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- Xref: sparky comp.ai:2879 comp.ai.shells:364
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!gdt!aber!aberfa!cjp
- From: cjp@aber.ac.uk (C J Price)
- Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.shells
- Subject: Re: What shell to use
- Message-ID: <CJP.92Jul23092451@aberda.aber.ac.uk>
- Date: 23 Jul 92 09:24:51 GMT
- References: <1992Jul21.192233.221@lincoln.ac.nz>
- Sender: news@aber.ac.uk (USENET news service)
- Organization: Computer Science Dept., UCW Aberystwyth
- Lines: 146
- In-Reply-To: bishopg@lincoln.ac.nz's message of 21 Jul 92 07: 22:33 GMT
- Nntp-Posting-Host: aberda
-
- >Greg Bishop-Hurley writes:
- >Recently i have started working with expert systems here in New Zealand.
- >My requirements are as follows;
- > - can be developed and run on a PC
- > - runs under either Windows or DOS
- > - allows distibution of runtime applications
- >Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-
- I am loosely attached to a company which has an agreement to
- distribute/support a commercial shell to academic sites at very
- realistic prices. This may be of interest to you.
-
- The product is SD-Adviser (was originally called Envisage) from
- SD-Scicon, and has been used for large commercial applications.
-
- It runs on Suns and on PCs, and we have just started supplying UK
- academic sites with site licences for one kind of machine at 500
- pounds + VAT. I guess you would have to add the cost of carriage to
- that price for New Zealand.
-
- The agreement allows academics to deliver applications off-site (the
- agreement for commercial customers also allows distribution of
- runtimes).
-
- On PCs, it runs under DOS, but a Windows interface is currently under
- development.
-
- I will append further details.
-
- Email me if you want a copy of the tutorial booklet and example pack
- that is being sent to UK academics.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Chris Price, Department of Computer Science, University College of Wales,
- Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 3BZ, United Kingdom.
- email: cjp@uk.ac.aber (within UK) cjp@aber.ac.uk (rest of world?)
- Telephone: 0970-622444
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Academic advantages of WWS-Adviser
- ==================================
-
- - Fully-featured, industrially-used expert system tool
-
- - Runs on popular academic hardware
-
- - Realistically-priced multi-machine licence
-
- - Helpful documents for student teaching provided
-
- - Favourable licence conditions
-
- Capability overview of WWS-Adviser
- ----------------------------------
-
- Adviser has been developed over the past six years, and sold by SD-Scicon as
- SD-Adviser and by ICL as ICL-Adviser at a price above most academics'
- budgets. Their technology has been made available by SD-Scicon for
- distribution by WWS to academic establishments at a reasonable price.
-
- It has been used for major expert systems applications in industry and
- commerce:
-
- Health adviser. A major insurance company noted that by making their
- clients healthier, they would be doing themselves, as well as their
- clients, a favour. The result was a biomedical Expert System in Adviser
- which makes use of `biomarkersU, health signals contained in genes,
- enzymes and antibodies, together with more conventional health
- indicators to give a comprehensive health risk portrait.
-
- VAX tuning expert. SD-Scicon sold a commercial product built in Adviser
- to help companies tune their VAX VMS computers.
-
- Hardware configuration expert. ICL have an Adviser application for
- configuring ICL mainframe systems to meet customer requirements. The
- live system has been installed on a central mainframe, and can be
- accessed by around 1000 ICL sales staff worldwide.
-
- Cutting tool selection. Selecting the right cutting tool is a known
- problem in industry. Expertise is not widely available, and a wrong
- choice can damage the tool or the workpiece, costing time and money. A
- few months investment in capturing the expertise has produced a system
- which prevents costly mistakes.
-
-
- Over the years, Adviser has proven itself many times over as an Expert
- System Shell engineered to tackle complex problems and deliver real working
- Expert Systems in Banking and Finance, Government, Defence, Manufacturing,
- Aerospace, Computing and Engineering.
-
- Technical overview of WWS-Adviser
- ---------------------------------
-
- - Backward and forward chaining English-like rules.
-
- - Top-level imperative command structure.
-
- - Multiple data types (assertions, integers, reals, strings, arrays,
- records)
-
- - Uncertain reasoning
-
- - HCI facilities (several sorts of help, explanation, reanswering
- questions).
-
- - External interface (to interface to procedural code, databases, etc.)
-
- - Modular development of knowledge bases
-
-
- Ask for example copies of the Tutorial and the Example Booklet in order to
- get some small taste of the variety of the Adviser language.
-
- Advantageous academic licence cost and conditions
- -------------------------------------------------
-
- Many of the people working at WWS have experience of academic life, and so
- have attempted to make the licence agreement as helpful as possible, within
- the restrictions placed upon us by SD-Scicon.
-
- We have made sure that a site licence is available at a reasonable cost,
- knowing that teaching budgets are not large, and that a one-machine licence
- is fairly useless when you have a class of 50.
-
- Our agreement for educational sites gives you permission to deliver
- applications outside of the academic establishments (many agreements
- restrict you from delivering systems where the user is not within the
- establishment, thus not allowing your students to work closely with
- industry).
-
- We also allow duplication of SD-Adviser teaching materials (Tutorial and
- Example booklet) for distribution to students. The tutorial booklet allows
- students to learn Adviser fairly rapidly, and the example booklet gives them
- simple `templatesU which illustrate different types of expert system.
-
- --
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Chris Price, Department of Computer Science, University College of Wales,
- Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 3BZ, United Kingdom.
- email: cjp@uk.ac.aber (within UK) cjp@aber.ac.uk (rest of world?)
- Telephone: 0970-622444
-
- NOTE:
- Change of address, ".cs" dropped so our mail doesn't go to Czechoslovakia.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-