concepts. If there are contradictions in
the knowledge base due to incorrect rules or facts, there is a
knowledge revision tool to help you locate the problem and fix it.
MOBAL (release 2.2) is available free for non-commercial academic use
by anonymous ftp from ftp.gmd.de:gmd/mlt/Mobal/. The system requires a
Sun SparcStation, SunOS 4.1, OpenWindows 2.0, and HyperNeWS 1.4; the
latter can be obtained by sending mail to [e-mail]. By
agreement with Turing Institute, HyperNeWS 1.4 is now also available
from our server in the directory gmd/mlt/HyperNeWS/.

CLIPS 6.0 (C Language Integrated Production System) is an OPS-like
forward chaining production system written in ANSI C by NASA. The
CLIPS inference engine includes truth maintenance, dynamic rule
addition, and customizable conflict resolution strategies.  CLIPS,
including the runtime version, is easily embeddable in other
applications.  CLIPS includes an object-oriented language called COOL
(CLIPS Object-Oriented Language) which is directly integrated with the
inference engine.  CLIPS runs on many platforms including IBM PC
compatibles (including Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 386 versions),
Macintosh, VAX 11/780, Sun 3/260, and HP9000/500.  CLIPS is available
from COSMIC at a nominal fee for unlimited copies with no royalties.
(CLIPS is available free to NASA, USAF, and their contractors for use
on NASA and USAF projects.)  For more information, email
[e-mail], write COSMIC, University of Georgia,
382 East Broad Street, Athens, GA 30602, call 706-542-3265, or fax
706-542-4807. To subscribe to the CLIPS mailing list, send a message
to the list server [e-mail] (128.192.14.4) with
message body SUBSCRIBE CLIPS-LIST. The CLIPS help desk phone number is
713-286-8919 (fax [phone]) and email address is
[e-mail]. (The address is STB Products Help Desk,
LinCom Corporation, 1020 Bay Area Boulevard, #200, Houston, TX
77058-2628.)  [Note: Folks who obtain CLIPS from COSMIC can do
anything they wish with it, including redistribute it.  Folks who
obtain CLIPS directly from NASA are restricted to using it for US
government purposes only.] The CLIPS FAQ list and bug fixes are
available from hubble.jsc.nasa.gov in the directory /pub/clips and are
maintained by Gary Riley <[e-mail]>.  Joseph
Giarratano and Gary Riley's book, "Expert Systems Principles and
Practice", comes with an MS-DOS CLIPS 6.0 interpreter (see [1-3] above).

DYNACLIPS (DYNAamic CLIPS Utilities), is a set of blackboard, dynamic
knowledge exchange, and agent tools for CLIPS 5.1 and 6.0.  It is
implemented as a set of libraries that can be linked with CLIPS 5.1 or
CLIPS 6.0. Version 1 should be used with CLIPS 5.1 and version 2 with
CLIPS 6.0. Version 3.0 will work with either CLIPS 5.1 or CLIPS 6.0.
Source code is not available. Agents use the blackboard to
communicate with other intelligent agents in the framework.  Each
intelligent agent can send and receive facts, rules, and commands.
Rules and facts are inserted and deleted dynamicly while the agents
are running. Knowledge can be transfered on a temporary or permanent
basis. For more information, please contact Yilmaz Cengeloglu, PO Box
10412, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-0412, or send email to
[e-mail] or [e-mail].
It is available from the CMU AI Repository in
   ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/areas/expert/clips/dyna/

