Back-end manager: an interface between a knowledge-based front end and its application subsystems

摘要

Front Ends for Open and Closed User Systems (FOCUS) is an ESPRIT/2 (no. 2620) project aimed at designing tools and techniques for the construction of knowledge-based front ends (KBFEs) for open-user systems (reusable software components, libraries, etc) and closed-user systems (free-standing software, packages, etc). An important part of the project involves the establishment of an architecture for KBFEs and the specification of the KBFE/back-end interface. This paper describes the properties and related issues of such an interface, known as the back-end manager (BEM), and its relationship to the proposed KBFE architecture.