The emergence of commercially available expert system shells has opened up new avenues for large scale development of expert systems. However, this challenge also generates a new problem area concerned with ways of integrating such developments with existing information modelling environments. Expert system shells and conventional systems originate from distinct research areas with mutually differing modelling-views. These differences retard the natural incorporation of the new technology in existing environments. To attack this problem, a migration path is required. The fundamentals of expert systems shells should be carefully grafted upon existing modelling views in order to bridge the gap. This contribution describes the expert system design tool FRESH (Frame Relationship Expert-system SHell) and its underlying principles. The fundamentals of FRESH closely resemble those of the Entity-Relationship (ER) approach to information modelling. Some necessary adjustments, which enable knowledge representation, fit in naturally, without having the modelling view drift away from its origin.FRESH has been implemented in APL2, exploiting the language's state of the art data structures and interactive capabilities. Also, APL2 provides excellent opportunities to interface expert system technology to traditional management information systems.
IRTRODUCTIORIn recent years, the attention toward expert system shells has increased drastically. Many commercial software packages have emerged on the market, promising vast ranges of highly useful applications. However, reports on successfully installed expert systems are few, while methodological anomalies concerning expert system design remain unsolved.Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and Its date appear, and notice Is given that copying Is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission.