MIKE (Micro Interpreter for Knowledge Engineering) is a full-featured,
free, and portable software environment designed for teaching purposes
at the UK's Open University.  It includes forward and backward
chaining rules with user-definable conflict resolution strategies, and
a frame representation language with inheritance and 'demons' (code
triggered by frame access or change), plus user-settable inheritance
strategies.  Automatic 'how' explanations (proof histories) are
provided for rule exectuion, as are user-specified 'why' explanations.
Coarse-grained and fine-grained rule tracing facilities are provided,
along with a novel 'rule graph' display which concisely shows the
history of rule execution.  MIKE, which forms the kernel of an Open
University course on Knowledge Engineering, is written in a
conservative and portable subset of Edinburgh-syntax Prolog, and is
distributed as non-copy-protected source code. MIKE version 1 was
described in the October/November 1990 issue of BYTE. MIKE v1.50,
which was formerly available from a range of ftp servers, has been
superseded by two newer versions: MIKEv2.03, a full Prolog source code
version, incorporating a RETE algorithm for fast forward chaining, a
truth maintenance system, uncertainty handling, and hypothetical
worlds, and MIKEv2.50, a turnkey DOS version with menu-driven
interface and frame- and rule-browsing tools, fully compatible with
MIKEv2.03, but without source code.  They are available by anonymous
ftp from hcrl.open.ac.uk [137.108.81.16] as the files
   MIKEv2.03: /pub/software/src/MIKEv2.03/*
   MIKEv2.50: /pub/software/pc/MIKEV25.ZIP
They are also available from the CMU AI Repository.
For further information, please contact Marc Eisenstadt,
[e-mail], Human Cognition Research Lab, The Open
University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK, phone [phone], fax +44
908-65-3169.

ES: The October/November 1990 issue of BYTE also described the ES
expert system. ES supports backward/forward chaining, fuzzy set
relations, and explanation, and is a standalone executable for
IBM-PCs. ES is available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.uu.net:/pub/ai/expert-sys/ [192.48.96.9] as summers.tar.Z.
ftp.uu.net is mirrored on unix.hensa.ac.uk [129.12.21.7] under
/pub/uunet/.

GEST (Generic Expert System Tool) Version 4.0 is a flexible expert
system shell applicable to a variety of problem domains.  Its
knowledge representation schemes include facts, frames, rules, and
procedures.  It supports forward and backward inferencing with
multiple options for each and message handling for frame objects.
There is a time system to support an event history and reverting back
to a previous state.  In addition, there is support for fuzzy logic
and certainty factor maintenance.  Features new to V4.0 include a
blackboard architecture (single level and hierarchical) with a control
module and knowledge sources.  The user interface utilizes the
Symbolics windowing system and is menu and mouse driven.  GEST can be
embedded in a user program (with or without the GEST user interface)
by using a library of function calls.  The printed reference manual
includes a tutorial, table of contents, and thorough index.  GEST runs
only on Symbolics Lisp Machines, Genera 7.2.  GEST users are expected
to be familiar with Symbolics machines.  Source and object files are
available by anonymous ftp to ftp.gatech.edu in the (binary) file
pub/ai/gest.tar.Z.  Register your copy with John Gilmore, Georgia Tech
Research Institute, ITL/CSITD 0800, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA, Internet:
[e-mail].  Send your name, address, organization,
phone number, and Internet email address.  To request a free printed
copy of the GEST manual (not in the distribution file), please also
contact John Gilmore.  Users are free to produce as many copies of the
GEST Reference Manual as they require without any restrictions.

WindExS (Windows Expert System) is a fully functional Windows-based
forward chaining expert system. Its modular architecture allows the
user to substitute new modules as required to enhance the capabilites
of the system. WindExS sports Natural Language Rule Processor,
Inference Engine, File Manager, User Interface, Message Manager and
Knowledge Base modules. It supports forward chaining, and graphical
knowledge base representation. Write [e-mail] for documentation
and operational system.

RT-Expert is a shareware expert system that lets C programmers
integrate expert systems rules into their C or C++ applications.
RT-Expert consists of a rule-compiler that compiles rules into C code,
and a library containing the rule execution engine. RT-Expert for DOS
works with Borland Turbo C, Borland C++, and Microsoft C/C++
compilers. The personal edition is licensed for educational, research,
and hobby use. Applications created with RT-Expert personal edition
are not licensed for commercial purposes. Professional editions are
available for commercial applications using DOS, Windows, and Unix
environments. RT-Expert is available by anonymous ftp from
   world.std.com:/vendors/rtis/rtexpert
For more information, write to Real-Time Intelligent Systems Corporation
<[e-mail]>.

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Subject: [1-6] Commercial Expert System Shells

The commercial products below are listed in alphabetical order.

1ST-CLASS, 1ST-CLASS FUSION, and 1ST-CLASS HT run on personal
computers. For more information, write to 1st-Class Expert Systems,
Inc., 526 Boston Post Road, Suite 150, Wayland, MA 01778 or call
800-872-8812 (508-358-7722). See PC Tech Journal 7(4):111, April, 1989
and PC Week 6(20):23, May 22, 1989.

