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Causal reasoning in an advisor for fourth generation software
Author(s) -
Skuce Douglas,
Tauzovich Branka
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
expert systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1468-0394
pISSN - 0266-4720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0394.1989.tb00083.x
Subject(s) - computer science , prolog , interpreter , expert system , programming language , code generation , code (set theory) , artificial intelligence , software engineering , key (lock) , computer security , set (abstract data type)
A prototype ‘advisor’ system intended to answer typical questions from a user of a commercial fourth generation report writer has been developed. This paper describes a major subcomponent, which uses expert system techniques to answer ‘why’ or ‘causal’ questions. The approach uses several types of rules, used both forward and backward, to define causal relations between the user's actual code and English‐like descriptions of the intended or actual results. The Prolog‐based rule interpreter, which can deal with negative and inconsistent questions, is outlined. The design is based on a large corpus of actual user questions.