ACTIVATION FRAMEWORK runs on personal computers and costs $5000.  This
tool is not a tradition expert system shell, rather is a tool for
building real-time data interpretation applications.  The vendor
claims the tool competes with Gensym's G2 in terms of application
domains.  However, G2 is not a tool for end users, but rather for C
and/or Ada software developers. For more information, write to The
Real-Time Intelligent Systems Corporation, 26 Worthen Street,
Chelmsford, MA 01824, or call 508-250-4633.

Aion Development System (ADS) runs on numerous platforms, including
DOS, OS/2, SunOS, Microsoft Windows, and VMS.  It includes an object
oriented knowledge representation, forward, backward, bidirectional,
and pattern matching rules, graphics, calls to/from other languages
(C, Pascal, ...), and the Choreographer graphical user interface. For
more information, write to Aion Corporation, 101 University Avenue,
Palo Alto, CA 94301, call 800-845-2466 (415-328-9595), or fax
415-321-7728.  For Europe, write to Software Generation,
Kontichsesteenweg 40, B 2630 Aartselaar, Belgium, call
32-(0)3-877.12.93, or fax [phone]

ART-IM and CBR Express run on personal computers (ART-IM $8,000, CBR
Express $10,000), workstations (CBR Express $12,500), and IBM
mainframes (CBR Express $150,000).  Although ART-IM can be purchased
as a separate product, it is part of CBR Express. ART-IM does
forward-chaining, has object-oriented contructs, and a good C interface.
It will also do backward chaining but you have to program that into
the rules yourself (easy enough to do). For more information, write
to Inference Corporation, 550 North Continental Boulevard, El Segundo,
CA 90245, call 213-322-0200, or fax [phone].

BABYLON. For more information, write to VW-GEDAS GmbH, Pascalstrasse
11, W-1000 Berlin 10, call [phone], or fax [phone].

COGNATE runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $250. For more
information, write to Peridom, PO Box 1812, Bowie, MD 20716, or call
301-390-9570. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988.

COGSYS. For more information, write to COGSYS Ltd., Enterprise House,
Unit 37, Salford University Business Park, Salford M6 6AJ, England, or
call 061-745-7604.

C-PRS (Procedural Reasoning System in C) aims at representing and
executing operating procedures. It allows the user to express and
represent the conditional sequences of complex operations and to
ensure their execution in real time while embedded in the application
environment.  C-PRS is useful for process control and supervision
applications.  The PRS technology has been applied to different tasks
with real-time constraints and demands including the monitoring of
several subsystems of the NASA space shuttle, the diagnosis and
supervision of telecommunication networks (Telecom Australia), the
control of mobile robots (SRI, LAAS), the control system of
surveillance aircrafts (Grumman) and air traffic management (Civil
Aviation Authority).  The procedural reasoning technology was
initially developed at the Artificial Intelligence Center of the
Stanford Research Institute (Menlo Park, California).  ACS
Technologies has further developed and now markets C-PRS, the first
commercial implementation of the Procedural Reasoning technology.
C-PRS was developed with the most currently recognized standards: C,
UNIX, X11, MOTIF. It guarantees some real time properties. It is
available on numerous platforms and operating systems, including
SPARC, DECstation, Sony News, Hewlett Packard, VxWorks, and others.
For more information write to ACS Technologies, 5, Place du Village
d'Entreprises, B.P. 556 31674 LABEGE Cedex, FRANCE, call
33-62-24-99-20, fax [phone], or send email to Felix Ingrand
<[e-mail]>.

CRYSTAL runs on personal computers and is available from Intelligent
Environemnts. See PC Magazine 8(2), January 31, 1989.

ECLIPSE runs on personal computers (DOS, Windows). System V Unix and
POSIX versions are also available. The syntax is derived from Inference
Corporations' ART and is compatible with NASA's CLIPS.  Features include
data-driven pattern matching, forward and backward chaining, truth
maintenance, support for multiple goals, relational and object-oriented
representations, and integration with dBase. For more information, write
to The Haley Enterprise, Inc., 413 Orchard Street, Sewickley, PA 15143,
call 800-233-2622 (412-741-6420), or fax [phone].  See also IEEE
Computer, February 1991, pages 19-31. Cost is $999 for Windows, $1,999
for Unix, $799 for DOS 386, and $1,499 for OS/2.

EXPERT-EASE runs on personal computers and is available from
Expertech, Ltd. See PC User (103):94, March 29, 1989.

Exper-OPS5-Plus runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $495. For more
information, write to ExperTelligence, 5638 Hollister, Suite 302,
Goleta, CA 93117, call 800-828-0113 (except CA), 800-826-6144 (CA
only), or 805-967-1797. See MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988.

EXSYS runs under MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Apple Macintosh, Sun Open Look,
Unix and Vax and is available from Exsys, Inc., 1720 Louisiana
Boulevard, NE, Suite 312, Albuquerque, NM 87110, call 800-676-8356
(505-256-8356), or fax [phone]. See also PC Tech Journal
7(1):115, January, 1989. A demo version for MS-Windows or Macintosh is
available for $40. [6/93]

FLEX is a hybrid expert system toolkit available across a wide range of
different hardware platforms which offers frames, procedures and rules
integrated within a logic programming environment.  FLEX supports
interleaved forward and backward chaining, multiple inheritance,
procedural attachment, an automatic question and answer system.  Rules,
frames and questions are described in a English-like Knowledge
Specification Language (KSL) which enables the development of easy-to-read
and easy-to-maintain knowledge bases.  FLEX is implemented in, and has
access to, Prolog. FLEX is available from LPA (who originally developed
flex on the PC), and also from most major Prolog vendors under license,
including Quintus, BIM, Interface, and ISL.  FLEX has been used in
numerous commercial expert systems, and prices on a PC running Windows or
on a Macintosh start at around $1,000.  [A review of Quintus-flex is
expected in an upcoming issue of PC-AI. --mk] For more information contact:
Logic Programming Associates Ltd, Studio 4, R.V.P.B., Trinity Road,
London, SW18 3SX.  Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone].
Email: [e-mail]

G2 is a real-time expert system shell that runs on workstations and
personal computers. It has real-time temporal reasoning, with rules,
procedures, and functions built around an object-oriented paradigm.
One can interface, both locally and over a network (TCP/IP and
DECnet), to other programs (C and ADA), control systems, and
databases.  G2 provides distributed computing and a multi-user
client/server architecture.  For more information, write to Gensym
Corporation, 125 Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140, call
617-547-2500/9606, fax [phone], or send email to
[e-mail] (Amber S. Driesman, Manager of Customer Support).
The G2 mailing list (for customers only) is [e-mail].

GBB, generic blackboard framework: provides:
 -- A high-performance blackboard database compiler and
      runtime library, which support pattern-based, multidimensional
      range-searching algorithms for efficient proximity-based retrieval
      of blackboard objects
 -- KS representation languages
 -- Generic control shells and agenda-management utilities
 -- Interactive, graphic displays for monitoring and examining
    blackboard and control components
These components provide the infrastructure needed to build
blackboard-based applications.    GBB is available for DOS/Windows, Mac,
Unix workstations (Sun, HP/Apollo, IBM, DEC, Silicon Graphics),
Symbolics and TI Explorer Lisp machines.  (GBB is a significantly enhanced,
commercial version of the UMass GBB research framework, available via
FTP from dime.cs.umass.edu:/gbb/.) NetGBB, distributed extension to
GBB, provides to GBB the communication and coordination facilities
needed to build heterogenous distributed blackboard applications.
For more information write to Blackboard Technology Group, Inc., 401 Main
Street, Amherst, MA  01002, call 413-256-8990, or fax [phone]. To
be added to the mailing lists, send mail to [e-mail].
There are two mailing lists, gbb-user (moderated) and gbb-users (unmoderated).

GOLDWORKS II. For more information, write to Gold Hill Computers, Inc.,
26 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, call 800-242-5477
(617-621-3300), or fax [phone].

GURU is a real-time expert system that runs on personal computers. For
more information, write to Micro Data Base Systems, Inc. (MDBS), PO
Box 6089, Lafayette, IN 47903-6089 call 800-344-5832 (317-463-2581),
or fax [phone].

HyperX runs on the Apple Macintosh. For more information, write to
Millenium Software, 1970 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, or
call 714-497-7439. See also MacWeek 3(5):6, January 31, 1989.

HUGIN System is a software package for construction of model based expert
systems in domains characterized by inherent uncertainty. The Hugin System
contains an easy to use probability based deduction system, applicable to
complex networks with cause-effect causal relations subject to uncertainty.
The Hugin System presents a novel development. The implementation is based
on an improvement of the award winning work by Lauritzen and Spiegelhalter:
Local Computation with Probabilities on Graphical Structures and their
Application to Expert Systems. The Hugin Demonstration, for
Sun Workstations and PC-Windows, is available for anonymous ftp from the
host hugin.dk (130.225.63.15). Please refer to the README file in the
/pub/ directory. For more information write to Hugin Expert A/S,
Niels Jernes Vej 10, DK-9220 Aalborg O, Phone [phone],
Fax: [phone], Email: [e-mail].

ILOG RULES is a high performance embeddable rule-based inference
engine. It is a forward chaining tool, written in C++ (hence it is
object-oriented and supports inheritance mechanisms) and is also
provided as a C++ library. It runs virtually on any Unix platform
(e.g., HP97X0, Sun4, RS/6000, DecStations) as well as on PCs running
DOS (with or without MS/Windows) or OS/2.  It extends OPS/5 with
nested premises (objects as values), rule packets (logical grouping of
rules), a full Truth Maintenance System (TMS) for efficient
non-monotonic reasoning, compilation of rules into C/C++ code, and an
object oriented data-model in C++. ILOG RULES work directly on user
objects, so interfacing is straightforward. C/C++ code may be included
in rule conditions and actions.  ILOG RULES is based on the fast XRETE
implementation of the RETE algorithm developed by Thomson-CSF.  For
more information, contact ILOG, Inc., 2073 Landings Drive, Mountain
View, CA 94043, tel [phone], fax [phone], e-mail
[e-mail].  European customers should contact ILOG SA, 2, av.
Gallieni, BP 85, 94253 Gentilly CEDEX, France, tel +33 (1)
46-63-66-66, fax [phone], e-mail [e-mail].

INTELLIGENT DEVELOPER runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $395.  For
more information, write to Hyperpress Publishing, PO Box 8243, Foster
City, CA 94404, or call 415-345-4620. See also MacUser 4(12):134,
December, 1988.

INTELLIGENCE COMPILER.  For more information, write to Intelligence
Ware 9800 S. Sepulveda Blvd.  Los Angeles, CA 90045-5228 call
213-417-8896, or fax [phone].

Instant-Expert Plus runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $498.  For
more information, write to Human Intellect Systems, 1670 South
Amphlett Blvd, Suite 326, San Mateo, CA 94402, or call 800-522-5939
(415-571-5939).  See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988.

KBMS runs on personal computers. For more information, write to
AICorp, 138 Technology Drive, Waltham, MA 02254-9748, or call
617-891-6500.  PC Week 6(35):63, September 4, 1989.

KEE, ProKappa, and Kappa run on personal computers, workstations, and
Lisp machines. For more information, write to IntelliCorp, Inc., 1975
El Camino Real West, Mountain View, CA 94040-2216, call
415-956-5660/5500/5777 or fax [phone]. In Europe call
[phone].  See also CACM 31(4):382-401, April, 1988.

KES and SNAP run on personal computers (KES $4,000), workstations (KES
$10,000, SNAP $40,000 on most platforms), minicomputers (KES $25,000),
IBM mainframes (KES $60,000). Although KES can be purchased
separately, it is part of SNAP. For more information write to Software
Architecture and Engineering, Inc., 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 500,
Arlington, VA 22209, call 703-276-7910, or fax [phone].  Write to
Template Software, 13100 Worldgate Drive, Suite 340, Herndon, Virginia
22070, call 703-318-1000, or fax [phone].

Knowledge Craft runs on minicomputers and Lisp machines. For more
information, write to Carnegie Group, 5 PPG Place, Pittsburgh, PA
15222, call 800-284-3424 (412-642-6900), or fax [phone].

KnowledgeWorks runs on workstations (Sun3, Sparc, DEC (MIPS), HP
400,700, IBM RS6000, Intergraph, MIPS).  It includes a CLOS-based
object system, OPS compatible forward chainer (2500 firings/sec on a
Sparc2), Prolog compatible backward chainer (40 KLIPS), graphical
programming environment, user-defined conflict resolution, MetaRule
Protocol for extending execution model, and a SQL interface for
relational databases.  For more information write to Harlequin Inc.,
One Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA, call
1-800-works-for-you (1-800-967-5749) or 617-252-0052, or fax
617-252-6505.  European customers should write to Harlequin Ltd.,
Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5RG, UK, call 0223-872522,
or fax [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail] or
[e-mail]. They also sell LispWorks (a Common Lisp and Prolog
programming environment) -- see part 4 of the Lisp FAQ, MLWorks (an ML
programming environment), and Watson (an intelligence analysis tool).

Laser. For more information, write to Bell Atlantic Knowledge Systems,
Inc., P.O. Box 3528, Princeton, NJ 08543-3528, or call 800-552-2257
(609-275-8393).

LEVEL5 OBJECT runs on IBM PCs (Windows, $995), VAX/VMS, MVS and the
Apple Macintosh ($695). LEVEL5 OBJECT is a robust object-oriented
application development system with a tunable inference engine
product.  For more information, write to Information Builders, 1250
Broadway, New York, NY 10001, or call 800-444-4303 (212-736-4433).
Customer Support is 212-736-6130. See also MacUser 4(12):134,
December, 1988, AI Expert 4(5):71, May, 1989, and MacUser 6(2):88,
February, 1990.

M.4 runs on personal computers (DOS, Windows) and sells for $995
(special pricing is currently in effect, selling for $495). A version
for Sun workstations and the Apple Macintosh is under development. It
features a modular Kernel Library for linking into C-language
applications, backward and forward chaining, pattern matching,
certainty factors, procedural control, and an object-oriented
programming system. M.4 is embeddable, configurable, and extendable.
For more information, write to Cimflex Teknowledge Corporation, 1810
Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, or call 800-285-0500
(415-424-0500), fax [phone].

MacSMARTS, MacSMARTS - Professional, and HyperSMARTS run on the Apple
Macintosh (all versions less than $500). For more information, write
to Directory Cognition Technology, 55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA
02138, or call 617-492-0246. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December,
1988.

MERCURY KBE. For more information, write to Artificial Intelligence
Technologies, Inc., 40 Saw Mill River Road, Hawthorne, NY 10532, call
800-333-1406 (914-347-6860), or fax [phone].

MUSE. For more information, write to Cambridge Consultants, Science
Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 4DW, England, or call
0223-420024 Cambridge.

NEXPERT OBJECT runs on over 30 platforms supported including personal
computers ($5000), Macintosh ($5000), workstations ($12,000),
minicomputers, and mainframes. Nexpert Object is written in C, and
includes a graphical user interface, knowledge acquisition tools, and
forms system. For more information, write to Neuron Data, 156
University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, call 800-876-4900
(415-321-4488), or fax [phone]. Other office include New York,
212-832-8900; Philadelphia, 215-941-2981; Washington, DC,
703-821-8800; Los Angeles, 714-851-4621; Chicago, 708-955-3688;
Houston, 713-739-9020; United Kingdom, 44-71-408-2333, fax
44-71-495-6274; France, 33-1-40-70-04-21, fax [phone]; and
Japan, 81-3-3746-4371, fax [phone].  See also IEEE Software
5(5):98, September, 1988, PC Tech Journal 6(11):112, November, 1988,
MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988, MacUser 4(9):136, September, 1989,
Computer Language 6(12):123, December, 1989, PC Week 7(26):43, July 2,
1990, MacWeek 4(25):10, July 10, 1990, and IEEE Expert December, 1991,
page 72.

OPS83 was developed by the developers of OPS5 as a successor to OPS5.
OPS83 is written in C, and OPS83 rule bases can be embedded in C
programs.  OPS83 was the first OPS-like language to provide this
integration of rule bases with C.  OPS83 supports Generalized Forward
Chaining (GFC), a new control structure that permits rules to be more
expressive; one GFC rule can replace several conventional flat rules.
(Details and examples are available on request.)  The current version
of OPS83 uses the proprietary Rete II algorithm to enable it to handle
large, complex rule sets efficiently.  A multi-windowed,
point-and-click development environment called the OPS83 Workbench is
offered.  OPS83 is available for DOS, OS/2, UNIX, VMS, and some
proprietary operating systems.  For information, write Production
Systems Technologies, Inc., 5001 Baum Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15213,
call 412-683-4000, or fax [phone].

Personal Consultant Plus. For more information, write to Texas Instruments
PO Box 2909, MS/2240, Austin, TX 78769, or call 800-527-3500.

RAL (Rule-extended Algorithmic Language) is a high-performance C-based
expert systems tool.  It was designed to permit seamless integration
of rules and objects into C programs.  RAL is a superset of C.  RAL
rules can operate directly on the data types used by the C code in
your application.  RAL "understands" C type declarations, function
prototypes, #define constants, etc.  C expressions, statements,
macros, function calls, etc. can be embedded directly in the rules.
RAL has an open architecture that permits it to be used with any GUI
builder, data base library, or other library that can be used with C.
No bridges are required.  For efficiency, RAL rules are compiled into
C code.  Charles Forgy, the inventor of Rete, has developed a more
efficient match algorithm called Rete II for RAL.  (Benchmark results
are available on request.)  A special version of the language, called
RAL/RT, adds the features that are required for real-time expert
systems.  RAL and RAL/RT have a multi-windowed, point-and-click
development environment called the RAL Workbench.  RAL and RAL/RT are
available for DOS, MS Windows, OS/2, and UNIX.  License fees for
development systems are available on request.  There are no run-time
fees charged for distributing applications developed using RAL.  For
information, write Production Systems Technologies, Inc., 5001 Baum
Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, call 412-683-4000, or fax [phone].

Rete++ supports both forward and backward chaining.  With Rete++ the
programmer can develop object hierarchies and instantiate, manipulate,
and access them using either C++, the standard rule-based syntax, or C.
Asserting and modifying the data that is considered by rules is done by
creating a C++ instance and performing assignments to and accessing the
member data of the instance.  Rete++ automatically generates C++ class
taxonomies.  The C++ components of Rete++ applications use these
generated classes directly or further subclass them as needed.  The
Rete++ inference engine automatically considers any instances of a
generated class (or its subclasses) in the matching of rule conditions.
C++ data types provided by Rete++ allow more flexible representation and
automatic reasoning using standard C++ syntax without extraneous function
calls.  Rete++ automatically monitors changes to C++ objects without
requiring programmers to explicitly code function calls.  Rete++ is
provided as a C++ class library.  As such, it may be linked as part of
your C++ application.  You may completely embed Rete++, with or without
its graphical development environment.  Modules for developing Case Based
Reasoning and integration with databases are available for Rete++
applications.  Rete++ integrates a dependency based Truth Maintenance
System to preserve logically sound and complete reasoning in spite of
non-monotonicity.  Multiple rulesets and agendas support modular
development and cooperating expert systems. Rete++ has an advanced
browser for rule based programming. The Rete++ windowing development
environment monitors the knowledge base with multiple views that are all
updated in real-time, allowing for debugging, browsing, the monitoring
and setting of break points, and the tracing of rules, facts and goals.
Rete++ for Windows $1499, Windows NT and OS/2 $2249, Solaris and HP-UX
$2999 command line interface and $3999 for X Windows.  For more
information write to The Haley Enterprise, Inc. 413 Orchard St.,
Sewickley, PA 15143, call 800-233-2622 (412-741-6420), or fax
412-741-6457.

RTworks is a family of independent software modules developed for
intelligent real-time data acquisition and monitoring, data analysis,
message/data distribution, and message/data display. RTworks offers a
number of sophisticated problem-solving strategies including
knowledge-based systems, a point-and-click graphical user interface,
temporal and statistical reasoning, and the ability to distribute an
application over a heterogeneous network.  Included with RTworks is a
high-speed inference engine (RTie) which is used to analyze the data
using objects, classes, procedures, and rules. The IE can perform
trending, prediction and temporal reasoning of rapidly changing data.
Displays can be built by non-programmers using a user-friendly DRAW
program.  More than 60 different formats are provided for displaying
input data including strip charts, bar charts, control charts, dials,
pie charts, and high-low graphs.  Graphical objects can be tied to
variables which dynamically control attributes such as color, scale,
rotation, motion, animation, and more.  RTworks runs in a
client-server architecture in which the RTserver process intelligently
distributes the application's messages and data to only the client
prcoesses which need them. User-defined client processes can connect
to the RTserver and send and receive messages with other processes in
the application. Possible applications include process control,
network monitoring, financial trading, and command and control.
RTworks is available on a variety of Unix and VMS platforms under a
floating license in which you pay only for the number of simultaneous
users, and the software is not node-locked to a particular machine.
Current RTworks customers include Lockheed, NASA, Dow Chemical, PG&E
(Pacific, Gas, and Electric), SWIFT, Mazda, and NTT. For further
information, write to Talarian Corporation, 444 Castro Street, Suite
140, Moutain View, CA 94041, call 415-965-8050, fax [phone], or
send E-mail to [e-mail] or [e-mail].

SMECI is an expert system shell based on Lisp. For more information,
contact ILOG, Inc., 2073 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043, tel
415-390-9000, fax [phone], email [e-mail].  European
customers should write to ILOG, 2, av. Gallieni, BP 85, 94253 Gentilly
Cedex, France, tel [phone], fax [phone], email
[e-mail].

STATUTE Corporate V3.0 for Windows. Includes facilities for automatic
document generation. Interfaces for Visual Basic, C, C++, and
applications that can link to DLLs. Phone: [phone] (616-242-1982).
Fax: [phone] (616-242-1948).

TestBench, Shell is available from the Carnegie Group, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.  The development environment runs on the SUN workstations
and the production environment on a number of platforms including PCs and
NeXT machines.

VP-EXPERT version 3.1 runs on the IBM PC under DOS.  A student version
of the product is available for around $40. The student version is
fully functional but limited to 16k in the total size of the system.
For more information, write to Wordtech Systems Inc., 21, Altarinda
Road, Orinda, CA 94563, or call 800-288-3295, (510-254-0900).  See
also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988.

YAPS is a tool for building expert systems and other programs that use
a rule-based knowledge representation in Lisp. The YAPS library
provides a CLOS class and appropriate methods which the programmer may
mix into his/her own classes or use directly.  Rules and facts about
an instance are associated with the instance.  Instead of one large
knowledgebase with many rules which are hard to debug and maintain,
the programmer creates smaller knowledge-bases which are modular and
more efficient.  The YAPS knowledge-bases can interact with and be
controlled by the programmer's other modules, making hybrid systems
straightforward.  Introduced by Liz Allen at AAAI-83, YAPS is now
available on Apple Macintosh, Sun3 and Sun4 (SPARC), DEC VAX under VMS
and Ultrix, and 88Open platforms. On workstations, a single license
costs $3995 and on the Macintosh (under Macintoch Common Lisp), it is
$445. YAPS runs in most commercial Common Lisps including Allegro CL,
Harlequin Lispworks, Lucid CL, IBUKI CL, and Macintosh Common Lisp.
YAPS is also available for the TI Explorer and Symbolic Lisp Machines,
and a Flavors version is available for Sun3 in Franz Lisp.  Other
ports are underway -- for price and availability contact College Park
Software at 461 W. Loma Alta Dr., Altadena, CA 91001-3841, USA; or by
email at [e-mail], or call 818-791-9153 (voice) or
818-791-1755 (FAX).

----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: [1-A] Acknowledgements

This FAQ was originally based on posts by Jason Trenouth
<[e-mail]>, George Betzos <[e-mail]>, and
Foxvog Douglas <[e-mail]>, as well as parts of the
commercial products section of the AI FAQ.  Thanks also to Arnold
Bloemer <[e-mail]>, Hans Voss, Stephan Weber, Tom
Laffey, [e-mail], Hal Waters, Philip Vanneste, Daniel
Corkill, Bruce Chih-Lung Lin, Willem Van Dyk, Kan-Lee Liou, Les
Degroff, Alex Kean, Bob Orchard, Steve Witt, Cameron Laird, Thomas A.
Russ, Peter Pavek, Ingemar Hulthage, Jerry Franke, Julian Smart,
Andrew Verden, Remi Lissajoux, Patrick Albert, Patrick Suel, Liz
Allen. Thanks to Richard Fozzard for information about MIKE and ES.

----------------------------------------------------------------
;;; *EOF*